Weekend of Tuleys, etc

The weekend after Easter was jam packed with family fun, just not all our family. Last minute we had the privilege of keeping Katie Tuley's for the weekend. When I told Derek we would magically become a family of five over the weekend, his first response was that we would just stay at the house all weekend and not go anywhere. he had that deer in headlight look. What do you know, within the first hour he was ready to take on the city of Houston - and it was easy peasy.

First stop Friday night was Ciro's for dinner. Lissie (just turned 1), John David (2 1/2) and Justin had a blast sitting outside and playing bocce ball. They could technically all be mine, but I've gotten too much sleep in the last 3 years for that to be the case.


Justin had to show John David how to toss the ball high in the air.


At one point Justin was playing by himself since he is always the fast eater of any group. So Derek and I were left at the table with just the Tuley kids. 3 different times (let me repeat, three times) strangers came up to our table and told us how beautiful our children were. And Justin wasn't sitting at the table! We would just smile and say thank you. I wanted to say, "And don't I look great for having 3 small children?" But that would have made everyone feel awkward since they wouldn't be in on the joke.


John David had so much fun at the water fountain. The strangers would comment how crazy is was that one child had curly hair...


...and the other had straight. But then they would see my straight locks and Derek's curls and realize that's just the way our "children" came out.


JD & JT were fast friends. These two had not played together for a several months, but they played so nicely together.


John David just looked up to Justin like a big brother. And anytime Justin would make John David cry, Justin would quickly say he was sorry, John David would quick crying, and then they would move on to the next thing. These boys were best friends all weekend.



And this little missy was the most active one year old I have ever been around. So independent, so go with the flow, yet when Miss Lissie wanted something, she wanted in 2 minutes ago. But she was such an easy baby - so easy to be around. I loved how she would just cling to my arm when I would carry her around the house. I miss carrying around a little one like that - especially when they don't weigh that much!


The other guests we had Friday night were my brother and sister-in-law. They were celebrating their 5 year anniversary in Houston and decided to stay the night with us on Friday. So Saturday morning was loads of fun with Uncle Aaron and lots of kiddos. He and Elise have so many friends with kids that it was just natural to have them around in the morning.


The cat's meow was when Aaron gave the two boys permission to go wake up Elise with nerf guns and the Doha machine gun. They were in hog heaven!


Aaron and Elise left, and in came Lily form across the street. We were watching her for a few hours, so we became a family of 6 and headed out to Chick-fil-a. Lily being the youngest had never been inside one! Her parents were pleasantly surprised that she minded Aunt Shani just fine and had a blast on the indoor play area.


Can you believe this boy had never had chocolate milk before? And guess what, he loved it!


After the weekend, Derek nicely said there was a reason why God has allowed us to go so long without conceiving. He knew we needed more time in between the kiddos. Now that's being at peace with where He's has us, right?

Astros

Derek called three hours before opening day of the Astros baseball season to see if we three wanted to go to the game that night. Putting on Shani's new spur-of-the-moment cap I said absolutely. It was a steaming hot day, and Justin got the privilege of sitting next to a boy who had his mother's phone in his hand. So the two boys played games for quite awhile, while Derek and I felt like we were on a date by ourselves. Which was fine by me after ordering a make-it-yourself salad and chomping down on anything other than a hotdog at a baseball game.



Ah, baseball life, you seem like so long ago.


After sitting through 6 innings, a new record for Justin, we went to the kids' area to run it out.


You would think he was running the race of his life - always a competition to be had.


Somebody looks like his momma (and invariably his Papa) with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.


Then we hitched a ride back to our car on a bike. Justin had a blast.


Cheers for last minute plans!


Until the next baseball outing!

Because Girls Need Their Picture Taken Too

Instead of bluebonnets, Roxy got azaleas in her background instead.



This is pre-haircut (aka complete buzz), which she just received this week. With all this heat I think she is relieved to look like an overgrown squirrel for a few months.


Little Roxy-loo


I like taking your picture too

Easter

Solution to never getting around to my Easter photos - just not worrying about editing and instead just journaling about the weekend.

As Easter approached I really didn't have any bright or creative ideas on how to make the true meaning of the holiday really mean something to my Easter-egg-crazed son. He loves himself an Easter Egg Hunt, so we had to focus on how everything we believe in is all about Easter. Thankfully his school was all over that as well.

The Thursday before Good Friday I got an email from Mariana on how to tell the Easter story through a playdough mountain. So bright and early before I took Justin to school that morning we quickly put this together. We built our mountain and put it in the oven for several hours.



That night we painted our mountain and our stone.


My little artist was very intent on getting the job done correctly.


And I am pretty sure Jesus' tomb was blue, don't you?


And then on Easter Sunday the people rejoiced as the stone was rolled away and Jesus was now outside of the tomb.


I also heard about Resurrection Eggs the day before you were supposed to start them. These were hands down my favorite thing to do this Easter. Justin would run downstairs every morning in anticipation of opening the next egg to see the next part of the resurrection Story. He had a hard time remembering them in order or what they meant until I got "physical" with them. Justin is big on physical contact - one of his love languages. So when I would tell the story and poke him with the spear on his side, smash the crown of thorns on his head, etc. he started to really get into the story. The best was when we had 4 neighborhood kids over and they all wanted to play with the eggs. Instead they sat down while Miss Shannon told the story. Never has my house been so silent for 30 minutes with so many children inside of it. I hope they told their parents. :-)


On Good Friday I was in charge of our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. We hid dozens of eggs in the strangest places.


Which made it more fun for the kids.


Justin was chomping at the bit all morning to go and help mommy hide all the eggs. He was bummed he had to wait and come with daddy.


Then he got his face painted by one of the wonderful girls in the neighborhood.


Justin with Grace, Luke, Ellery, & Lily post hunt.


On Saturday my in-laws came up for the rest of the weekend. The boys were shooting hoops outside. Justin was showing the guys his ball when I grabbed my camera for a 3 generation shot.


3 generations of dimples!


Easter morning Justin ran down the stairs to see what was in his basket.


With his passion for monster trucks, I found this US Air Force one. Fitting since his Grandpa was in the Air Force for 20 years. I once again skirted around the fact that the Easter Bunny didn't really bring the presents. Kind of like Santa - just avoided it, enjoyed it, but made sure he understood what this was really all about.


So we weren't going to hide eggs outside because last year he wasn't into it and it was raining. So when we asked when the egg hunt was going to begin, Derek and I hid eggs on the front yard instead.


We were forced to get a little creative - like hiding eggs in the the handle of Grandpa's rental car.


The champion egg finder!


After a wonderful service at our church, we went to Grand Lux for brunch. We got some shots of the fam.


Since you never know if Easter is going to be cold or hot (in this case it was quite muggy), I decided to just rummage in Justin's closet this year. So no new Easter outfit for any of us Michaelis' - just like my family growing up, being in Galveston every year never warranted for a new outfit. In fact I might have repeated a few years in a row?


Smiley bunch


How many combos can we make


The whole crew


That afternoon I pulled out two years worth of cascarones (or confetti eggs). Justin had to figure out the texture at first. I knew it was coming but I still felt crazy when the egg smashed on my head.


We had lots of fun cleaning up afterwards.


Then it was Justin's turn to be the lacky.


I had fun the remaining confetti flying everywhere.


Derek was up next.


And then vice versa.


A wonderful Easter weekend with so much still to savor. Cheers to being thankful at the goodness of our God!