Last Week

Last week was a fun week!  We got to spend lots of time outside and with friends and family!  On Tuesday after Bert got off work we headed over to Paris Mountain State Park (about 10 minutes from our house) to hike the trail for the 5K Nicaragua fundraiser our church was putting on the following Saturday.  We met John and Melissa and their two grandkids (Bella and Waylon) over there too.  

Claire loved her seat on her Daddy's back.  She was as happy as a lark up there.  

The kids had so much fun spending time together!   

These two are the sweetest.  Anytime we are at church they are inseparable.  Both of these big girls walked the entire 3 mile course (except for maybe a 2 minute ride each on Mr. John's shoulders, because their younger siblings were getting rides and they thought it looked like fun) and I don't remember them complaining once.  They did SO great!   

Hannah caught several rides on Mr. John's shoulders!  

At the halfway point we took a 2 minute break to switch Claire to my back and Hannah to Bert's.  Bella is about 6 months older than Emily and Waylon is about 4 months older than Hannah.  Sweet kiddo's.  

This is the face of a happy girl.  

I've actually never worn any of my kiddo's on my back.  I love the ergo for the early months/first year, but I usually wear them on the front.  I don't think we did it exactly right as that top buckle kept coming up on my neck, but Claire was as snug as a bug in a rug and she definitely enjoyed herself after she let us know how irritated she was about getting taken out of her Daddy's backpack.  :)  

The hike was beautiful and it only took the kids about 2.5 seconds to fall asleep that night.:)  

On Friday afternoon we decided to pick some strawberries.  Bert and I haven't picked strawberries in years and years (I'm talking since we were both kids).  I really wanted to last year, but I let the short season slip past us without making it happen. Maybe having a 3 month old had something to do with it, but I decided I was definitely not going to let that happen this year.  

Hannah was my pickin' partner.  We were working on a bucket while Emily and Bert were working on another.  

Hannah is looking mischievous....

but she's as sweet as that strawberry she's holding in her hand.  

I didn't realize my deep, deep love for fresh strawberries until just a few years ago.  They are just amazing!!  We all enjoyed this peaceful fun, outing and it is definitely going to be a new tradition.  

On Friday night Mimi drove over to let Bert and I go out on a date night.  April had been a pretty busy month and it had been about 6 weeks since we had actually gotten to go out on one.  Thanks Mimi!

On Saturday morning while Bert was helping with the Nicaragua 5K all the girls got to go do a little shopping with Mimi. After our shopping trip we headed over to Paris Mountain State Park where we had a fun picnic with 3 other families in our Sunday school class.  All the kids had fun playing on the playground and the adults enjoyed catching up.  It was beautiful weather.

After naps on Saturday it was time to plant the tomato plants Bert bought the day before at the strawberry patch.  

I was sitting down and sweet Hannah just came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me and just stayed there, so I wanted to snap a picture.  I love feeling their sweet arms around me.  Thankful for my babies.  

The girls worked hard helping Daddy plant.  They had fun!

In the picture below Emily was super proud of her new Frozen gloves that she got for her birthday. She let Hannah use them too a few minutes later, but didn't want Hannah to get them dirty.:)

This one loved playing in the dirt.

Hoping for some homegrown, fresh tomatoes soon! 

Thankful for a fun end to April and looking forward to May!