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So I’ve never looked forward to getting the kids dressed up nicely, driving to some studio and then spending the next hour attempted to get all five of us looking our best while a photographer charges us hundreds of dollars for a semi-decent picture of our family. That explains the near absence of family photos for us except for the rare gem when we happen to be out with somebody that can take a quick snap of us.

This weekend Holly wanted the kids to do crafts so we all moved to the toy room and picked a craft to do. I thought it would be cute to print a picture of our heads, cut it out and draw the rest of the picture. I was making this up as I went, but in the end, I decided that this will be our 2010 family picture

On Saturday morning we decided to celebrate the beautiful weather by joining our neighbors and the Lauers at Carter Mountain Orchard. The orchard just opened on Friday and they were having a “Spring Fling” celebration. I’ve always loved this orchard and its great views of Charlottesville (the site is on an adjacent peak to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home). The festival had hayrides, booths, fresh donuts, face painting, and apples! We didn’t really stay that long as it was pretty windy up there, but the kids seemed to enjoy it! Anyways, we’ve posted some pictures on our Flickr in our Carter Mountain Orchard Spring Fling Set and Anna, the Lauer boys, and our neighbor Millie were also featured in some official photos Carter Mountain posted to their Facebook site. I definitely recommend a family trip to his orchard and bring your camera! They have an observation deck and on a couple Saturdays that I’ve been, they’ve offered the hay ride. When in season, their nectarines are unbelievable and last summer, I took Ben there to do some apple picking. I hear they have a decent winery next door too, but I’ve never been yet! Maybe later this summer.

The other day Holly noticed Anna playing with the kitties in the front yard and decided to grab the camera. She took about 40 pictures and I posted some of the best ones to our Flickr page. I’ll never get over how photogenic Anna can be at any time. I just wanted to share these because they look excellent! By the way, we’ve found good homes for all of those kitties!

It’s Sunday morning now and I’ve just finished up a few indoor cleaning tasks from my to-do list and I’m now looking at another beautiful day forming outside and wondering if I can even compete with yesterday:

7:30am (that’s right, 7-thirty) wake up (be sad that Anna is spent the night at our neighbors)

Lewis and Ben – Target to buy Ben a bike and t-ball set / Holly and Gwen – groceries

Lowe’s – buy a rake

The Corner Store (greenhouse) – buy strawberry plants for Lori’s gift

Pick up Anna, Amelia and Carter

Holly – make Lori’s gift

Lewis – assemble t-ball set and bicycle

Lewis – take pictures of Anna and Amelia playing with the kitties

Lewis – go shopping for parts to fix lawn mower and more food for the planned fireside dinner

Holly – make lunch for five hungry kids, put Gwen to bed, bring Carter home

Lewis – have a sandwich and give the lawnmower an oil change and fix a blown fuse

Lewis – give the lawn its first mowing

Holly – get in some weed-eating

Have Nathan over for awhile to play

Everybody – take a bike ride/ walk to deliver Lori’s birthday present

Deliver Lori’s present, watch the kids sing her happy birthday

Watch Ben struggle to ride his bike up the Cottonwood hill (he went down it so easily?)

Deal with a crying little girl

Holly – make pasta salad and prepare strawberries for dinner

Lewis – make homemade whip cream for dinner

Showers and getting dressed

Dinner at Jim and Trista’s by the fire

Kids hit the hot tub

S’mores

Carry kids home, put them and ourselves to bed