YEARBOOK PORTRAITS 2019

We dressed them up before heading out to a party, Jay snapped some quick portraits in the backyard in front of the azaleas, and we submitted them for our "personal pages" in the kids 2018-2019 yearbook.

These are the ones we chose for their 2-page spread:

And these are the ones that didn't quite make the yearbook cut, but that we still love and want to record here!

VALENTINE'S DAY 2019

Sometimes the hugs are given freely, and sometimes she has to arm wrestle him into it...

I helped out with James' Valentine's party at school today and it was fun seeing him in his classroom with his friends. I truly love his homeroom teacher and am crossing my fingers that Cora gets her next year too!

(Designing his Valentines collection bag)

EASTER TRADITION

After missing last year due to our trip to Dallas, we were excited to celebrate Easter with the Kennedy crew again this year, in our usual tradition (lots of play time and some games, an Easter craft, an egg hunt, and of course plenty of yummy foods and tasty beers)!

Siblings together, then in order of age.

And then they were off like a flash, with the "big kids" grabbing everything in sight on their way to the backyard, leaving a plethora of eggs for Lauren to take her time collecting in the front yard.

(Why does he look like he's 12 in that photo?...)

(Working together to try and find some of the especially well hidden eggs that we told them were still out there, under their noses...)

Once her bucket overflowed, she improvised with her dress. And then it was time to enjoy some of their hard earned treats!

With the sun setting and Christina's new lights clicking on, we decided to hang out on the patio a bit and take some more photos...

...but we totally forgot to take a picture together Christina! Now we need an excuse to dress up and get together again soon :-)

CLOSET KINDLE

Give them an hour of Kindle time and you can bet they'll find a dark, quiet spot to play in the hopes that you'll forget about them and they can get more game time!

GROWING INTO JAMMIES

The kids found last year's Christmas footie pajamas and decided to match tonight (be still my heart - they know how I love a good matching PJ set!), and we were pleased to send Gramma a picture to show her that they've (almost) grown into them this year!

DONNER PASS

Since we didn't see snow in Yosemite yesterday and none of the sledding/tubing hills are open yet, we drove up to Donner Pass (7200ft elevation, right at the current snow line) to play along the side of the road. PawPaw had packed a sled, Grambot had packed lunch, and us Mississippi folks packed our best version of snow clothes (last minute purchases of cheap snow pants for the kids, their winter boots from last year, and our hiking gaiters turned snow gaiters for ourselves...) The kids had THE BEST time hiking around the snow covered hills, sledding down tiny slopes, building a snowman, and having a snowball fight with daddy. James lasted almost 3 hours (Cora retreated to PawPaw's warm truck after lunch) and it was totally worth the drive!

Hiding from daddy during the snowball fight... I turned around and got beamed in the face!

Sometimes they rode in tandem, sometimes Cora climbed up on James' back...

What's a snow day without a snow snack? NOTHING, if your name is Cora...

Lunch time!

Bummer when you fall off...

Another snowball fight...

Mama and Daddy's turn on the sled!

On the way home, we stopped at Donner Lake (to turn around) and took a few photos:

Another fun filled family adventure day!