Easter Weekend

Peep

We had lots of family here in Jax for Easter weekend. As I mentioned last time, my sister was already here. Next, my brother Ken and his family arrived (a.k.a. the Kens) from Baton Rouge, and then the Dans arrived for a shorter stay from the old homestead in Ormond Beach. We had a fun and relaxing cookout in my mom's back yard Friday night after the brothers and their families arrived.

here are the brothers

See Bob, told you you should have showed up. Now these two clowns are on my blog being called 'the brothers'. What does that make you??? (stay tuned)

As you can see, the one on the right likes to talk

and talk

and explain

which occasionally puts his wife, JoAnn, to sleep

Dan is probably wondering right now why I am making fun of my one and only blog fan right here on my blog! Good question....let me think on that!

Truth be told, the favorite mealtime pastime of the brothers (both pictured and not) is synchronized speaking.

Not as much wine on this table, but they're still managing to have fun! Okay, guess which guest isn't related to me.

So, besides Easter, we were also celebrating many March and April birthdays. Chelsea did a fabulous job with the cake decorating!

Stylish part hats, right?

Here's Dan, showing off his uncley-ness.

And, my sister and I showing off our twinishness.

The next night, we went out to dinner. And, guess who showed up?? Brother #3, now known to all far and wide as....

Grandpa Bob!

Seriously! We were just being seated at the restaurant, when Bob got a text from his daughter Amber telling him she is PREGNANT!! Yay!! I tried to take a picture of the phone screen with the text message on it, but that didn't work so well, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

I was seated right across from my niece, Sophia when she got her dessert. So, obviously, I had to take these...







I got a family Easter present for us all. A game called Bananagrams that I had heard rave reviews of from some unschooling friends. It was a hit!




Sunday night Bob came back - this time with his family :-) My sister made some of her now famous cobbler and we played more Bananagrams. Here's Bob's daughter Rachel with Chelsea...



Thanks so much to all who traveled to see us. It was a blast. I'm still full!

A Visit from the Rusaks

Andy's youngest sister Julie came to visit this weekend with her family. We had a great time! Julie was 14 years old when I first met her. Now, she's all grown up and an amazing mom to three sweet boys as well as a cherished friend of mine. We hadn't seen the Rusaks in three years, which means we had never met this cutie pie...


Upon arrival, Jake immediately entered a nerf dart gun war zone. He was quickly trained by his cousins and placed on the front line.


After nerf guns, playing soccer, climbing in the tree house, and much chatting around the kitchen table, we headed down to San Marco on foot for dinner.


Chelsea wouldn't let anyone else near the stroller - she wanted sole responsibility for Cooper. She did a great job of putting him to sleep so that Julie could enjoy a dinner using both hands! Matthew, Henry, and Jake enjoyed having their own table at Pizza Palace.



After dinner the kids climbed around on the statues of the lions while the boring grown-ups continued our chatting. Actually, Julie and my mom were in deep conversation, Andy and Dave were talking sports, and I was eavesdropping on both conversations while taking pictures of the kids.


The more than mile walk home didn't dampen anyone's spirits!


When we got home Matthew gave a little violin concert for the crowd and Chelsea performed some gymnastics tricks. Patrick, of course, wowed us the entire evening with his texting skills.

After a liesurely breakfast and a little time on the wii on Saturday morning, we headed out to Matthew's baseball game. Matthew showed off for his extended family by pitching two scoreless innings that included his throwing a runner out at home, throwing another runner out stealing second while catching, and hitting an impressive 3 run homer. Quite a game for Matthew! Unfortunately, his team (the Knights), went down 9-8 in a hard-fought game.

A heart-felt thanks to the Rusaks for taking the time and making the effort to drive up to Jax to see us during their busy week's vacation visit to the family homestead in Central Florida. We had a blast!! Here's hoping it won't be three more years until we see them again!