Happy Easter!

Finding their baskets

Easter really snuck up on me this year.  We were up to our heads in moving "stuff" and getting our odds and ends wrapped up in Knoxville.  I realized a couple days before Easter that I had nothing for baskets.  And since we were trying to eat up the food we already had, a ham and all the fixins were no where around the Gentry house.  Hmmmm I wonder if a pb&j would suffice?!?  The Easter Bunny found a way to get two baskets filled and I eventually made my way to the store to load up on food for a nice meal.
The girls found their baskets first thing and it's always fun for me to watch what peaks their interests first.  Grace went for the toys and band-aids in her basket first.  Yes, I said band-aids.  The girl LOVES a good band-aid and, in fact, she had 4 on her leg within the first five minutes of locating her basket!  Anna (who obviously is her mother's child) dove head first into the candy!  Toys, who needs toys when you have a basket full of sugar right in front of you.  I'm declaring her the world record holder for the fastest candy opener in her age bracket as well.  I've never seen anything like it.  She would have a chocolate egg (you know, the kind that's wrapped in foil and takes any adult a good couple of minutes to get to the dang thing) stripped and in her mouth faster than it took me to take 3 steps to get it out of her hand!  Anna honey, I feel the same way when a piece of chocolate is about to enter my mouth......gotta' have it!  Gotta' have it!  Gotta' have it!!  Am I hearing any gasps that I actually gave my girls sugar??  Yes, I DO put candy AND chocolate in their baskets.  Do I let them them sit around and eat it all day?  NO, but I do believe in the "all in moderation" philosophy.

Squinkies!

Chocolate!

We colored eggs and the girls did great this year!  Grace elected to have princess eggs which included stickers and jewels.  Oooooohhh!  As you can see from the pic below, Grace had a purple egg all done up and would've wrapped it in a blanket and carried it around if I would've let her.  I have no idea where she gets this kind of attachment from and am in no way alluding to a certain mole situation that may or may not have occurred in the past!

Coloring eggs

Adding princess stickers

The egg hunt was also a big hit this year.  Anna hit the ground running and, Grace, I'm sorry to tell you that she dominated her competition!  Once she discovered that some of the eggs had candy/chocolate in them, it was ON!!  Grace just ooohhhed and ahhhhed at the different colors of the eggs as she delicately put them in her basket.  It cracks me up how different these two are!

Ta Da!

Maybe I'll just take the stickers off.  :)

Time for the egg hunt!

We had had a nice dinner and wrapped up Easter 2012 on a sugar high.  It was great to take a break from the moving madness but, as you'll see in my upcoming posts, that didn't last for long!

Happy Easter!!  

Bon Voyage!

Prom pic

 Our neighbors, Lauren and Blake, asked us if we wanted to go to dinner one more time before we moved........um yes please!  Reasons to be excited:  1.  This involved a dinner out at a strange place people call a restaurant.  2.  No kids would be involved so we could take as long as we wanted to eat without fighting over who was and wasn't eating.  3.  It would be great to have some adult conversation while watching the NCAA tournament!
When we arrived at the restaurant, we were surprised with a going away party that included a room full of some of our faves!!  And to top it off, we had a little party room all to ourselves and our own TV to watch the games.  That's how we roll, people!
We had a blast and, at the end of the night, my face hurt from laughing so much!  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to those who came and we missed those who weren't able to make it!!  You all are far more than friends and quickly became our family away from home.  I'm so thankful for each and every one of you and am extremely blessed to have you in our lives!    

Girls Weekend in Gatlinburg

Someone is a little excited for the gaming to begin! 

 For four years now, the second Friday of the month is bunco night for a group of gals in our (I guess my old...sad!) neighborhood.  We decided to mix it up a bit for March and made plans to go to Gatlinburg for the weekend.  Did someone say girls only, relaxing, shopping, eating, and maybe a little wine!!  Yes, please!!  YIPPEE!!
We arrived Friday evening and I must say that I've never seen 8 women stock a fridge like we did!!  WHOA!  Don't forget we're all mothers and didn't want to "run out" of anything!!  WAHAHAHA!!! I'll save that pic for another time.
 If you haven't played Mad Gab, let me just say that you might be missing out on a little bit of FUN!  We laughed our butts off (some may have had to change pants due to the lack of bladder control that we've all developed since having kids!) and one team (who shall remain nameless) DOMINATED the competition!!  FUN night with A LOT of Maritza's infamous sangria consumed!
On Saturday, we did a little damage at the outlets followed by a trip to Sugarland Cellars Winery.  We took a tour, did some tasting, and came home with a wine glass to remember the weekend (not the wine.....blah!).  Victoria hooked us up with some fondue for dinner and which was followed by a dance party (don't ask.....this always seems to happen when we all get together!) and some more Mad Gab.  Another FUN night!

Shopping at the Pigeon Forge outlets

 This was the last get together I had with this group of ladies before we moved.  We have grown close over the years and always have a blast together!  How could I not miss a group of women who are so comfortable around each other that we tend to break out in spontaneous dance parties!!
What a great weekend filled with tons of laughs and an awesome group of chicks!  Don't forget to Skype during your next bunco night!

Tour at Sugarland Cellars Winery

A little tasting.....

and some more!

Fondue!

CHEERS!!

A little dancing.......

and a little more!  WAHAHA!

Our cabin

LOVE and miss these ladies!!

I'm Baaaaaack!

Has it really been almost 3 months since my last post?!?!  Oh the suspense all of my 5 readers must be in right now.  I'm sure you all (again all 5 of you) have been checking the blog daily biting your fingernails with anticipation, thinking maybe today is the day, and feeling like you're missing out on all the "exciting" posts that I tend to put up.  WAHAHAHA!!  Oh who am I kidding. 
As it turns out, A LOT has happened though:  a girls trip to Gatlinburg, Easter, we celebrated Matt's birthday, we were surprised with a "Bon Voyage" party, we sold our house and bought a new one (not necessarily in that order!), and are now living in Indiana!!  Yep, like I said, we've been a tad busy!
But now that I've finally taken the time to sit down and write up a post, the girls are both sleeping and I have at least 7,000 things I should be doing.  Soooo check back tomorrow and you'll find the most exciting, nail biting, informative post yet!  Not really buuuut at least I'll start getting caught up.  Until then my friends!

Buildin' "Thorts"

First lap!

Peeking!

 We had a lazy day last Sunday.  It was raining and we couldn't play outside.  Matt was working on my car so the girls and I were on lockdown and couldn't go anywhere to play.  We needed something fun to do sooooo why not build "thorts!"  Grace has always called it a "thort" instead of a fort and I can't quite get myself to correct her.  It's too cute and one of those things I'm holding onto since she seems to be growing at the speed of light.
I have to admit that a good fort IS a lot of fun!  We added some glow sticks, had snacks, and played in there for what felt like hours before Pete decided he needed to lay on one of the blankets and our "thort" came tumbling down!
Oh well.  Thorts are fun while they last!

Our "thort"

XOXOXO!!!

Getting started!

 Valentine's Day is a holiday that I've never made a big fuss about.......until I had the girls that is!  And this year Grace was ALL about it!  Have I mentioned that holidays are SO much fun because of those two, little boogers?!?!
I wanted to help Grace make handmade valentines this year.  She loves all things crafty so why not.  When I told her she would get to paint her hands, it was a no-brainer.  I had her reeled in immediately.  AND she got to put bedazzle them with as many stickers as she wanted.  DUH!  Ok, now I'm even excited!
She loved the hand painting and Anna even got in on the action with a little project that we haven't gotten quite finished yet.

Signing her valentines!

Adding some stickers!

 Tuesdays are our crazy days around here since Grace has preschool, I usually run 500 errands and try to get the house as clean as possible, pick her up from school, run a few more errands, take Grace to dance, and end up home around 7:00pm with some gourmet Chick-fil-et for dinner.  So needless to say since Valentine's Day fell on a Tuesday, I couldn't do any fun, themed dinners but I did manage to shape our orange rolls into hearts for breakfast!
Grace was beaming with excitement as we pulled up to school for her Valentine's Day party!  We were in charge of bringing a dessert and opted for heart-shaped red velvet cheesecake brownies annnnnd, yes, I ate half the pan before we left for the party.  If you saw that recipe on Pinterest, go ahead and get it pinned.  It received two thumbs up from this lady!!

AK got her own sticker page too!

Grace was smiling from ear to ear when I picked her up and she immediately started showing me all her valentines!  The girls got to dive into their goodies after school and they were on a sugar high for the next 3 hours!  WHOA!!
Matt came home with a stuffed animal for each of the girls and some goodies for his lovely wife.  Valentine's Day to some people might mean a nice, fancy dinner, champagne, roses, blah, blah, blah.  For Matt, it meant coming home to a wife in sweat pants, a kleenex stuffed up her nose due to the constant-never-ending nasal drip, Nyquil as my evening "cocktail", and a tremendous amount of snoring due to my blocked nasal passages.  Ahhhhhh love is in the air!!  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Red velvet cheesecake brownies!

Valentine's Day breakfast:  heart-shaped orange rolls!

SOOOO excited for her party!

Finished product!!

Finished product!

Valentine's Day goodies!

Sugar Overload!

CHEESE!!