April Birthdays

We have a lot of April birthdays in our family! We start with Grammy's birthday.  Then, we have Aunt Lindsey and GranDan's birthdays.  Our big boy will be turning six in a few days.  Granny V's birthday is a couple days after that!  Zander patiently waits while we celebrate his family members and counts down the days until it's his special day.  Grammy picked ChickFila for her birthday dinner (just like a wonderful Grammy to pick a place where the kids can eat their favorite foods and play on an indoor slide afterward)!  We made sure to have cupcakes ready and sing nice and loud!;)

 Grandpa came to read to Zander's class on the Friday before Spring Break.  It was "Family Friday", and the kindergarten classes thought it would be fun to have our male family members come in and read to the classes.  He did such a great job and Zander was so excited to show off his Grandpa to his classmates!

Zander also had his class Easter egg hunt that Friday.  I was so excited to help with the hiding of the eggs and to watch Zander after he had gathered the eggs he found!  This is definitely one of the perks of working at the same school as your children!  We had to move the hunt indoors due to the rainy weather outdoors!

 Then, on Saturday morning, we loaded up our crew and headed to the mountains of Tennessee.  Specifically, we stayed in Sevierville and visited Seymour, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg while we were there!  My family used to take trips to these mountains regularly while I was growing up.  I was SOOOOO excited to introduce my boys to some of the places I loved as a little girl!  It is so crazy to have my own family and to be continuing traditions started thirty years ago!  We opted for no birthday party for our almost six year old this year.  Instead, we told him that this trip (specifically the day at Dollywood) was a way to celebrate his birthday as a family.  He absolutely loved every minute of it!! We will still celebrate our boy a few more times this month so he is definitely extending his birthday celebrations out as long as possible! ;)
First stop:  The Apple Barn..... we had Emerson with us (including Grammy and Grandpa) since Linds and Boom had prom to attend Saturday night.  The cousins loved spending the day together.  Lunch was delicious and walking around the Apple Barn property was just what these three little ones needed after a four hour car ride!

On Sunday, we headed to Seymour to see my mom's best friend.  Ramona has three girls that are the same age as Lindsey and me.  We grew up playing together since we were the age that our own kids are now.  This was the first time that our children met.  It was so fun to watch them playing together like we had done so many years ago!

 On Monday, we went to Dollywood!  Zander got to ride his first few roller coasters.  Maddox even got to ride one or two based on his current height!  We had the best day!!  The "big" kids got to ride some of the larger roller coasters while the little kids got to go on rides that were more kid friendly.  We watched a Birds of Prey show with live birds flying through the audience (mom loves the shows!) and got to eat yummy food throughout the park!  I think everyone had a great time!  We finished off the day with a train ride!

The bird over Dad's head in the picture below is named "Buzz".... how appropriate to take a picture?!;)

 On Tuesday (Lindsey's birthday), we went to Ober Gatlinburg.  I told my parents we had to do the alpine slide while we were in Tennessee!  The boys (including Zack) absolutely loved the alpine slide!  We will definitely be doing this again when we visit!  The boys also loved the tram ride up and down the mountain.  We ate dinner at the Old Mill Restaurant after nap time. 

We also fit in dyeing Easter eggs, a dinner at JT Hannahs, an evening in the hot tub at our house and bath time for the cousins!

We had the best time celebrating our April birthdays and soaking up all the views and experiences of the mountains.  I think I will always be a mountain girl (even if I was born near the beach).  The sight of the mountains against the sky, the sound of a flowing river, the smell of BBQ and the taste of apple fritters will always make me smile!  I hope our kids will love these trips as much as I did growing up!  The memories made this week (and in the past) are unforgettable!