Beauty Casey and Daredevil Casey

In one of these pictures Casey is perched atop a child's rocking chair that belonged to me when I was a child. In the other picture she is watching us dye Easter eggs. She is both fearless and gorgeous!

Practicing Hiding and Finding Egss

Some friends of my mom's came over on Friday and introduced a new game which is sure to become a family tradition. Before Easter the children practice hiding/finding eggs. They take turns so they can all get experience hiding and finding. This kept Jacob and Zarni occupied for some time this afternoon!

Jacob's Eggs Before and After

This is the first Easter that Jacob has been able to truly direct his own egg dying. He got 6 eggs, and at first he died them simple, beautiful colors. But Jacob loves to mix colors. So after dying them once he put each one back into the colors and died them again. You can see the before and after in these photos. In the "after" photo the three smaller eggs are banti hen eggs that I died for Casey!

Dying the Easter Eggs

The top photograph is a picture of Casey holding the PAAS egg dye box. She's wearing the darling winter sweater that Brenda got for her when she was born. Sadly, we need it for Easter here in the chilly Northwest! The other pictures are of Jacob and Zarni dying the eggs. They both had a wonderful time!

St. Patty's Day Cuties

On St. Patrick's Day Casey and Jacob and I dressed in green and visited Josh at work with a platter of chocolate mint brownies. They were the cover recipe on Cooking Light and they were delicious! Jacob helped with every step! He is such a great chef! Later that day beauty Casey and I walked around outside. Here she is noticing the daffodils! Jacob has been making us laugh lately because he calls daffodils "dilly things." Spring is so great!

Family Trip to Fish City

Josh has been anxious to take us to the fresh water aquarium in Chatanooga. He visited it 15 years ago when it first opened. He said the aquarium didn't quit live up to his memories of it, but Jacob loved the sturgeon petting station, and in these pictures I put the lens of the camera right up to the glass and used its "underwater" setting. It looks indeed like my family is swimming with the fishes!

Family Trip to Rock City in Chatanooga

The trip to up to Rock City had some minor annoyances, including getting off the freeway too early, since there are signs to the tourist attractions at virtually every exit. Josh and I are definitely feeling "exurb exhaustion"---the tendency for every part of the country to have the exact same ugly stretches of chain stores! But after chasing a smoke emitting Volvo up the steep hill to the bluff that hosts Rock City we had a lovely walk. Rock City was created in 1930s by a woman named Frieda Carter who was into Dwarfs and Gnomes and other aspects of European folklore. She created a beautiful maze-like walk through a garden of giant boulders that ends in a cavern. In the cavern are various scenes from Mother Goose Nursry Rhymes, in a style that looks like 3D Disney animation from the 1930s and 1940s. It was extraordinarily satisfying! Also it was fun to be so high up on such a beautiful day! From the top of Rock City we could see seven different states!

Trip to Douglasville near Atlanta to See the Woljevachs

Kathy's oldest brother Donny came to Douglasville to visit his mom Donna, brother Frank, and brother Bob (and Kathy Gregson)! So four of the 7 Woljevach siblings were all gathered in one place for the weekend. We decided to come along, too, and Bob and Teresa were very kind to put us up in their beautiful home. We drove at the kids' bedtime on Thursday night, and then on Friday we hung out and Frank and Rhondas. In this first picture you can see Casey enjoying the chicken/noodle/red sauce bake that Kathy made for everyone. In the second picture Jacob is enjoying Frank's grandaughters, August (the older girl) and Xena (three years old---and can definitely hold her own with Jacob).

On Friday night we all had a brush with some severely random severe weather. Teresa, her daughter Vickie, and Vickie's 2 year old son Anthony were in a Krogers grocery store a few blocks away from Franks when the store was struck by a tornado! A local news channel is calling it a "super cell" but Teresa and Vickie saw the back of the Krogers pulling away from the rest of the store while they were in it! The storm also dragged a giant air conditioning unit across the top of the building and into the parking lot. Meanwhile, Casey and Bob and I were in Bob's truck, on our way back to Bob's house, at a stop light facing the Krogers, and we saw carts and cart holders spinning across the Kroger parking lot. I said, "wow that looks like a really big gust of wind." The "super cell" then moved past Frank's house with an intensity that sent Josh, Jacob and everyone else into the basement for safety. Here's the channel 11 report: http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=112591. And here's another website with photos. http://www.losinggeorgia.com/2008/03/08/pictures-of-storm-damage/

Casey Climbing In and Out of a Bowl

Last Playtime at the Bellvue Mall Play Pit

The Bellevue Mall is a dying mall about a 12 minute drive from our house. It had this very funky play area made of vinyl covered foam, perfect for the newest walker in our family. Sadly, the play area was closed an auctioned off in late February, so this was our farewell visit. As you can see, Casey is climbing on everything she can! Jacob did a great job of playing with his little sister---they like to chase each other and crack each other up in the car!