Easter celebrations

Our silly boys on Easter Sunday.

The worship team singing their hearts out!

The preschoolers presenting their song they had been practicing for weeks!

LOVE the closed eyes during the song!

Jake was distracting the kids with old camp songs while the relay course was set up. He does such an amazing job at that!

Receiving their relay race instructions.

Zachary knew what kind of shoes to wear on the rainiest Easter that he could ever remember!

Matching colors during the relay with a big kid helper!

Egg toss

Standing behind the line and preparing to egg the pastor!

The egged pastor!

The choice for the pinata was between an egg and a chick...we thought it better to whack the egg rather than the chick!

We had a wonderful rainy fun Easter this year.

Easter monsters

We decorated Easter eggs last night. I found a cheapo monster egg kit that I thought the boys would love. It was pretty cute.

They were all very serious about when to turn the egg for even dyeing!

Of course, monster eggs cause you to make monster noises!

The Big Top

Aidan has been practicing with his Pre-K class for months for The Circus. It all came down to Tuesday night and it was just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. Aidan has been telling me about it at home, but I had no idea it would be so precious. Aidan and his friend, Luke, were the Animal Tamers. They cracked a whip on the stage while their classmates sang a song about animal tamers! Aidan was so excited about his mustache (I have a sneaky suspicion it is because Mario and Luigi have mustaches).

Cracking their whips!

These costumes have been around for years. The teachers have handmade most of them. My favorite is the strongman (on the left). The teachers said they purposefully pick the smallest kids to play that role. So stinkin' funny.

The Big Top with Ms. Kathy and Ms. Lucy's classes.

Zachary's 3rd birthday

Zachary turned THREE years old last Friday. We got him his own "big kid bike." We loved the joy on his face when he saw it!

Now, we are working on pedaling!

Titans soccer

The Titans have started their spring season. They are bigger and stronger this year! Some of the younger brothers, Zachary included, are having a hard time understanding that they are not, in fact, a part of the Titans. It has been challenging to come up with distractions, yet still see the games!

The warm up and stretching time is one of the cutest things to see!

Ethan got two goals in the first game! Way to go!

Team Van Hastlings!

Today, we did our first marathon relay with our friends, the Hastings. Our team name was the Van Hastlings (a clever combination of our names that Jake came up with). Of course, we HAD to have Van Halen logos on our team shirts. Our friend, Sarah, helped us design them and they turned out great. We got lots of compliments on them, but my favorite was a guy that told us, "I have to give props to anyone that can run in a Van Halen t shirt!"

Please ignore the googly eyed husband and the pre-race tired eyes on me! Jake ran the last leg (long hills and 8 miles in the hot 80 degree sun, 30+ mph winds) and I ran the 3rd leg (hilly Lake Fayetteville 7 miles).

Brian ran the first leg (5.5 miles with a long steep downhill followed by running all of the way back up) and Meghan ran the 2nd leg (5.75 miles of rolling hills). Meghan actually got to run about 30 seconds with Olympic marathon legend, Jeff Galloway!

The starting line...no idea where Brian is. We left on shuttles to our relay exchange points after our local weatherman, Dan, sang the National Anthem and the gun went off.

Jake bringing it home with some friends he made on the course!

How cool are we?! We had so much fun and our shirts will be ready for next year!

Oh how time flies...

These two pictures were taken nearly three years apart from each other. Look how they change! I have to stop looking at it...getting teary eyed!

First day of Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring and it is 80 degrees outside! It was a perfect morning this morning!

Practicing their skills before church.

Did I mention that I handmade those matching plaid shorts they are sporting?!

Love this picture!

This picture reminds me of a picture Jake took with the boys when Zachary was an itty bitty baby.

For some reason Jake and I each have one squinty eye...oh well!

Shirts

I love the idea for these letter shirts on my new favorite website (www.dana-made-it.com). They were super super easy and fun to make. The boys love to spot "their" letter so they loved these shirts!

I made more...

I can't help myself! I made more pants! And the best part is, these pants are lined with a super soft t-shirt material. In fact, Zachary is insisting that these are pajama pants. I am working on that.