Happy Birthday, Dad!

The older I get, the more grateful I am 

for having a dad like you. 

Happy Birthday, Dad!

We love you!

Easter

We celebrated Easter at Nicole and Dave's house as the weather wasn't cooperating and we had it at Kimberly and Jacob's house last year. So we had to hide eggs in the house again. 

We did something a little different this year. We assigned Kylie, Haylee and Brayden different colored eggs and they were only allowed to find those colors. Kylie got purple and blue, Haylee got pink and orange and Brayden got green and yellow. We had some special eggs that were filled with both candy and money and each kid were allowed so many of those. It worked out pretty well. We had no fighting as each one of them got the same amount of eggs.

Dare's granddaughter was raising money for a church youth trip for this summer and she was selling Easter eggs. I got to pick out the color of the eggs and the filling. I just went with peanut butter as I didn't think they would like cherry, coconut or the other fillings.

On this Easter day

May the joy of Christ's resurrection

Live in your heart today

And always

St. Louis Cardinals Game

When the St. Louis Cardinals are playing against the Nationals we try to go up to Washington DC and go to one of the games. They usually play about 3-4 games while they are in town.

This year we decided to go on Saturday so I wouldn't have to take a vacation day and Kimberly wanted to join us. We ended up getting there right when the game started. We normally like to get there a little early so we can eat lunch before the game starts and find our seats and get settled in but that wasn't the case this time. We hit a lot of traffic, what else is new in DC. Jeff didn't think traffic would be too bad for a Saturday compared to a work week day but he was mistaken. Next year we will just make sure we leave an hour earlier.

You always need Cracker Jack at a ball game.

Thanks for the win Nationals! We won 4-3. See you next year!

Zoo Visit

The girls wanted to go to the zoo after Kylie's soccer game.

 

So after the game we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.

You won't believe it but I was charged a senior discount. Not nice! I don't look that old, I guess the white hair makes me look older than I am.

I only got a couple pictures as I didn't bring my big camera.

Momma Bear and her Cubs

For the past couple of days we have visitors across the street near the tree line playing. I finally got some pictures of them tonight.

I zoomed in on the above picture so you can see them closer

It was a momma bear and her cubs. They were so cute running around playing. Jeff had to go over to our neighbor's house and tell them about the bears too. Unfortunately, only the oldest girl and Davin were home so the boys didn't get to see them. They were out there till dark watching them play.

Bookcase for Cookbooks

I have my cookbooks in a bottom kitchen cabinet on a top shelf. Every time I needed to get a bookcase out it was a pain. I have so many of them so they are in there pretty tight.

On Pinterest I saw a pin for a bookcase at a end of a kitchen counter and decided to make one for our kitchen.

When I was in the planning stage I was thinking that Jeff could build me the bookcase since we could get the dimensions right; however, that didn't happen. We decided it probably would be cheaper or about the same price if we just bought an unfinished kitchen cabinet and I would stain it to match the other cabinets.

So we bought an unfinished cabinet, two side pieces, a piece for the top and feet at Lowe's. We had a hard time finding feet, either we didn't like them or they weren't the right size.

Then Jeff took the door off and we glued on the sides and top pieces then we installed the feet. Before Jeff could install the feet he had to cut them down, they were too tall. Then a few weeks later I caulked the sides because there was a gap between the pieces we had glued and the front. I also caulked the holes left by the screws for the door. Then it was another couple weeks before I stained the cabinet. We kept getting samples of stains and couldn't find one that really matched. At one time I was thinking about just painting it instead of staining it since I couldn't find an exact match but decided not to go that route.

Here is the finished product. I really liked how it turned out. We had three places to put the bookcase and decided here would be best. The other options was on the other end of the counter so it's facing the diningroom but I didn't want it facing the diningroom and basically in the hallway. Then the other place was at the end of the counter by the stove but I figured it would be in the way of people coming in and out of the kitchen.

What do you think of our DIY bookcase for my cookbooks?

Busch Gardens First Trip of the Season

Kylie has been playing soccer for a couple weeks now and she seems to really like it. She gets right in there and plays, much better than she did a couple years ago. Jeff has only been able to go to one game so far with his work schedule so he is pretty bummed about that.

We have been wanting to go to Busch Gardens for a couple weeks now. Nicole is anxious on riding some rides since she couldn't last year since she was pregnant. We were finally able to go today. Nicole had Easter pictures for the kids at 1:15 so we left after the pictures. Kimberly and Brayden also came but they drove separate. Unfortunately, Jeff was on nights so he was sleeping and couldn't go and Kylie had a birthday party to go to so she chose to go to the birthday party instead of Busch Gardens. Crazy kid!

Haylee is holding a flower she picked

Haylee was so proud to be in the purple, it means more rides by herself.

Brayden is covering his face because he thought he was going to get wet

Elmo hug

Brayden is still too scared to get a picture with the characters

watching the show

fresh air wore Jackson and Noah out

The park was pretty crowded today, it seemed more like an August day than a day in April. It was Sesame Street Forest of Fun's 5th birthday this weekend so that was one reason why that area was crowded. Haylee and Brayden couldn't ride the roller coaster because the line went all the way to where you come in at. We also noticed there were a lot of teenagers wearing different shirts. Some had senior trip and some had band shirts on so that was another reason why it was crowded. Kimberly and Nicole weren't able to ride any rides since it was so crowded and the lines were so long, luckily we have season passes.

Looking forward to many more trips to Busch Gardens!