Tulip Festival

Last Friday I took the kids and a few of my friends to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Oregon. It's become a spring tradition. Every time I go the fields of beautiful tulips amaze me. I see a rainbow of flowers. My boys see dirt piles to climb and rows to wade through. It's about an hour drive to the festival but it's worth every minute in the car.

Where's TJ and Russell?

Carol and Amelia

Brotherly Love

Mom, I don't really fit in this...

Just for fun these next two pictures are from last year. It's crazy to see how our family has changed since last spring.

These pictures don't have anything to do with the festival except they were taken the day before. I don't want to do a separate entry for them so I'm including them here.

I thought she had such a funny look on her face

Great Grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa Russell came to Olympia for the weekend. We brought the kids up to spend time with their Great Grandparents. I woke up Sunday morning to the sweet little sounds of my boys playing legos with G Papa (that's what TJ calls Great Grandpa Russell). Listening to Grandpa tell stories to my boys brought back memories of visits to Canada where Grandpa would tell me stories when I was a young girl. Grandma Russell loved holding little Amelia. She's always been so sweet with babies. There's something magic about Grandparents. Christian and Heather came up Sunday and Mom cooked a wonderful turkey dinner for everyone. I'm thankful my children have these wonderful pictures of time they spent with two of my favorite people, my Grandma and Grandpa Russell.

Grandma Kathy playing bubbles with the kids

TJ giving Grandma Russell a hug

Four Generations
Amelia's looking...

Amelia's smile is way too cute

Grandma Andrea Visits

Grandma Andrea came to visit this week. When we picked her up from the airport she brought beautiful sunny California weather for the entire week. Uncle Tyler came down on the train from Seattle to be with us for a few days as well. We went on all sorts of adventures together. We picnicked at our favorite park, listened to story time at the library, swam at the local indoor pool, ventured out to the zoo, flew kites, ate out, played mini golf and watched movies. What fun! We can't wait to be together again.

Grandma Andrea did all the fun grandma things grandmas do to make sweet memories. She brought the kids a little toy, read library books over and over and over again, played playmobile, cuddled Amelia and listened to the boys share their excitement about each day.

What a great week!

TJ and Tyler at the Zoo

A girls picture at the Zoo

Hide-and-go seek at our favorite park

Playing submarine

Our neighborhood park

Olympia Easter Weekend

We spent Easter Weekend in Olympia with Grandma and Grandpa Russell. Christian, Heather, Savvy and Drake also came up to enjoy the holiday together. The cousins colored eggs, hunted for candy, and caught a little conference.

Trying to get a cousin shot...

hold still...

OK, we'll just be happy with this.

Amelia and Drake doing tummy time

Russell with his candy

The basement egg hunt

Eating our spoils
Grandma and Amelia watching from the sidelines

Coloring Eggs

The kids wanted to color eggs in their underwear

Trevor making a funny face

OMSI with Three

My OMSI membership ran out last month so for the last week of March I packed all three kids into the car around 3:00 each afternoon and took them to the Museum until it closed at 5:30. From OMSI we drove to Dad's work to take him home each evening. I'm finally feeling like I can get out with three. The children's room is the perfect place for my kids because there is only one door out. The boys can play in the sand, water or blocks, and Amelia and I can walk around and supervise. It feels good to be out and about again.

Amelia working on tummy time with TJ

The block town TJ built

drooling baby girl

Russell spent most of his time in the sand. I didn't get a good picture of him

Egg Hunting

We enjoyed two Easter Egg Hunts in Vancouver this year. PWC hosted it's first annual office Easter Egg hunt. The kids colored Easter pictures and ate sugar cookies in the conference room and then went hunting for eggs scattered throughout the cubicles and offices. Dad enjoyed having his family come see him at work.

Our other Easter Egg hunt took place at the church. Our playgroup decided to do an Easter Egg hunt during our playgroup meeting time. The sun broke long enough for us to hide and then find eggs outside. The kids loved running around the church grounds in search for eggs.

The boys in Dad's office

Hunting for eggs

Amelia enjoyed looking cute for everyone

Love those legs

Cookies in the conference room

Proud Dad

Looking for eggs at the church

Russell couldn't get his candy in his mouth fast enough

Carol and I holding babies