Well, here's another picture of Anna Kate's eye. It's cleared up now, except for a little shadow underneath, which is taking a long time to go away. 

 Since our last post, over a month ago, we've been doing one thing and another. 

We hosted our first Vision Dinner to share with the Capital Region community about our ministry.

We closed out the semester with our students - honoring graduating seniors and enjoying some great fellowship at our end-of-year bbq.

I can never resist sweet sleeping pictures. I think this is how we all have felt: tuckered out.

 It finally warmed up again, so we were able to enjoy the outside and popsicles!

I even got some gardening done in my yard!

Now, we're in Wildwood, New Jersey, for Summer Project. We've been here almost 2 weeks, and nearly 60 students arrived yesterday.  

Oh no!

On Sunday, we were at friends' house with our small group. 

Well, actually, I was there without Dave and Samantha because she was sick. 

Anna Kate came running in the house. She had run into Lucy's forehead at a full speed run.
We tracking the look for you!

At first, it was swollen, very swollen.

 Monday morning before school, it was essentially swollen closed (although Anna Kate was happy to show me that she could open her eye a little). And a vibrant purple color. She came home from school that day with an eye that matched her purple shirt.

On Wednesday, not only did the color stand out, it was still swollen closed.

This is Saturday, almost one week later.

Her eye opened up on Friday, to reveal a big broken blood vessel (ick)

And it is still quite a color!

Dying Easter Eggs

After finding Easter baskets and eating Easter brunch, it was time to dye eggs!

 Will was content to keep dying the same egg over and over!

Easter 2012

What a great Easter!

We decided to make it to the early Easter service at 8:30, so that we could then look for Easter baskets, enjoy Easter brunch, and dye eggs before Easter dinner. It was wonderful! 

The girls had been commenting about how easy it was to find their baskets last year, so the challenge was on for good hiding places! I think we succeeded! 

Will was on the look. . .. . 

With a little help from Daddy, he discovered his basket in the office (clean) trash can.

 And he dug right in. . . .

Lucy paused to think about it . . . .

Anna Kate scurried about, without much luck.

In an effort to help one another, sisters consulted . . . .

They were all found!

And as promised, we went outside to *try* to get a few photos

The dresses sent with love from El Paso are perfect . . . .

Will had completely destroyed his shirt with the chocolate from his Easter basket 

before pictures even started!

Anna Kate wanted to show off her earrings from Gramma Maggy . . . .

An afternoon with Abby

We had so much fun with Abby one afternoon! She came over after her nap and stayed through dinner. She and Will are only a month apart.

While they were having their snack, he would growl or make his fake belly laugh, 

and Abby would crack up! 

Aunt Hillery visited

Of course, we went to the museum during Aunt Hillery's visit. We rode the carousel twice! So fun!

We picked up Anna Kate from school and headed downtown.

 This might be one of my favorites! 

The weather was amazing while Hill was here. So after the museum, we went out to the plaza and really enjoyed ourselves! 

As you can see from these next 4 pictures, the kids were having a ton of fun climbing on the marble slope outside the Egg. Be still my heart! With that ledge at their feet, I was sure we would not leave that spot without tears and blood.

 But we did!

And so we walked on. Here's Hill outside the Capitol Building. Frankly, I was more interested in their faces than the building, which I can see all the time. 

While Hillery was in Albany, Dave was in Florida. So, we were busy! We might not have lots of pictures but we hit all the hot spots - eating Fountain Pizza, buying New York apples (at the store this time of year), walking around the neighborhood, Hill had dates with all the girls! And I even squeezed some teaching tips from her while she was here! What a blessing to have her all to ourselves. We hope it's a trend that we see more and more!