Thank you Poppa and Rara for having us over for Easter weekend.  We look forward to this tradition all year long!  The next adventure of our fun Easter day was opening our eggs to discover what treats were inside.  We always open our eggs on Rara’s doll house porch each year!

On to opening eggs…

 

Guess who got the golden ticket!?!  Rose!!!  This was her second year in a row to find the winning egg.  She got $25 in golden dollar coins!  They have a winner in each age division, and our cousin Melissa won the other golden egg.  I helped Rose both years but had no idea which one was the winner, or even if we had it!  We were so surprised and excited!!!  Rose was SO proud; truly, she got it and she felt like she had done something so great.  It was awesome to watch her beam with pride.  She did work really hard picking up all those eggs!  She was so determined!

Happy moments of the day…

 

Anna Kate is always smiling at someone, this time it was Rara, who was so thoughtful to grab the camera to capture more Easter moments!

 

The Pond and Banks families… at the end of such a fun reunion! 

 

Kay Kay and Grandpapa are so awesome to drive to East Texas with us to celebrate our Risen Savior together, out in nature, God’s special creation.  It’s so refreshing, you can only imagine!  I love taking pictures with my girls because someday, they are going to be beautiful young women surrounding me, and I’m going to be their sweet old Momma… loving these times when I’m still young too, because I know they are fleeting chapters… life happens so quickly… seemingly when I’m not looking… so I love taking little breaks and remembering that it’s happening now, and I don’t want to miss it!

The girls are crazy about cousin Harper!  Rose was eating something sour in this picture, and Harper was checking it out!  It was toward the end of the afternoon, so this is the best picture we got of the four of them, but it’s precious, and I love it!

 

Noelle and Harper have a sweet little bond.  Noelle was showing her how to give a big good-bye hug.  You can tell Harper felt like a big girl and for a minute when they were hugging, Noelle just closed her eyes and cherished the moment, smiling as big as she could.  It truly melted my heart… these precious precious girls!!!  Granny would be tickled pink… hopefully she already is!

 

And then all of a sudden, out of no where, the sun came out in full force to finish off the best Easter ever!  Cousin Amber made blankets for the girls, which was a huge labor of love!  They are so cute and comfy… THANK YOU, AMBER!!!  She’s followed our blog ever since Noelle was born, and this is the first time she’s ever gotten to meet them in person.  It was awesome!  I asked her if the girls are what she expected in person from growing up with them through pictures on the blog.  She said that Noelle is a little more reserved than she expected and just as sweet as she thought, that Anna Kate looks just like I did when I was a kid and reminds her of Rara’s mommy, my Granny, and that Rose will be my spitfire, lol!  Her words, not mine.  She said they are all adorable and very good girls, which made me so proud!  It was neat talking to someone who grew up with me about my kids that has actually seen them grow up via the blog.  Noelle has been talking about technology in her class at school, and it really has changed the world around us.  I’m so thankful for the friendships that I’ve made, and the smiles and laughs of our precious girls that we get the privilege of sharing with you guys each week.  Family is what our blog is all about, and I’m so blessed to share special moments of our family, God’s most sacred unit, with you!