Chopsticks Times 6: April 2021

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Good Friends

Katherine and Emily hit it off right away 4 years ago when we were in Chattanooga. They have kept in touch and when Emily's birthday fell around spring break, the girls had a birthday party sleepover! Emily and her mom picked up Katherine after Benjamin's party and they ate like queens. It started with dinner at her grandparents house (while they drove around on the golf cart her grandfather made ribs). Other meals included a Japanese steak place and Arby's.

They also went craft shopping and made these cute little flowers in a jar.

Oh, they also wen rock climbing....they just did so many of Katherine's favorite things :)

This girl could do this every day!

Scout helping with the laundry

I decided to lay down on the couch for a minute and the crazy dog yawned so big when I was trying to take his picture.

Regan and I got our Covid vaccines. I was instructed by her grandfather that it requires an ice cream for her.

Regan received her proof copy of her book!! It is now officially published!! So excited for her and proud of her!

Never Too Old

They are never too old to dye Easter eggs :)

They have so much fun doing things together.

Selfie

Benjamin-likes the bold colors

Hudson (the gloves are a genius idea...no blue and pink fingers for church)

Lauren...always my fan of yellow

Regan...loves her tye dye

Katherine-her rainbow egg

Katherine also did the hatching chick egg

Easter morning...I couldn't resist the bunnies.

Lauren was a little disappointed that her Peeps had no eyes

That's a lot of eggs to hide!

Searching for eggs

Hudson is getting better at finding and hiding eggs this year.

Almost got everyone in the same picture! We had 2 lost eggs that got hidden a little too well. We found the last one a couple of days later.

Benjamin's 16th

Benjamin had birthday party with some of his friends. He asked me for a "gamer cake" but no consoles, remotes, not a Fortnite cake and he likes the color purple. What do I do with that?! :) This is the best I could come up under such stipulations of a 16 year old. I had to look up logos for some of his favorite games and tried put them on the cake. So because this is not my thing and I have no clue about most of these games and for the future when I definitely won't remember...Fortnite, Ark, Minecraft, and Sea of Thieves.

I didn't see the boys much, but snuck a few pictures for myself. They decided to do some wood burning.

Cool picture frame

This was my favorite shirt for him..."Please Don't Make Me Do Stuff"

cards

One of Mamaw's fun money gifts..."In Case of Emergency Break the Glass" I can't believe that his money is still inside it! I should try that with all of his money! :)

so appropriate

Just the boys

Regan and Lauren worked on this sign for Benjamin. I thought it turned out nicely.

Benjamin liked helping decorate and get ready for his friends.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Gatlinburg Surprise Party!

We managed to pull off the surprise! My brother's family drove up from Atlanta to surprise Benjamin for his 16th birthday. Here they are walking in (behind Katherine) to eat lunch with us at 3:30 (super long wait to get in)

Benjamin was completely confused!

Then super excited! He is very close to his cousins!

They even brought a birthday cake all the way from Atlanta!!

Look at all of those smiles

They couldn't wait for him to open his gifts. Peyton got him a new controller for his Xbox.

And they all got him this puppet...it was hilarious! Tyler got him some Yugioh cards.

We hid a present in the car for him...a pizza blanket! Is this why he's alsways hungry at night? hmmm

Cute puppy cake...and YUMMY!

Say cheese!

We stayed one night in a hotel in Gatlinburg. WE were so surprised when we walked into our room! It was HUGE! It has a full kitchen, dining room, living room, fireplace, movies...