A Beautiful Morning at the Park!

We were up early today, driving across town, because Eileen told us our favorite annual rummage sale was taking place today in our old neck of the woods. Unfortunately, it wasn't today. Fortunately, I had thrown my camera in the car, so Kayli and I drove straight to the park!
We reached our favorite park by 9:00 a.m., and WOW, this is the time to come here! Hardly anyone was here! The weather was perfect, with the sun shining, but not yet hot. The only sounds that could be heard were those of nature. We began our walk through the garden...

the scenery was breathtaking!

we walked by the ducks...

and hung out by the side of the pond for a while...

Kayli wanted to see if we could spot any frogs, so we started our walk around the pond. First, we navigated our way across these fun stepping stones...

then, Kayli decided to get a bird's eye view...

We could hear the croaking coming from the lily pads...

then, suddenly, I hear Kayli gasp, then whisper-yell "Hurry, mom, look!" Nice job on the camouflage, Mr. Frog!

a little further along the path we spotted this guy...

another frog, ohhh, this is fun...

Kayli took a turn with the camera...

then, we spotted this cute little fellow...

this has been the BEST nature walk EVER!

now that we know the "magic time" for this park, we will make that our plan next time!

A Long Day of Singing!

So, Kayli, and most of the boys and girls from the 4th and 5th grades, joined a group this year called "Special Chorus". They met once a week with the music teacher to practice singing together as a group. At the end of the school year they would put on a big performance to show what they had accomplished together. Kayli loves to sing, and really enjoyed this group. However, the week of the performance required lots of extra practices, and the day of the big performance required an early morning practice, a later morning full performance for a small audience, another full performance in the afternoon at an all-school assembly, then, finally an evening performance for all the parents! Whew! The kids were all wearing long sleeves and long pants, and the temps were getting warm this time of year, so it was very hot up there on stage. So many kids were stuffed together like sardines, and the spotlights just added to the heat! Apparently one of the girls had even begun to faint at one of the earlier performances, as a result of this. Anyway, they complained, and sweated, and squished each other on stage, but persevered, and still put on some fabulous performances!

getting everyone"Un-costumed" after the afternoon performance...

...then, back again later to get "re-costumed" was quite a production...

but they entertained themselves along the way...

then, put their "all" in the grand finale of the evening...

and when the audience finished their clapping, and the kids knew they were done performing for the absolutely last and final time, Kayli (the actress) just couldn't help collapsing into the arms of her BFF with a BIG sigh of relief...

then, her BFF returned the sentiment, haha...

Happy Easter!

So, it began @ Aunt Marion's, with the Easter Egg coloring event...

Kayli & I brought over our hard boiled eggs, and a bunch of fun "painting kits." Marion had snacks, drinks, and all the colors of the rainbow dyes ready to go in the little cups. (We discovered, though, that Marion did not put the colored tablets in the matching colored cups, so we were surprised when the dye in the green cup started turning the egg blue, and the dye in the purple cup turned the egg orange!) Anyway, we had fun trying out all the possibilities...

while, even though Marion had envisioned her boys joining us in this fun activity, they were too busy wrestling each other and intermittently stopping to check their phones for texts, ha! We had to proceed without them...

the boys eventually did "settle in" when Marion put a Redbox movie on (the new version of "Annie") and we all watched this together...

It was a late night, but Saturday was a sleep-in day, an errand day, and later in the evening, a church going day! We chose to attend the Saturday evening Easter Church Service at our favorite larger than life Church of the Resurrection. The service was so powerful, and well done!

Easter Morning...Clad in pjs and curlers, this girl found her hidden basket pretty quickly...

After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, we got dressed, and I snapped a few photos in the backyard before we hopped in the car and headed for Laura and Mickey's for Easter brunch.

                     Cousin Anna was there waiting for Kayli. She had just gotten a new haircut...

Grandpa was also ready and waiting. Laura had just given him a box of chocolate covered cherries!

Everyone got busy serving themselves the yummy ham, hashbrowns, quiche, rolls, salad, jello jiggler eggs, and frosted sugar cookies. Oh, and of course Marion's famous deviled eggs, this year, complete with her hand colored Minions...

you may notice how the girls walked around the island once before deciding to start on the dessert end...

after a fabulous brunch, we were ready to watch the kids hunt for some eggs...

the girls were totally intrigued with these miniature ponies next door, and barely finished finding their Easter eggs when they were back trying to pet the ponies through the fence!

what a beautiful day it turned out to be! We sat outside just soaking up the sunshine!