pictures from mother's day

we started our day very early... after russ and the kids presented me with their gifts -- a lovely pair of earrings and shirt that they personally picked out and some handmade cards-- we went to 8:00 mass. we normally go to the 12 noon mass but we had a special brunch planned with russell's mom and dad that morning.

later that afternoon, we went to my parent's house to celebrate mother's day with them.

the kids made these buttons for grandma:

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR MAKING MOTHER'S DAY SO SPECIAL FOR ME!

happenings...

russell was invited to a bowling birthday party for charlie, one of his soccer teammates. it was his very first time bowling. daddy took him while mommy stayed home with natalie.

you'll have to excuse the blurry pics -- russ was behind the camera ;)

very slowly rolling down the lane...
the kids bowled with the ramp for extra guidance most of the time.

russ said he loved waiting for the ball to come out of the return:

i think it's safe to say he had lots of fun!

we recently went to another birthday party...this time it was for [mr.] charlie, one of russ's childhood friends. he turned 40 this month and his wife decided to throw him a nice little surprise party. they rented a house in st. augustine that overlooked the water and we got to watch the beautiful sunset later that evening. the kids behaved so well and we all had a great time.

this was a dream house:

(natalie was enjoying her birthday cake in this picture)

AND NOW,

I PRESENT TO YOU,

MY CRAZY KIDS:

fun with grandma & grandpa

because the kids were home for spring break, my mom wanted to take a day off work so that they could do something special with the kids. we decided it would be fun to take them to play miniature golf. the kids have only played putt-putt twice before and they weren't that excited about it either time, but i was determined to get them to like it since i always did as a child :)

it turns out they LOVED it! even my sometimes grumpy and moody little russell enjoyed himself. not one complaint out of him. it was great. we all had fun.

afterwards, we ate lunch at chick-fil-a and the kids even played on the playground.

thanks mom and dad for a great day together!

the *ball* goes in the hole--not the club, natalie ;)

grandpa giving russell some of his pointers

russell made TWO hole-in-ones!

this was the face he made after the first one

this is where dad's ball landed after one hit -- almost a hole-in-one!
russell had GREAT form:

celebrating easter

on good friday, we met up with a large group of friends [from church] at the park to do the stations of the cross. it was really beautiful, and all that was missing was daddy :( hopefully, he will be able to take that day off next year. here's natalie and russell playing on a really old and tall tree before we started the stations.

decorating easter eggs on saturday...

a plethora of dye...

[some of] the eggs...

easter day, on the way to mass...

at church...

at grandma & grandpa's house later that afternoon...

the easter bunny hid our eggs at their house (because he knew we would be there)!

fun in the pool...

mom and alex...

we hope you all had a blessed easter, as did we.