No more swing set

It's a symbolic time in our lives - taking down the swing set after 11 years! Pop helped us take it apart and get it cut down to smaller pieces. Mark and I hauled it away in a borrowed pick-up truck. We hope to get netting put up around the deck and use it for a little sport court now. These kids keep growing!

Crazy Hair Day

It was crazy hair day, and AJ went all out!

Cal's 13th Birthday

We celebrated Cal's 13th birthday a little late because it was a better weekend for gathering his best buds. They played ball in the yard before we dropped them at Putt-Putt for 36 holes. Then it was on to hamburgers and ice cream before they all came back to spend the night. (I'll share only two of the THIRTY-TWO POSED GROUP SHOTS Mark took that evening.  Because teenage boys just LOVE getting their picture taken.)

Easter Sunday

Our Easter morning began with church (getting up early and wearing nice clothes - two of the kids' favorite things!) We were able to enjoy Ella in her cuteness while we were there.  Then we headed home for Cal to hide eggs in the yard for the girls, David, Duncan and Adam to find. A beautiful day for an Easter Egg Hunt!

Massanutten

We didn't have any fancy travel plans for Spring Break, but we did at least make a trip to Massanutten Waterpark.  It's less than an hour from us, it's clean, and the kids have a blast. 

We took a little party of 12 and made a day of it.

A Visit from Michigan

It's Spring Break for us and for our cousins from Michigan, too. They came to visit Virginia for the first time, and we had a great time showing them UVA, Bodo's Bagels and Monticello. Madysen and Jack seemed to love the constant action at our house, 

and a good time was had by all.

The locals thought the weather was pretty cold, but being from Michigan, the cousins were thrilled there wasn't any snow on the ground and even wore shorts! So the beautiful flowers at Monticello were an added bonus. Have you seen the gorgeous new visitor center there?

Sydney and Madysen

We did a couple of tours, both inside and out, but nothing was as interesting 

to this crowd as running and roughhousing on the wide expanse of grass.  

I think Cal is under that pile somewhere.