Easter Weekend

We had a fun Easter Weekend up in Ashburn with our families.

The boys and I drove up on Thursday so Lance could spend the weekend with his dad. Thursday night, I helped Jason ask a girl to the Prom. It was fun and brought back a lot of memories from High School.

(Her favorite candy... really?)

He had planned on taping the candy to her car and writing on the windows, but as it turned out, her car was inside the garage. So, we had to drive to a store that was open and get poster board and a huge marker. We came back and while we were taping the candy on, we realized the candy kept falling off the door--bad tape! We had to again drive to a store and get better tape and hurry back to finish the job.

He got caught! While we were frantically taping the candy for the second time, the girl pulled up with some friends she was staying with for the weekend! They had just pulled up when I took this picture. Jason was pretty flustered, but super happy because the girl said Yes! Jason, you're a funny kid. :)

Lance got to hang out with us on Friday while his dad was at work, so we colored Easter eggs.

Lance and Mason.

Uncle Jason colored some, too, while Jude looked on.

Jude wanted to color eggs so badly.

I thought this egg looked really cool.

In an attempt to distract Jude, I gave him some chicken. It worked...

...for a while. He decided Vera needed the leftovers more than him.

Lance's favorite egg? The one he requested I make special for him. He wanted it to say "I {heart} family" and he wanted it pink. Cute kid. :) It's times like these I know he's going to turn out just fine.

Lance spent the rest of the weekend doing fun things with his dad like fishing. George and Jude and I spent the weekend going back and forth between the houses. On Saturday, we colored eggs with George's family.

Callie and Bryce were excited to color eggs. Bryce kept saying that coloring eggs was his favorite thing to do. Uncle Nate was great at helping out by drawing requested pictures and such on the eggs.

Jen and Bryce

Noodles. Yum!

Pop pop getting in some egg-dying action.

Once again, Jude wanted to join the fun. Maybe next year, buddy.

The next day was Easter Sunday. We went to Church and then had dinner with the Glass family.

Prep.

They figured George would be good at cutting the turkey because he's in Med School. :)

A lot of our extended family was able to come. They had to put three tables end-to-end just to give everyone a place to sit.

We even got to celebrate George's Aunt's Birthday!

After an amazing dinner, we drove over to my mom's house and ate another dinner with them! Super tasty, but soooo filling!

George went back to his parent's house to pack up before we had to leave, so Jude and I hung out with my family and did the "12 days of Easter". You have 12 eggs that each have a scripture from the Bible that tells the Easter story. It's fun for kids, too, because each egg also has something tat corresponds with the scripture, like when they talk about the crucifixion there are nails inside.

Singing a hymn.

Lance came back and got to see everyone for a bit before we left to drive back to Charlottesville.

Lance and Vera.

The Easter bunny was good to us this year!

Right before we left, Amy told us about her trip to China she made that week. It was neat to hear about all the places she had been. 

It was a nice weekend. I'm glad we got to celebrate this important holiday with those that matter most--our family.

Happy Birthday, Pop Pop!

This past weekend, George's parents, Der, Allen, Jen, Eric, Callie, and Bryce all came to our house to visit! Nate was playing in a concert Saturday night, so they decided to make a day of it and hang out with us for a while.

It was raining when they arrived, so we went out to eat at Outback to wait-out the storm. When we got back to our house, the rain had cleared and it became increasingly obvious there was no keeping the kiddos inside.

Lance likes to push the little kids in the baby swings, although I don't think his way is very conventional. Gets the job done, though! 

While at the park, we ran into some old friends of ours. The Sloans had moved away last year but came back for a day or two to visit. It was fun to see how much Polly has grown and to meet their new addition Ci Ci.

Sunday happened to be George's dad's Birthday, so we celebrated with home-made carrot cake! 

George offered to "light" the candles. I swear he's in love with his blow torch.

Happy Birthday, Dad! 

Lance is blowing bubbles for Jude to pop. :) 

All four cousins... this was the closest I could get to getting them all in the frame at the same time.

Callie helping Jude down the slide. 

Go, Jude, go! 

Lance being a crazy boy, as usual. 

Jude kept trying to blow bubbles, but unfortunately the bottle was empty. 

Jude loves to swing like this on the "big boy" swings. It's cute to watch him fly like an airplane.

Don't worry! He is NOT about to plummet into the ground. You can't see the ground under him in this picture, although it does look like he's about to biff it any second, doesn't it? I keep forgetting I did this same thing as a kid and it still scares me when I look at it.

After we played outside for a bit, we went to the downtown Mall to walk around and get some frozen yogurt before Nate's concert.

Cousins.

I know this picture is blurry, but it is pretty accurate. Let's be honest--kids never stop moving and are blurry half the time in real life! 

The whole group enjoying some Sweet Frog frozen yogurt.

We had a great time with our family. We all said good-bye on the Mall and went our separate ways--the Scholz drove home, George's parents went to the concert, and George and I took the boys home for bed. The rain had stayed away most of the afternoon...amazing!

Perfect timing! As we pulled up to our apartment building, it started raining and hailing. Lance and Jude both had a great time looking out the van windows at the little bits of ice while we waited for a lull so we could go inside. An interesting end to a great day!

Sprinklers and Sun

Last week was gorgeous! Most of the days were sunny and warm and all the trees here in Charlottesville are starting to bloom. If you've never seen Charlottesville in the spring, you are missing out. It is beautiful!

On day last week, our friend Jamie got out the hose and let the kiddos play in the sprinklers. It was interesting to watch the kids and see how they each decided to play with the water.

Lance liked to squirt anything and everything he could, including his little brother.

Jude preferred to be on the sidelines. He wasn't that impressed with the squirting...

...but did venture toward the water before he lost his nerve and decided to play it safe over by the moms in the background.

Lance, however, continued to find new ways wreck havoc with the hose. Mud, anyone?

The girls didn't care too much for the water, either, and had a good time playing Barbie, safely elevated on the cement away from the ever-expanding amount of mud Lance was making.

 

The mud must be a boy thing. Lance and Killian filled this plastic tub up with water and dirt and then proceeded to dump the muddy contents all over the parking lot.

Some of the kiddos... Jude was saying "cheese!" I love that Lance is the only one that's dirty in this picture.

The closest we got to a picture with all the kids looking up. What a cute group!

After the sprinklers, some of us got together and had a potluck dinner of Mexican food. Super yum!

The kids lost interest in the food and found fun things to do--like play in the dirt.

Lance got in trouble (I can't remember what he was doing), so he had to sit in time-out for a bit on our little white bench.

At first he was sad...

Then mad.

Oh yeah... he was playing in the ashes from the barbecue pit and didn't stop when we asked. That's the gray all over his face and shirt.

Jude decided to join him.

I love that they're making the same face here.

Love, love. Jude doesn't look too pleased at being kissed by such a sooty, muddy brother.

Lance finished the night by playing water guns with his buddies Killian and Jabrien. It didn't help with the dirt at all.

Jude has become a monkey lately and climbs all over everything. BOYS!

It was a fun time! Bath time that night was interesting and left a huge ring around the tub of nasty grayish-brown gook. Just another day in paradise!