Happy Easter 2011

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! What a wonderful day of celebration. We had so much fun dressing up, eating breakfast at church, worshipping our risen savior, sharing a meal with friends, resting in the afternoon, and worshipping with combined CRC churches in the evening. What a blessed day!

The girls in their Easter "bonnets" and Andrew with his shirttails tucked in (for the moment): I always take a few before church pictures in case we don't make it to the after church ones:

After church (whew, we make it!):

Family pictures:

Anika's Open House & Spring Program 2011

I've been a poor blogger/facebooker, etc. recently because of a big project. I'll get pictures of it up soon, but here is some of what's been going on around here.

Last week, we enjoyed a special night to celebrate Anika! We were able to walk around her classroom and see the many projects her class has been working on this year. Then we were blown away by another amazing program. Mrs. Huisken (Anika's k-teacher last year and music teacher) put together another wonderful program. She does such a great job of picking a theme, making it fun, and getting the students to shine! (No pictures of the program because we switched to the Flip video and neglected the still camera. I'll see if I can get video up or capture some stills from the Flip.)

Anika before the program! She talked me into letting her wear my gold hoops (elation!):

Anika wants to be a teacher:-)

Anika and Daddy worked on creating a cross together (it is the wooden one just to the right of Anika's head). Daddy sure had fun;-)

First Time Visitors & Family Fun

My sister, Hilary, and her husband, Jason, made it out to California this week for a first-time visit. We were SO excited to welcome them. Our three days together were wonderful (before they headed down south to visit more family). However, I was not up to my usual standards and my photographic evidence of the visit is a bit sparse. (I actually forgot my camera on our day away to Monterey.) Hil and J left their boys behind in IL but they didn't lack for attention. My kids were happy to take up all their time:-) Andrew quickly snagged Uncle Jason for a game of Nerf Dart tag:

Trying to look as tough as Uncle Jason:

Failing:

More games:

The girls playing games, too:

Auntie Hilary ROCKS!

My beautiful, little sister!!!

Sporting their Pizza My Heart shirts from Monterey!

Anika's Earrings

This post is for Nene. After she left we took Anika to get some good gold posts for her ears (to stave off an infection I was afraid was looming), she was so excited that she promised to show Nene as soon as she could. Here is the post to share her new bling:-)

A Visit from Nene & Papa

We enjoyed having Nene & Papa here for a few days this week. It was a great time of just relaxing together -- since it rained every day. Kathryn takes her nap on Nene.

Time of Tea:

Another trip to the Zoo

With a day off of school for Anika, we headed to our dear Sac Zoo to enjoy some time with the animals. We took a chance on the rain and we were pleased to get a dry day. That has been rare around here lately. We are anxious of spring to arrive with WARMER temps!

The kids were laughing hysterically at these African parrots. So amusing!

Kat might have been content to ride in this car all day long. (And it wasn't even running!)

Just because. . .

Because this doesn't happen much anymore, I had to have Lloyd snap a picture of my "sleeping beauty". I don't get many chances to hold her while she sleeps now that she is a busy two (almost three) year old. Time just flies!!!

More loose teeth????

In contrast to the preceding post, I'm publishing this one! Anika took a nasty spill on the street yesterday and this is the result. She is pretty miserable (as you can see). She prematurely loosened a few top teeth but a trip to the dentist today confirms that there are no cracked roots or further problems. We are grateful for that and the teeth will probably be falling out soon anyway -- her HUGE adult teeth are waiting. (Yep, there are braces in our future.) Although she looks like she's been through a war, each moment she is improving and she is currently waiting for me to take her school this afternoon. (No doubt to share her story and get some attention!!!)

Another Lost Tooth

This makes three teeth Anika has lost so far. She has a head full of loose ones but she likes to take her time.

Almond Blossom Parade 2011

Brrrrr! We've now experienced the Almond Blossom Parade in rain and shine -- and COLD! It was a beautiful, sunny but bone-chilling day for a parade. However, it was still a hit -- all of our favorites were back again - beautiful princess from our church, clowns with a "broken" car, dancing horses, and Shriner's karts. Each year has its special moments and this year we were excited to pet a horse and see a friend from church rockin' out on the Cal Crush truck.

Ready for the parade: Christa, from our church, was one of the beautiful princesses:

Joie, from our church, was concluding her reign as queen:

Kat loved when this car "broke":

Bill rockin out:These beautiful horses entertained us:

Shriner's "mini" cars:

Oops!

These two pictures somehow got missed when I was uploading the photos for the previous post.
Here is "Laffing Sal". She has welcomed visitors to the boardwalk for decades:-) And we can't forget that Kathryn, too, got to hold a birdie!