Big, Exhausting Fun

I really wanted to get these pictures up on my blog today. We had such a fun weekend celebrating Easter with family that we don't get to see very often. Unfortunately, Blogger didn't want to cooperate with me and it took me nearly an hour to get my pictures up. Do any of you have that same problem? If you do, do you have any fixes for it? I would love to post more pictures, but I don't have time to sit at the computer and wait on Blogger to decide to let me do it.

Anyway, enough fussing. Now on to the fun. I made this Easter egg branch. I had seen several pictures in magazines and then I saw a picture of the one my cousin Tracy made on her blog. I decided to make one myself and I just loved how it turned out.

Saturday night we had all of the Kellys over for a cookout. Kyle and his girlfriend, Tiffany, along with Kyle's son, Jack, were in town from New York. We don't get to see them much, so we try to plan something for the whole family when he's in town. Kyle is an awesome dad and has chosen a very sweet girlfriend. Kyle is on the back row between Ross and me. Tiffany is in front of Kyle and Jack in front of her. This was everyone except for Kristi and Brandon.

Jeff did an amazing job on the grill. He made a ton of hamburgers, 16 hot dogs and about 10 pieces of chicken. That boy knows how to grill.

Jeff had read on the internet about Krispy Kreme cheeseburgers. Have you ever heard of them? Well, what you do is instead of a bun, you cut in half a Krispy Kreme donut and use that as your bun. Then you put your cheeseburger and bacon on it. No ketchup or mustard. A few tried them, including me. I only had a bite though, and let me tell you, it was y-u-m-m-y. It would be quite a splurge to eat the whole thing. Jeff read that they are big at fairs. It tasted like something sinfully delicious like all fair food is. Try it sometime and let me know what you think about it. If your arteries and waistline can stand it.

These are Ed and Jean's only three great grandchildren. Kendal on the left. Drew, Kendal's brother, in the middle. Jack on the right. Jack and Drew are only a few months apart. I think the Kelly genes are pretty strong because to me, Jack and Drew favor quite a bit.

They also have the Kelly competitive gene running rampant through their little bodies. They played "hotscotch" (as Kendal called it). It was so funny because they played it on the world's smallest hotscotch board that Drew drew (Ha ha, wonder how often that happens).

Being fiercely competitive, as all Kellys are, I thought Drew and Jack were going to have a knockdown dragout over who was going to go first. They worked it out though and had fun playing. It was just so funny watching them try to fit their little feet in those tiny squares.

Nan brought a pound cake that her mother made with the most delicious cream cheese frosting. I had cut strawberries to go on top. Let me just say, that was the best thing I've had in a good while. I served the strawberries in the bowl that my Auntie Barbo gave me. It's the most beautiful carnival glass and the strawberries were so pretty in it.

Sunday morning, we left for South Georgia. It's about a two hour and fifteen minute drive toVidalia (home of the Vidalia onion). My uncle Bobby usually hosts our Easter get-together. They have the best park I've ever seen there. This was the building that he reserved for us. It was beside a playground and had plenty of yard to have the egg hunt. I don't know about your community, but we don't have anything this nice around here.

He fried a bunch of fish that he and my uncle Luke had caught. They were so good. He also had lots of boiled shrimp. We all brought the sides and the dessert and ate to our heart's content.

After eating, we hid the eggs for the kids. We must have had about 38,000 eggs. Isn't it funny that it takes you forever to hide the eggs and about 10 minutes for the kids to find them? Eli found one of the prize eggs. Ross hid it and Ross helped Eli find it. Ha!

And let me just say, Eli couldn't have been prouder.

Joseph brought Kelsey along. She's becoming a regular member of our family. Such a sweet girl. Pretty too.

Suz made Alayna and Eli an Easter t-shirt. She made herself one too. Aren't they pretty? Mom and daughter or twins? You be the judge.

Here are the Kimball children. Some don't have the last name Kimball, but they're Kimballs just the same. I know MaMa and PaPa were smiling down with joy that we were all together and I would've loved nothing more than for them to be there with us. It's so hard to get a good picture of all of them, but this was the best one I got. I love every one of these faces with all my heart.

Eli and Hannah were opening their eggs and looking at all their goodies. This is what we work our fannies off for. The smiles on their happy faces make it all worthwhile.

Except in this picture neither is smiling. But they were smiling on the inside. :-)

We had a crazy weather day again yesterday. One minute the sun would shine. The next it would rain. Then sunny again. Thankfully, it was during a sunny time when we hunted eggs. But last night we had thunder and lightning and then all of the sudden, this is what was falling from the sky.
Hail. It didn't last very long, thankfully. I don't think my car insurance would like me very much if I had to turn in a claim for hail damage.

So after a weekend full of fun, I settled in last night and watched the cutest movie called Something's Gotta Give. I hardly sit and watch an entire movie, but this one was really good and had a great ending.

Got plenty of sleep last night and now I'm ready for another week of fun. This weekend will be more Easter get-togethers. This time with my Howell family and of course, the big egg hunt with my mom and dad. So much to be thankful for.

Till next time, enjoy your Monday.