Chris' parents, his sister Joanna, our niece Elizabeth (8) and nephew Drew (5) all drove down for a long Easter weekend. When they arrived Friday night we had a belated birthday celebration for Auntie Jojo. The kids were SO excited to be together as we hadn't seen them since Christmas! Thanks Auntie Jen for giving up your kids for the weekend. We loved having them here!
First order of business on Saturday was a trip to the Omaha Zoo. The weekend weather looked dismal all week and then took a turn for the better on Saturday. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day and had a great time.
It's always fun to snap pictures of these four together. Soon Baby James will be running along side them!
Elizabeth absolutely adores Olivia and loves to be just like her. Liv was a good sport about having a "mini-me" all weekend. Too cute for words aren't they?
Our brave explorers on the rope bridge in the jungle.
Joanna FINALLY understands why these fish make my skin crawl. Nightmares.
A picture of the whole "
famdamily" on the giant sun dial. We all enjoyed the glorious day and I wish I could have captured on film the JOY of watching Drew run around the zoo for 4-1/2 hours. He loved every single minute of it. Joanna and I counted 4 heads no less than a 100 times that day I'm sure! With an elementary teacher and a "mean lunch lady" on hand, they didn't get away with much!
hee hee.
No rest for the weary....as soon as we got home it was time to dye eggs! I screwed up and added vinegar to the pink tablet so we had rather
monochrome eggs this year. That's
ok, they turned out swell anyways with no major disasters. Later on Auntie Jojo had the kids make pom-
pon chicks which will show up later in the this post.
After MUCH needed showers, the 4 amigos hunkered down for some boob-tube time before bed. There sit the empty Easter baskets waiting for the bunny to come.
Drew had us all up by 6:45 to check out their loot. All four kids made a haul and were giddy with that "Easter high" all of us adults secretly miss.
Because of the nice weather, the Easter Bunny was able to hide eggs in the backyard while we all slept. Kids had a blast running around to find them all.
At one point they ventured into the neighbor's yard and started to pick up
their eggs, much to my
horror!!! Luckily we put them all back and no harm was done. Whew!
Checking out their loot....Look! That pink leg in the left corner is
Gramma Nancy! Way to take one for the team and partake in our 7 a.m. egg hunt
Gramma!!!!
Sunday was spectacular all around. These kids were literally outside from 7 am until about 9:30 pm. They were tired, dirty and full of sugar. Here they all sit on hunks of modeling clay. They needed to soften it up for
Auntie Jojo's next craft project....
...bird nests! Chris took them by the creek to gather twigs and once completed they nestled in their chicks from the night before. Drew
definitely wins "most original" this year. We decided that each nest represented their personalities
perfectly! Thanks for the fun project Jojo!
Tony got a bubble rocket in his basket and they had a great time launching it all afternoon. I love this action shot....and you can see Drew hollering in the background on the deck!
We finished out the day with a "suburban campfire". Complete with
s'mores. Now THIS is MY kind of camping!
What a lovely visit. We are all
still tired and my house is
mostly back together. Thank you for making the trip everyone...I know it was a long one, but it means
a lot to us having you visit our home.
One last shot of the
girlies giving each other manicures before bedtime. I believe everyone slept like a ROCK that night.
Chris' parents, his sister Joanna, our niece Elizabeth (8) and nephew Drew (5) all drove down for a long Easter weekend. When they arrived Friday night we had a belated birthday celebration for Auntie Jojo. The kids were SO excited to be together as we hadn't seen them since Christmas! Thanks Auntie Jen for giving up your kids for the weekend. We loved having them here!
First order of business on Saturday was a trip to the Omaha Zoo. The weekend weather looked dismal all week and then took a turn for the better on Saturday. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day and had a great time.
It's always fun to snap pictures of these four together. Soon Baby James will be running along side them!
Elizabeth absolutely adores Olivia and loves to be just like her. Liv was a good sport about having a "mini-me" all weekend. Too cute for words aren't they?
Our brave explorers on the rope bridge in the jungle.
Joanna FINALLY understands why these fish make my skin crawl. Nightmares.
A picture of the whole "famdamily" on the giant sun dial. We all enjoyed the glorious day and I wish I could have captured on film the JOY of watching Drew run around the zoo for 4-1/2 hours. He loved every single minute of it. Joanna and I counted 4 heads no less than a 100 times that day I'm sure! With an elementary teacher and a "mean lunch lady" on hand, they didn't get away with much! hee hee.
No rest for the weary....as soon as we got home it was time to dye eggs! I screwed up and added vinegar to the pink tablet so we had rather monochrome eggs this year. That's ok, they turned out swell anyways with no major disasters. Later on Auntie Jojo had the kids make pom-pon chicks which will show up later in the this post.
After MUCH needed showers, the 4 amigos hunkered down for some boob-tube time before bed. There sit the empty Easter baskets waiting for the bunny to come.
Drew had us all up by 6:45 to check out their loot. All four kids made a haul and were giddy with that "Easter high" all of us adults secretly miss.
Because of the nice weather, the Easter Bunny was able to hide eggs in the backyard while we all slept. Kids had a blast running around to find them all.
At one point they ventured into the neighbor's yard and started to pick up their eggs, much to my horror!!! Luckily we put them all back and no harm was done. Whew!
Checking out their loot....Look! That pink leg in the left corner is Gramma Nancy! Way to take one for the team and partake in our 7 a.m. egg hunt Gramma!!!!
Sunday was spectacular all around. These kids were literally outside from 7 am until about 9:30 pm. They were tired, dirty and full of sugar. Here they all sit on hunks of modeling clay. They needed to soften it up for Auntie Jojo's next craft project....
...bird nests! Chris took them by the creek to gather twigs and once completed they nestled in their chicks from the night before. Drew definitely wins "most original" this year. We decided that each nest represented their personalities perfectly! Thanks for the fun project Jojo!
Tony got a bubble rocket in his basket and they had a great time launching it all afternoon. I love this action shot....and you can see Drew hollering in the background on the deck!
We finished out the day with a "suburban campfire". Complete with s'mores. Now THIS is MY kind of camping!
What a lovely visit. We are all still tired and my house is mostly back together. Thank you for making the trip everyone...I know it was a long one, but it means a lot to us having you visit our home.
One last shot of the girlies giving each other manicures before bedtime. I believe everyone slept like a ROCK that night. 
7 comments:
Whoooaaa! Looks like a super great weekend with the Maras gang! Liv and Tony are sooo lucky to have such a crafty auntie like Jojo - very cool projects! Love the picture of Gramma Nancy's leg out in the early a.m. sunshine! Glad you all had fun...now gear up and get ready for your trip up to ER!!
Thanks Jo&Co. for such an awesome time! As I have said before, you guys are the best hosts EVER! Thanks for everything you did for us- My Bday party, all the YUMMO food, the T-shirt/shoes, and most of all the company! It was a great time!
I am having flashbacks about those fish-- EEEEKKKK!
Have a great rest of your week!
Auntie Jojo
Good times for all!!! Enjoyed the company & nice weather..I guess they had rain here. Drew talked about the trip all the way home..that is between sleepy winks...Thanks!! Love ya, Gma N
Looks like the Maras clan had a blast. Nice to see all of you guys together and having such fun. JoJo you look just like your Mom sitting around that fire having a great time and telling the kids some wonderful story about ?????????? Hope it was a scary story!! How many miles did you put in walking John at the zoo?
What a fun Easter...it was so much fun seeing all the kids having such a good time, they will remember these fun times forever!! Just wondering....did JoJo take that lovely fingernail polish off before going back to work on Tuesday??? THere couldn't be a Maras get together without a camp fire...what fun!!! Missed all of you.....
1998 called and they want their TV back. What?
What? You don't put vinegar in with the pink tablet? No wonder our pink eggs didn't turn out! We were wondering what happened. We don't remember seeing that on the instructions. We have to remember that tip for next year...
Thanks to the Maras family for that one!
The Laurienzo's
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