Easter Egg Hunting from Robby Edwards on Vimeo.

Our girls show off their Easter dresses and Emily rescues an Easter egg.

Julia Finds an Easter Treat from Robby Edwards on Vimeo.

Julia opens an Easter egg and finds a special treat.

We had our second Annual Easter Egg Hunt today. The day was beautiful and it was so nice to be out in it. The girls loved their new BIG baskets. They are so big we should have used them as props and taken photos of babies in them. Julia was a little unsure of the new location and the large group of people, but as she hung with her Daddy she got into the fun of picking up eggs. Emily was very selective of the eggs she chose. We are not sure why though. Maybe it was the discussion about being the biggest kid in the little kid hunt. We didn’t want Emily to run over the babies in her quest for eggs. Not a problem, she didn’t even collect her quota of eggs. After the hunt both girls enjoyed hanging with their friends and eating their picnic lunch. Just a smattering of photos from the day and some of the little people who we spent it with.

Julia had to get used to the idea of the egg hunt before she could get down and hunt her own eggs. Daddy is a great place to get a towering view over the area and feel safe.

Rose was the mascot Easter Bunny for the day. So sweet!

Emily was checking out her basket and the small collection of eggs she had gathered.

Aiden checking out his spoils. He had just informed us that one of the eggs had sparkles.

Where to go next?

Elena loves McKenzie. She was making sure that McKenzie was getting all of her eggs opened and inspected.

What is in there?

Julia found another one to gather

Maeve in her adorable Bunny dress. She decided to share a smile with me after all.

Julia had to decide which one to open next.

Natalie and her Easter pail

We enjoyed a beautiful spring morning at the UT gardens with friends this morning. We were joined by the usual suspects of Ashley, Elena, Maeve, Heather, and Kenzie. Also joining us was Deborah, Sarah, and Andrew who were in town for a visit and brought Grandma Darrie. The big girls love Ms. Darrie from church. We could not have asked for a more delightful morning. The kids enjoyed being with each other and at times were willing to pose for photos too. I think my favorite game the girls played was pretending to be ants and crawling around a set of benches.

My best photo at our attempt to get one of all of the girls. They are busy and loved being with each other, just not all looking at the camera at the same moment.

Sweet Elena

Emily was so excited to give McKenzie a hug. It was really sweet. She kept hugging and kissing her.

Emily was pretty reluctant to give the camera a smile. She loved checking out the flowers, sticks, garden art, benches, paths, and just everything else in the garden.

Awesome Julia smile!

Kenzie in the Heart

One of my favorite photos from the day. Maeve was really playing in the dirt surrounded by all of the beautiful flowers. Happy as any bug found in the garden.

Sarah and Andrew taking their turn posing in the heart.

Some days things happen that are unplanned and wonderful. Yesterday was a beautiful day and we were drawn to the front porch with a few crackers and coloring books. The girls just stretched out on the porch and colored to their hearts content. Julia found her arms and legs to be a great canvas too. At one point Julia was laying on her tummy with her feet up in the air and ankles crossed, but that sweet pose was gone by the time I got the camera and came back. They spent almost two hours on one activity because it was so satisfying in the sunshine. These are some of the things I love!

Julia’s week started out with at trip the hospital to have her tongue clipped. Emily went to play at a friend’s house so Julia had the attention of both her parents. Julia was unsure of everything that she saw, not surprising for one of our cautious girls. She did warm up after she got used to seeing people in hats. They gave her “silly juice” to help her with saying good-bye to Mommy and Daddy and to make her memories foggy of the time. Julia disliked the effects of the silly juice. She kept trying to control things that she couldn’t control. She ended up being pretty upset over it. She refused to wear her gown and kept pulling at it until we just took it off. While she couldn’t control much, at least we could grant her control over the wearing of the gown. When it was her turn she went back with a few tears, but then that was expected too. The procedure was very quick and the doctor felt that she would be feeling back to normal in 2-3 days. She had a few stitches that would need to heal and would have some swelling. When we got to go back to see her after the procedure she was upset. She had woken and not found a face she knew. They had rockers in recovery and we got to rock and cuddle for a while. She only threw up once while we were there, and after she had settled and was back in her jammies, we were released to go home. She fought a nap most of the way home, but gave in and took a great nap. The rest of the day she was a little off because of the medications, but by the next day she was running around like usual.

Then, today we went for Julia’s speech assessment. Julia liked the idea of playing games, but got tired of the ‘performance’ aspect of the assessment. With a little bribery she got thru it, although it took the whole time. The general assessment of her speech is that she is pretty far behind. The therapist said that the fact that she doesn’t say the middle and ending sounds of words is a tough thing for them to learn if they don’t start off saying them. It is like she is missing association of the rest of the sound to the word. She said it will take lots of repetition and practice of making sounds that she doesn’t already make. Although on a good note, she seemed very bright and would be able to learn them. It will take a few weeks for us to get a set therapy schedule, but looking forward to seeing Julia be challenged and grow in this area.

Julia and Mommy went together to the annual Barn Dance and Chili Dinner. Julia was so excited to go! She picked out her boots to wear and wore her hat around all afternoon. When we first got there, it was a new place with lots of people so she was shy again. Once she found her friends and a space to run she was her friendly little self. After running around the dance floor and eating, we went out to check out the farm. She loved sitting on the tractors, and was curious about the pigs, roosters, and hens. The rooster talked to her and Julia found it quite startling, but got used to it. By far her favorite thing to do was run around the dance floor with her friends. When it was time to go home she gave kisses to all the babies, hugs to the bigger kids, and blew kisses to the other mamas. Sweet times!