Spring Wrap Up

All of the craziness of school ending and all of the other Spring events have finally wrapped up and we have somewhat slowed the pace...however, we have so many special events in the month of June that I figured I should probably catch up on Spring before we roll in to Summer.


I skipped right over Easter, which is now Nate's self-proclaimed "favorite holiday".  I am pretty sure that can be directly contributed to all of the candy he ate.  When they woke, the Easter Bunny had left a trail of eggs from their rooms leading them to their buckets.  Nate was very eager to follow the trail (he came bounding in to our room early that morning saying "The Easter Bunny came!") but Matthew was content opening each egg along the trail and having jelly beans for breakfast.  He was in no hurry.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the beautiful Spring day playing in the yard....which entailed a couple of Easter Egg hunts...

I was trying my best to ration the candy intake but at one point I caught Nate hiding under a chair snarfling down M&M's

Then Nate was kind enough to hide all of his eggs for me to find

Then played a round of crocquet

Then the boys wanted to try out the kites that the Easter Bunny brought them...unfortunately we didn't have much luck with take off

 Little Brother had to try too

It was a lovely family day....but this is the best family shot we got

Birthday Boy Fred

A belated Happy Birthday wish to Fred, whose 70th birthday we celebrated recently...with pirate cupcakes (for the kids), surprise out of town friends and family, and a nice dinner out at Sugo's (sans kids)...then capped off with an amazing cake from the local French bakery.  It was a lovely evening and we hope Fred enjoyed his special day (and weekend!).

Smoky Mountain Sunday

After having such a fun day exploring on Saturday, it was hard to just drive back home...so we took an impromptu detour instead.  We decided to get back to GA by way of TN, and drive through Smoky Mountains National Park...

We ended up in Gatlinburg...which Nate fell in love with...so much to see and do and SO many candy shops!  We tried to do as much touristy stuff as our time and the weather allowed.  Such as...

Target Shooting

 The Ripley's Mirror Maze (which made me feel claustrophobic - and a little terrified I was going to lose a child in there - but Nate said while we were in it "This is cool!", so it was worth it)...this picture is post-maze with his cool glasses that made all the lights look cool (i.e. blurry).

 Watching taffy being made

And eating taffy

 Puddle Jumping

Hillbilly Matthew

Hillbilly Nate

After they were sufficiently soaked, we headed out (much to the kids' dismay)...but the kids fell asleep in the car so we decided to make yet another detour...to Cades Cove.  Michael and I went there the first time he brought me to TN to meet his family, so it was a little nostalgic to visit again 10 years later with kids in tow.  It was mostly driving through but we parked a few times and took turns getting out and taking pictures while the kids continued to sleep.  It was a fun little photography excursion for us. :)

And then the boys woke up....

...but they weren't quite as excited about old farmhouses and churches as we were so we began our journey home.

It isn't often that we can be spontaneous with a 4 yr old and 2 yr old so it was so much fun to spend 2 days exploring and just going where the roads took us.  Sometimes you have more fun when you don't have a plan...