Our Life in Pictures

I am so behind with this blog!!!  In an effort to save time, I thought I would just show our life in pictures over the last 6 weeks or so.  Some were taken with cell phones, so some of them aren't the greatest quality, but enjoy!

The morning full of errands just wore them out!

Life with a boy...

...is messy...

...and contains quite a few boo-boos,
like this scab that resulted from Jack
trying to walk down our sloped front sidewalk.

We love cookies and ice cream!

Mimi came up for her spring break...

...and helped Anna dye Easter eggs.

Fun with Mimi!

Jack the stud

One beautiful Saturday we all walked to
Tanglewood for a picnic and some soccer practice.

Even Jack wanted play.

Relaxing at Cracker Barrel

Thomas!  Jack saw Thomas' face at the bottom
of the bowl and started moving the grits
 out of the way with his hands.  Then he had
to give him a kiss, thus the
grits all over the face!  So cute!

Anna climbing the wall at the local community festival.

Weekend in Wilmington

I stumbled upon a conference for nursing CE's that took place in Wilmington on a Friday morning at the end of April.  Will and I thought it was a perfect excuse to spend the weekend in Wilmington so we headed east on Thursday afternoon.  It was the weekend before our 8th anniversary, so Mimi and Papa offered to keep the kids Friday night so that we could go celebrate.  The second night, all four kids were in town (Sarah had a wedding shower for one of her friends from high school).  We had a fun reunion dinner together with the whole family.

Papa and Will teaching the kids the game of golf
with Anna's new golf clubs.

See, Jack, I can do this too!

And she just kept on going all the way down the driveway!

Chillaxin in the swing!

Aunt Michelle with Caroline

Swing it, Jack!

The Collins Men

The babies in the bath water!

Anna loved showing Nia and Nellie her "magic computer".

Cousin fun

We tried to get a photo of all the kiddos,
but Nellie wasn't too keen on that idea...

...even when Mimi made everyone else laugh (minus Jack).

The four of us back together again!

Nellie making faces in the computer--so cute!

Big girls

Computer babies love Sesame Street!

Thanks for an awesome time Mimi and Papa!

Sarah had a baby shower Sunday afternoon, so Will and I offered to bring Caroline back with us.  The first leg of the trip was interesting with three kiddos awake and I'm sure the people at McD's thought we were crazy.  Luckily, everyone slept on the second leg until we were almost home.  Fun times!

20's Murder Mystery Party

Saturday, our close friend, Jenn, turned thirty.  As long as I've known her, she has struggled to let go of some of her childhood loves, like roller skating, 80's music, any kind of group game, and (evidently) dressing up for Halloween.  She decided that she wanted to celebrate her initiation into a new decade with a murder mystery party--roaring 20's style!  We received our character descriptions via email.  Will was cast as Notorious Nick, the powerful yet sleazy mob boss.  I was cast as his gold-digging, actress-wanna-be fiancé, Molly Moll.  We searched online and found some somewhat reasonably priced costumes and had fun preparing for the party.  Anna didn't quite know what to think about her mommy and daddy putting costumes on for a party, but was so excited when we were all dolled up.  When she saw me fully garbed, she said "Oh, Mommy, you look like a princess!"  Ha!  If she only knew!
We had a great time at the party.  There was some good-hearted black mailing going on which made it fun.  Will ended up being the murder victim and our friend Paul was the mysterious murderer!  It was definitely unlike anything we have done before and a new experience for the books.  Happy Birthday to Jenn, my flapper friend!

Anna couldn't believe Mommy and Daddy
were dressing up in costumes!

All the ladies

The men

The murderer...or stripper?

Happy birthday Jenn!  Will would give his life to
make sure you had a great party!

At the Beach with Mimi and Jeffro

While Daddy was at a conference for work and the ACC Tournament with Pops, the kids and I headed to Wilmington to hang out with Mimi and Papa.  The first full day we were there was gorgeous, so we met Jeffro and Nellie down at the beach to play in the sand and fly kites.  Then we had yummy hotdogs at The Trolly Stop for lunch.  I knew we were only going to be down there for max an hour, so I was a bad mommy and didn't put sunscreen on any of us.  We definitely got our vitamin D for the day! None of us got burned, but we all came back with pink cheeks and a little bit of a tan line where our clothes had been!  After that, I was horrible and didn't really take my camera out again (shame on me!).  At least we can enjoy our pics from the beach...

Mimi reading a new pop-up book to Jack.

Nellie and Anna playing in the sand.  "Look, Anna!"

Helping Mimi feed the seagulls.

Nellie giving out sweet kisses (and Mimi egging her on).

We got one kite to fly easily, but the other proved a little more difficult.  

Jack really wanted to eat the sand and
couldn't figure out why that wasn't a good idea.

Mommy and her two munchkins

Nellie and Jeffro

Jack shocked at the waves and the surfers.

The BEST picture of Nellie and Jeffro...ever!

I love the beach!