I Blog Because of Peer Pressure: One of those picture posts

April is exhausting. I need to maybe move a birthday or two next year so things aren't all on top of each other again. Or maybe Easter. The past three weekends, we have had birthday parties each weekend, Easter, and an Open House. I'm exhausted, and totally behind on my photos. I am also way off on my Project 52, but that's a problem for another time.

This was our first visit for everyone to the Easter Bunny. We went to our grocery store where they were doing it for a fundraiser, and you could take your own picture. I took this one, but this would have been well worth it if I had to pay for it. The bunny looks like he feels like a failure.

Our library had a Disney party where you got to meet a real princess. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but this wasn't quite it. Oh well, the kids didn't care, and it was a Saturday activity Daddy could enjoy with us.

Aargh.

I couldn't manage to get a nice one of him without the cracker.

Helping with Mia's 9 month photo shoot.

The many expressions of my happy girl.

Good Friday is Easter Egg dying at my Gram's, and traditional dinner. I know I have told the story of the green shirt, which is officially now Maggie's. Ben inherited a blue shirt from my Dad (although he did most of the dying in nothing but his underwear and one sock) and we decided Mia needed one from my Gram. Gram picked her out an old Indians t-shirt, and boy does that seem fitting, from her baseball loving Baba. Maybe it will fit her a little better next year.

This year, we dipped our whole hand in the cup, and broke many eggs, but they had fun, and we never really eat the eggs anyway, so no big deal.

I LOVE this picture. Love it.

Cousin Parker turned 1 in an adorable bash!

Birthday parties are exhausting.

Easter. Bonnets. Pretty dresses. Hee haw hat. All the cousins, some cooperating for photos, some not. I tried to get group shots and do a photomerge, but I couldn't figure it out with the photos I had. We went to church, had brunch at our house, and I love having this traditional brunch at our house, carrying on my Grandmother's tradition. Maybe next year we will have a real house, I will be more organized, and we will expand our guest list.

One of the only pictures I took on their actual birthday. Daddy took the day off, and we went to storytime, lunch with my family, music class, and dinner at our favorite Chik-Fil-A with Nama and Grandpa. Pretty much the best three year old birthday possible.

My best friend and her kids came in for the birthday party and stayed with us for a few days. It was both very helpful (having Beth who is crafty and helped me a ton!) and very crazy (having five children under the age of four around). We went to the zoo and they rode the new train. Doesn't Mia look thrilled?

We had an opportunity to get a group shot. . .Mia is happy, Maggie was sick and pretty much looked like that all day, and Ben was trying to get away. But hey, this is typical, and really shows everyday life!

I am including this mainly because I was looking for last year's when I made it, lol. I went very simple with the birthday signs!

We had a very light Little Bear theme, and everything came together simply and nicely. The weather didn't cooperate, but other than that, the day was a success!

The last day Beth was here we took the kids to the park (minus Ben who had emptied all the socks out of the drawers and separated them during naptime and had to stay home) and had sort of an impromptu photo session in the park.

Mia the thinker.

I absolutely LOVE this one. Beth took it, and I photoshop actioned it, and it came out beautifully!

Yet another photoshop, I don't know if the flare is really good there, but I was experimenting with this photo and decided to leave it. I am having a love/hate relationship with photoshop. I love that I can do some clean edits on my photos to brighten them, color correct, etc. but it takes so long to get photos ready now! Also, I just ordered a bunch of old ones and couldn't believe how dark they looked compared to the newer ones I was uploading!