The Tulip Festival

Grandma and her sisters got together again for the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point the 25th of April.  We love this trip.  There were more tulips this year and the weather was near perfect!  It was beautiful and so fun to see my cousins and aunts that I rarely get to see.  Here's some pictures:

I tried to get a good picture of the three of them.  This was the best.

My cute, cute little man!

My handsome not-so-little-but-I-keep-pretending-he-is man.

There was a goose sitting on a nest.  The kids were super curious, and the mom's were trying to hold them back!

We fed the fish.  There were SO many, giant fish!

There were a set of bouncy houses.  Collin loved playing on it even though there were so many kids.  It was pretty chaotic.

Picture with my cute boys.  I was tickling them to get them to smile.

Tate checking out some really tall tulips.  He *almost* pulled one off, but I was faster, which is rare.

Grandma and Collin by one of the water falls.

This balloon sculpture was in the lobby.  It was pretty cool.  Collin wanted to play with it.

Easter

We were excited to celebrate Easter as a family at our new house.  The Easter bunny came and left three baskets on our living room couch.  He also hid some plastic eggs with candy and other fun things in them.  We filmed Collin finding the baskets and eggs, so no pictures of that.  Here's what we do have:

The boys' baskets.

Collin didn't know what silly string was, but was sure excited to try it out.

Daddy and Collin had a silly string war in the backyard before church.

They made a big mess and had a ton of fun!

After we got ready for church, but before we left I tried to snap a "selfie".  Such cute boys!

After church we tried to take a family picture.  It took quite a few tries.  Tate was very interested in the bush behind us.

I tried to spin him around but didn't make it in time.

Everyone looking.  And Collin holding up a piece of silly string that we missed in clean up.

Collin really wanted a picture with the frog.

I took a ton of the boys.  Most of them turned out pretty cute.

Aren't they so handsome?!  Love all my boys!

Collin painted two ceramic Easter eggs after church.  And he and Daddy dyed eggs while I made dinner.  I've never dyed eggs.  And I guess I'll have to wait til next Easter to try it for the first time!

 It was a great Easter.  We had my parents and sister and her boyfriend over for dessert, but didn't take any pictures.  It was fun to celebrate Christ and the Resurrection.  We talked about it a lot leading up to the day, and Grandma brought Collin a craft that showed Jesus coming out of the tomb.  It's such a beautiful and hopeful time of year!

Painting the front door

 We've been very excited with the warmer weather to start some updates and projects around the house.  One of the first ones we did was to paint the front door, shutters and trim around the garage.  It took half a Saturday, but we love the outcome!

Before.

During.  We put a tarp up to keep bugs and, if it rained, water out.

Collin and I sanded the door.

Tate watched and played.

Greg found a huge wasps nest behind one of the shutters.
And then he destroyed it and sprayed the area with bee killer.

Then Collin and I sanded the garage frame.

Such a willing helper!

Then we started painting!  Collin wanted to help so bad, so we let him for a while.

Greg did the door and most of the frame.  I did the shutters.  Collin helped with all three.

And he painted some spare wood blocks while we touched everything up.

Finished!  Its so bright and fun; we are loving it!