A butterfly party and an Easter I will never forget!

April is a good month to be born :) In our family, we have three very special birthday's in April, and on Saturday we celebrated for Jo, Paul, and of course Hopie.

Me and the kids headed up on Friday, and drove through BAD rain, and it was very stressful, little did I know what the drive Sunday would be like :/ More on that later....

Here are the birthday peeps!!!
I do believe this one thought the party was all for her though ;) She had asked for a "butterfly party" weeks back, and my mom delivered on the butterflies...Crystal butterflies...
Butterflies on the table...

And big hanging butterflies....Hope was in heaven I tell you!!Here's the traditional "family dinner photo" Please note, we all behaved and no one photo bombed the picture :)
On to presents, and little man was the "present hander outer" he thought he was big stuff ;) Paul and Hope got tons of goodies!! We are way blessed and appreciate it all soooo much!!!
And no butterfly party would be complete without a butterfly cake. So pretty!!!
My beautiful sister and her adorable boys!!

Of course, the always charming Rico ;)
And our sassy 4 year old!!I do believe I've mentioned before how we BOMB the birthday song. I mean we sing as loud and as horrible as we can, and we are all in stitches by the time we finish. I just love this picture, Pierce is DYING laughing while we do our best to sing awful ;)
And I guess that butterfly party must have been too wild for two of the birthday peeps ;)
Moving onto Easter!!!

Look at the cute bags for the kids this year. I got these at Jami's 31 party, and love that I will be able to use these for all kind of things :)
Oh my. My son is IN LOVE with these swimming goggles, he wears them all.the.time.

Of course we had to get more bubbles!! Not to mention the 65 pounds of candy that should keep them until Halloween ;)They dived right in. I can't begin to think of all the junk they consumed this weekend!
We went back to Graceland for Easter service. We hadn't been there since before we moved, it was good to go back, and the kids stayed with us during the service, they did great, and of course I think they looked adorable, but I would! :)
Look at us! We look like a group of colored Easter eggs :)
Easter Dinner!!! Traditional dinner shot #789564.
Of course, the kids were chomping at the bit to hunt eggs, and of course like everyone else this year, we had to do it inside. This pic cracks me up, Paul was laying down the rules..."no pushing, shoving, gnashing of teeth..."
LET US HUNT MOM!!!!

Neena gives good eggs!! Each one had candy or money, us grown ups thought about knocking the kids off, so we could get all the loot :)So excited about the loot!!!
It was a great weekend, and the kids didn't want to leave AT ALL, but after much discussion with Paul, I decided to go an and brave the trip back. Paul had to stay back for business. As everyone knows, the weather had been less than desirable lately, and I have done my fair share of travel through torrential monsoons, and was dreading the drive back to Bowling Green. In 6 months, I have come back 10 times, but the trip back this time was terrible, and I was vowing this would be my last time ;) This is basically what my trip was like the entire time...
Actually it was better than the drive up, and the trip was going fast, and my travel companions were enjoying much needed naps...

All was well, and we were only 30 minutes from home, when we were stopped. And when I say stopped, I mean DEAD STOPPED. Cars as far as the eye can see....
I thought to myself "surely, we'll move soon" and I kept thinking the same thought. Finally the kids woke up, and a few meltdowns later, maybe 20 feet later, and an HOUR later, I was beginning to lose my ever loving mind. What does one do, when they think they might go insane and be on the evening news?? Why, the crank the music and sing AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS, that's what they do.
After 695 phone calls with Paul, he convinced me to take another exit, big deal for me peeps, cause I am directionally inept, thank goodness for GPS.

And after hours in the car, I was NEVER SO HAPPY TO SEE THIS BEAUTIFUL EXIT.
Okay, so maybe I exaggerate some, but let me tell you, this was a stressful trip, and when we got home and had tons to unload, laundry out the yin yang, and general tiredness, I never expected what came next.

Pierce wanted to talk about Jesus and asking him to "come into his heart" You know I always thought Paul would be the one to handle this with the kids, but when Pierce looks at me and tells me that "he wants to pray right now" I knew I couldn't put him off. Pierce first prayed, and I never want to forget what he said "I love you Jesus, I don't know much about you, but please come in my heart" Then he and I prayed together. I know that his understanding is that of a child, but he knows love, and he was very serious about taking this step. So needless to say, I will never forget this Easter. Ever.