Easter Weekend with Friends

We were so thrilled to have Scott and Lou Anne join us for Easter weekend.  The first order of business for the two photographers was of course to take lots of pictures.

 

Mr. Scott was so patient and helpful and taught Ben all kinds of new things about his camera and photography in general.

A trip to the park gave Ben some adorable little subjects to capture.

 
On Saturday, we hid hundreds of Easter eggs in the yard for all the kids on the street.

Alex organizes this every year because this kids loves holidays so much!

Who's ready to hunt eggs??

And they're off!

It took the adults the better part of an hour to hide so many eggs and the kids found every last one in less than 10 minutes.

There were even a few confetti eggs in the bunch!

The Armstrongs joined us in celebrating Miss Lou Anne's birthday.

After dinner, we taught the Dulaneys how to play Exploding Kittens and the kids showed him no mercy - they even brought out the cone of shame!  Scott will probably never play again!

The Dulaneys had an early flight out on Easter morning so we said our goodbyes and the kids checked out their baskets.

Easter Sunday is one of my favorite services of the year celebrating our risen Savior and this one was no exception...

...we were all given streamers when we walked in and at the end of the service we "threw off our grave clothes" in a pretty exciting fashion.  It made for a really memorable celebration.

One of the bonuses of having a real photographer come visit is that we get gorgeous photos after the trip.  I have to share some of Scott's beautiful photos:

The whole reason for bringing the big photography equipment - a real group shot of our dear friends.  It's been nearly 10 years since we all met in Singapore!  Three of these kids weren't even part of the gang yet.

We love these people so dearly!

Baseball Season

One of my favorite days of the year - opening day at the baseball park!  Both boys were starting season 6 and couldn't wait to get out there and play.  Ben was on the same Yankees team from last year and Alex was a Phillie with a completely new team.

I always have to get my front porch picture!

 Sportsfest day is always fun and the cake walk is a Kirkham favorite.  Ben gave it a good try...

...but Alex was the big winner.  Thank goodness only one of them won because I don't know what we would have done with a second cookie cake.  (Well, I do know...we would have eaten it, too!)

 

Alex's hitting improved a lot over the season.  He was still a consistent hitter and got on base most of the time but really learned to use his hips to swing the bat and had some great hits over the season.

Ben hit a pop fly his very first at-bat of the season, and then struggled to hit the ball the rest of the season.  A second year of kid-pitch produced some pretty great little pitchers that made it tough to get hits but Ben never quit trying.

 

It's always fun to see their best buddies out at the ballpark...Jack and Ben.

Drew and Alex

Ben mostly played outfield and some third base.  Not a lot of action in his direction this year because there weren't many balls hit into play!

Alex played some outfield and infield and even caught a few times.

So proud of the game when he earned his game ball!  He caught a few pop ups and had his best hit of the season.

The Phillies finished fourth in the regular season but didn't last long in the playoffs.  The Yankees finished in fifth place and also had a quick run in the playoffs, which was okay because May is always so busy that we're a little happy to wrap up the season!

We couldn't have asked for better weather for nearly the entire season.  No bitterly cold games and lots of gorgeous days.  The princess even joined us for a few games.

Spring Break

Just when the kids thought they were going to die from so much school, spring break arrived!  Unfortunately for Matt, so did a business trip, so he missed out on most of the fun.  The Friday before the break the school had spring parties.  I didn't get any pictures of Ben's because it's embarrassing for mom to take pictures of 5th graders.  They weren't too interested in the activities anyway and spent most of the party playing tag on the playground.

Alex was happy to play with his buddy, Ryan, and the two checked out lots of games in the gym.

 

 Dry ice drinks on the playground were a huge hit!

Saturday morning we jumped out of bed, loaded up the truck, and got on the road.  Even Ben's hair was excited!!

We made tracks to Concan and one of my very favorite state parks to camp with our friends, the Hesters.

 

The campsite backed right up to the Frio river so the kids had tons of space to play and explore.  It was little boy rock-climbing, walkie-talkie heaven.

There was also an awesome tree to climb right on our site.

We made several hikes, the hardest of which was Old Baldy, which got pretty steep at the top but the views made it totally worth it.

 We checked out a few caves as well and some other big hills.

Garner State Park has had a dance on the patio every evening for decades with this old jukebox.

I danced with each of the boys and Alex was pretty interested in learning how to two-step properly.  After we were done, an adorable little girl came and asked him to dance so he shared his first dance under the stars with a girl!

After camping, we were ready for some beds and showers, so we spent a few days in Fredericksburg as well.  Our first stop there was a lovely afternoon in Luckenbach.

Alex was happy to see his old stump was still there and he reclaimed it.

We went through the LBJ historical ranch and saw some old farmhouses.  Ben was fascinated by the old sewing machine and Victrola.  He was just disappointed that he couldn't play a record.

We couldn't go to the hill country without a trip to Enchanted Rock, the one thing Alex begged to do for spring break.

I love this place!  And I love these friends!  We had such a wonderful time together.  This was the closest we got to a group shot...didn't notice till later that Grant was missing!

Another little boy heaven - huge rocks to run all over.

 Back at our rental house, I noticed we had some rooster friends as the sun was going down.  They were very cute until the full moon came up and the crowed all night!

Last stop on our Texas road trip - the famous Salt Lick Barbeque for a great meal on the way home.

Their pit is huge!

Back home, we rested up, unpacked our muddy tents, met up with some friends, and made a quick trip to the science museum.

The new Egyptian exhibit was very cool!

Always love a good 3-D Imax as well.

Ben found out about portable TVs, so I dug this one out of the attic and the kids watched it for hours.  Right underneath a full-sized, color TV.  I'll never understand his obsession with old technology, but I love that kid!