Saturday, April 21, 2012

Good Friday Cragwall Celebration

Since we couldn't get together on Easter Sunday, the Cragwall family decided to get together on Good Friday to have a picnic and egg hunt. Jesse's parents picked up yummy barbque from a local place called "Dead End" and everyone else brought the extras - drinks, dessert, utensils, etc. We met at a park I had never been to called McPhee Park in Farragut. It was a really nice one - they use shredded tires instead of dirt and they even had a mixture of toddler playground equipment and older kid equipment. Ellie was excited to be able to play with her bigger cousin's - Taylor and Parker!
    We played for a bit before eating and then sat down for our meal together. Afterwards, the cousins did an egg hunt and had a blast finding them!
Grandmommy & Aunt Jamie singing a song Ellie really liked.
We played a little more and then opened special Easter presents from Grandmommy and Grandaddy. Each of the grandkids got some great treats - very thoughtful! It was a fun outing with the family. Definitely a great way to start the Easter
Opening Easter treats from Grandmommy & Grandaddy
Ellie enjoyed the egg hunt so much that she had to have a few more when we got home in our backyard.  She still goes straight for the treats inside the eggs!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Decorating Eggs

In preparation for Easter egg hunts, I picked up a egg dye kit from the store so Ellie and I could have an activity to do one night. Last year, she did this activity with Mimi and Pa. This year, it was just me! I made sure to have everything ready and Ellie helped me pour the vinegar, water and tablets in so we could watch the colors form and name each one. It was a lot more fun this year seeing her understand what we were doing. The only concept left for her to grasp is that eggs are breakable. She wanted to keep picking up the eggs with the spoon and then drop them back in the dye. Maybe next year...

Decorating them with stickers the next day - notice we are missing 2 (shattered shells from dropping them)

A little song for Daddy

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Spring Videos and Pics

Ellie & Callie


Making Banana Bread Together


Scary Spiders (the blind mosquitoes that are everywhere)

Scary Spider Search

The Denny Boys

One of our favorite things to do since living in our house in Knoxville has been to walk around the neighborhood at night. Usually, this consists of a long stop at the Denny's house, my best friend from FL that lives in my same neighborhood. She has 3 boys - Isaac, Micah and Thad (we call him Thadpole). Ellie LOVES spending time with them so we try to do so whenever we can. Becca's husband has to work many nights of the week in his job (athletic director at a private school) so we try to visit when we can for sanity and company. Recently, they made the decision to put their house up for sale due to having CRAPPY neighbors and they wanted to build. Their house sold in time for them to get the house they have been wanting. SO, we have been trying to spend as much time with them at their house before they moved. Here are some pics and video of them riding bikes (and Ellie and Thad trying).

Here are some pics from our attempt to get a picture of the four of them so we could document their ages and sizes before Becca moved. I put a couple of them on here so you could see how hilarious it was to try to get all 4 of them to look at the camera at the same time!

Quick Trip to Clarksville

I was excited to be able to go to my Army friend, Claire Teter's baby shower in Clarksville. There are a few ladies that I have kept in touch with after our time as active duty Army and one of my first friends was Claire. We met when Jesse and I were stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and came together to 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne. She was a rock for me while we lived there - we went through a deployment together, were in Officers Christian Fellowship together, and we worked out a lot while there in Zumba or just taking LONG walks. Ellie and I took a quick trip over so we could take some gifts for Baby Annie and surprise Claire. It had been in the works for a while and it was great to see her! Claire threw me a baby shower while we were at Ft Campbell and I couldn't wait to support her like she did for me. Ellie and another little boy, Sammy, helped Claire open her gifts and we all had a good time.
After the shower, I went to my old co-worker Carrie's house to stay for the night and we had a cookout with 2 of my other old co-worker's, Alexandria and Jasin, who are now married! We ate together and played games and laughed. It was wonderful to see them again. Ellie had a blast!
The next morning, Ellie and I drove back and stopped in Nashville to meet Poppi & Pippa (Bill & Cindy Mason) at Cracker Barrel for brunch so we could catch up with them. That helped me break up the trip. It was a fast trip, but great to see all of the people I crammed in to the short visit!

Ellie

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers