Meet my little friend Natalie. She was feeling sad one day as she wanted to keep up with the bigger kids, but couldn’t. She asked for help to climb the play structure. I took pity on her and climbed in the structure to help her get past the tough part. She followed a climbing tip and found out that she could climb the levels all by herself. Thanks Natalie for the grin and letting me help you discover something new about yourself.

We celebrated with a morning at church followed by a family time at Grammy and Granddaddy’s house. After lunch and Easter egg hunting we spent the evening watching NCAA basketball games. That would not be the normal tradition for Easter Sunday, but when you team is playing you fit it in too.

Grammy and the grand-girls

Granddaddy with the girls too!

It was a wet day outside so the egg hunt had to happen inside. It is a new experience to look for eggs hidden among pillows and toys, but they enjoyed it a lot. Since Easter, Julia has made her chocolate stash a place she likes to visit before Mama gets up in the morning. After three mornings of not eating her breakfast Mama finally figured out Julia’s morning routine. Julia seems to have inherited Mama’s sweet tooth.

Our church Easter egg hunt was an indoor hunt because of a wet morning. This would not dampen the fun though. The kids all wanted to help with the sign coloring. It was very colorful and amazingly still within the lines.

Julia was still hunting in the younger group and Emily was hunting for the second year in the older group. They gave the youngest of the older group a few minute head start so they didn’t get trampled on the steps.

Emily found her allotment upstairs. She enjoyed the hunt.

Who doesn’t love opening and finding all the fun stuff inside of the eggs. Even little Carson got in on this photo. He was not as interested in his first Easter egg hunt.

From the prize table Julia picked out this cute flower-top.

There is always an estimation table to guess at. Mama asked Emily which of the things she wanted to estimate on and she picked a huge container of cheese puffs. She and Mama counted and made our estimate. When it was time to hand out the winners, we had guessed it to the exact puff. Who knew we were such good estimators. Emily was delighted to win her puffs.

Our friends with the girls showing off their matching skirts. Mama made the skirts from left over blanket material. They liked being matching girls.

After all the fun was over Mr. Kenny offered to take Emily, Julia, and Aiden for an afternoon of fun. They went out and visited some horses and swung on a tire swing. A good way to end the afternoon.

To celebrate Natalie’s spring break Jolie, Grandma, and a bunch of kids came to visit. We were delighted and the girls were so excited. They arrived in the afternoon and Grandma and I surprised Emily with checking her out early from school. Nichole, Jennifer and the kids have never seen snow and they had been delighted with some snow in Gatlinburg. Still more came the day they arrived and we enjoyed playing at the park with the snow falling on us.

Snow here does not always last long and this snow shower ended before we left the park. Natalie gave Emily a ride across the park.

The "oldies" bundled up to stay warm.

What could be better than swinging while it is snowing?

Our silly kid slide photo!

We moved a few things around to make it easier to sleep and play. The under-the-bunk play space was just the perfect size for Mikayla.

The girls were excited to take their Daddy to the Children’s Museum.

Natalie is getting a lesson about how to make a call with a rotary phone.

Dylan is taking a trip on a rocket ship!

Posing with Anakin Skywalker. Who knew it was so easy to visit the outer reaches of the universe in one afternoon?

The kids enjoyed the train room. They even stopped long enough for a photo.

One afternoon we had a picnic at Norris Dam. We took the walk to the middle so we could see off both sides of the dam to compare. It was a cool picnic. Thankfully it was a sunny day and the sun kept us warm.

Of course we had to stop at Krispy Kreme doughnuts and enjoy a dozen or so. We were sad that the visit was short, but it was good to visit for the time we had. It will have to tide us over to summer when we will visit again.

We were able to help out our friend and do some dog sitting. This also helped us with our dog therapy for Julia. We watched George (black 5 lbs. poodle) and Belle (tan 10 lbs. poodle) for a week. The girls were excited, but Julia was a bit unsure when the dogs arrived. It took the dogs a couple of days to get used to us and our house, but we didn’t have any trouble with them. George is younger and more active so the girls gravitated to playing with him more. Belle preferred to lay on the couch and get love. By the end of the week Julia wanted to pick up George and carry him around the house. She also wanted to hold his leash when he went for walks. It was a great experiment for the girls.

One of Emily’s birthday gifts was ballet lessons. She had been asking to try it for quite a while and she had to wait until she passed the halfway mark of kindergarten. She patiently waited and was rewarded with lessons. She was excited to go, but found that there was a lot involved in dancing. She has continued to go and is willing to learn. She is ready for it to become for fun though. Her best skill is leaping. In just the few months she has been going her skill has improved greatly and it isn’t so new anymore.