March for Dimes

My friend Hillary had a group walk for the March of Dimes. I loaded up the kids and we did the bounce houses and got faces painted before the start of the race. It was a beautiful day to walk 4 miles for a great cause!

Hey, look! Thomas Lumber is a sponsor! 

Tatem and Adelyn started out the walk strong! They walked at least half of it with little to no complaints. 

James and Myles were in the stoller the bulk of the race. They earned their cotton candy :)

We did it! Such a fun morning with sweet friends!

After naps, Adelyn did some painting while I cleaned the deck. 

And then we went to Randy's for dinner since we both had husband's out of town. Bella and Adelyn are watching Frozen.

Gibbs Gardens

On Saturday, we went to Gibbs Gardens in Ballground. I had never heard of it until a friend went recently. When I saw her pictures I couldn't believe this is near our house! We just fell in love with the gardens- they're comparable to Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Check it out: http://gibbsgardens.com/

Seth is showing them helicoptors

 

We enjoyed it so much that Seth and I bought a membership. On Saturday nights, they play classical music and serve hors d'oeuvres and drinks while you wander around. Won't that be a fun date night?

Easter 2014

We had a wonderful Easter celebrating the resurrection of Christ. I hope the kids are really learning what Easter is all about. They seem to pick up more and more each year and I pray this continues. We made resurrection rolls and read the bible stories over and over. 

The Saturday before Easter was the Oak Grove egg hunt. There was quite a turn out and it was lots of fun!

On Wednesday, James had his class party. They hunted eggs, ate a little lunch, and it was over in 30 minutes.

Adelyn had her party on Thursday. This sweet face cracks me up! They hunted eggs and had to find 18 with their name on it. Then they ate an adorable lunch and played.

My parents came in town Friday afternoon for the weekend. :)

James was not into dying the eggs. In fact, I think this is the only one he did. Adelyn loved it! She was not into mixing colors, which surprised me.

Saturday night, we had a couples' wedding shower and a pirate/Jimmy Buffet 40th birthday party. The kids stayed with my parents. 

Easter morning bunny pancakes

The Easter bunny left baskets on the porch. James was stoked to get Skipper from Planes. 

And Adelyn was ecstatic to get the Frozen movie

Mac and Bentley enjoying Easter morning

My precious peeps in their Easter outfits. 

We enjoyed having my parents in town Easter weekend. They went to church with us Sunday morning

Little Choir sang Easter morning. James did shout-outs to Thomas in the choir and all family members in the audience. I guess this is better than picking his nose, like he's done in the past?

We spent Sunday night at Seth's Papa's house. They did an egg hunt and we ate a delicious dinner. 

Some eggs were in trees!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays for all that it represents. New life, warm and beautiful weather, and a renewed sense of hope.

Adelyn's first sport

Adelyn started playing her first group sport- SOCCER! She started back in March and had her first (and only) game a few weeks ago. We've had several cancellations due to rain plus Spring Break. She seems to like it! There's only one other girl on her team (and this little girl has been in Mom's lap a lot so far)

 Posing before the first game. (First Time Soccer Mom too....we'll put the shin guards underneath the socks next time- haha!)

My girl has that tongue out whenever she's working hard. Adelyn stays with the ball the entire game. I'm proud of her for focusing. She seems to be scared to kick it though. She'll have her foot inches from the ball and never kick it! 

Go Lil' Strikers! 

Spring Break in Montana

Most people venture off to a warm, sunny beach for Spring Break. Not the Thomas clan- we headed west to Montana! We arrived on Sunday (3/30) and stayed until Saturday.

You know, just a LITTLE bit of snow out the window (and it was snowing even more)

Cabin fever quickly set in and the children were climbing the walls the first day 

On Monday, we went to Whitefish Mountain Resort for ski lessons (James took a 1 hour and Adelyn took a 2 hour lesson). Check out the layers of snow on the roof!

 Mr. Cool in his ski gear

 Jesse has been Adelyn's ski instructor the past 2 years. James called him "Mr. Jet Ski". He did pretty good for his first time! 

Adelyn has her tongue out in almost every picture!

We found a Groupon to stay at the Isaak Walton in their caboose for 2 nights (we stayed one night and Seth's sister and her kids stayed the next). We rode in the Kabudo over the train tracks to our caboose. 

Home Sweet Home (see the top window....that's the "loft" where Seth and I slept. The ceiling was about 2 feet away from the bed)

The kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED staying here. 

 James is clutching a Frozen princess

 The next morning, they woke up at 5 a.m. We watched Planes, ate a yummy breakfast, and went outside to play

 James played with his Planes characters and Adelyn made little snow houses for her princess dolls. 

Easy to climb the roofs here! They had fun sliding down!

Wednesday was a shopping day for the girls. Check out this bicycle/motorcycle. Love downtown Whitefish!

Hat shopping with Melissa and Emily

 Thursday was another morning of ski lessons. Mr. Jet Ski made it fun for James by "jumping" the hills

Follow the leader

Seth's mom took James back to the house with her and Seth and I skied with Adelyn. 

Ski lift- ready for our first time skiing together!

Here is a video of Adelyn skiing. She thinks she's super cool waving to her cousins in the chairlift above her.

 Making her pizza to stop!

But she fell. She fell a lot. Overall, I think she did really well though! We went down probably 5 times. The hardest thing was teaching her to get back up on those skis!

 On Friday, we snow shoed down to the river

 James had his last trip in a hiking backpack. 

 He stayed awake for about 10 minutes. 

Beautiful Flathead River

Sweet, tired little girl!

Fun, fun week in Montana! Now, bring me a beach trip! I am DONE with winter :)