Easter 2009

Although Easter was a week and a half ago, I wanted to share some pictures of the girls from the day:

Besides church, Easter morning means candy! Like all kids, the girls were eager to discover what the Easter Bunny had put into their baskets. This year, there was more than just chocolate & jelly beans... he included sunglasses, too!

Of course, the kids were called upon to sing for the Easter service. This is how we saw Caroline coming down the aisle; she said that she liked her new sunglasses so much that she wanted to keep them on during church, too!

I didn't know what to make of this look, but Chris said that it okay because it suited her. Even the youth leader, when I asked her why she didn't make her remove them, said "That's just Caroline!" Indeed!

I can tell Jordi's growing up because she wasn't shy at all in front of the congregation, especially here, during singing & dancing to one of my personal favorites, "Lord of the Dance"!

Although the weather was cool & breezy, there was lots of sunshine on Easter Sunday. Filtering through the leaves, it made for pretty lighting for our cousins picture: Emily Ford (age 12), Jordi, Caroline, & Richard Ford (age 14).

Ballet Recital Pictures

In anticipation of next month's annual June Conn recital, the ballet dancers had their pictures taken last weekend. This is always a fun (albeit hectic!) day, but even more so this year as it was Caroline's first time!

Isn't she lovely in her ballet costume, hair-do, and make-up? The ballet this year is "The Four Seasons," and Caroline's class are "Summer Daisies." This was quite a milestone for our little one - she really enjoyed being dressed up like her sister & all the other "big" girls!

Jordi & her classmates are Ladybugs. These costumes are perfectly suited for this spirited group of girls - bright & sassy! This picture was taken by my good friend, Bev; her daughter, Emily, is next to Jordi on the right. She always has her camera with her and always takes lots of great pictures. Thanks again, Bev, for another great photo!

Daffodils 2009

Each year, for a couple weeks in late March/early April, one side of our park is a carpet of yellow & white daffodils. It's become one of my favorite harbingers of spring! So, before we left for our trip to Louisiana, Nana took the girls down there to take some pictures amongst the pretty flowers:





Aren't they cute? I look forward to it every year!

Louisiana Pics Now Online

I don't have time for a proper posting tonight, but if you'd like to see all the rest of the pictures from our Louisiana trip, click here to view them on Shutterfly. There's quite a few, so go grab a coffee & enjoy!

Day Four, Part One: Hello, Nottoway!

Deb's wedding wasn't until Saturday evening, so we had plenty of time to get ready during the day before leaving Slidell. This was a good thing, since all us girls had quite a lot of primping to do!

I think that, besides wearing high-heeled shoes, what the girls were most excited about was getting to wear nail polish on their fingers & toes. Luckily for me, cousin Emily (age 14) was willing to jump in and get the job done. She was even kind enough to let the girls choose their polishes from her own personal supply. Painting those teeny-tiny nails, not to mention getting them to sit still for the requisite drying time, is not as simple as you might think, but Emily hung in there and did a great job!

The wedding was held at Nottoway, the largest remaining antebellum plantation in the South. Here's Jordi, posing on one of the two curved granite staircases leading up to the front entrance. (Please note that my pictures do not do justice to the grandeur & elegance of this historical place. If you weren't there to see it for yourself, I encourage you to click on the link to their website to get a better feel for the tremendous scope of history & beauty to be found there!)

This was the view from our room. That's right, we stayed in one of the rooms in the mansion! It was so elegant and incredible, like stepping back in time!

Here's Caroline, enjoying the balcony outside our room. Access to this balcony was through the floor-to-ceiling window - the bottom sash raises up high enough so that you can just walk right through to the outside! Ingenious!

We took this picture Sunday morning while standing atop the levee separating the Mississippi River from the plantation. Even in the morning dampness and fog, it's still beautiful!

Up next, pictures from the ceremony & reception!

Day Three, Part Two

After our morning in New Orleans, we travelled to cousin Patti's house in Slidell. She & her family were nice enough to offer us a place to stay and visit with them on the day before the wedding.

Here's Donna & Patti on Patti's awesome front porch. It had been quite a while since we seen the Oakman clan. In fact, the last time we were all together was for another wedding - when Chris & I got married in 2002!

The girls seemed to really enjoy meeting & spending time with their second cousins. Here's a picture of Chris (age 12) helping Caroline get online to play some games on nickjr.com.

Grandma Henri & Aunt Edie even came over for awhile to make it even more of a family reunion! It was great to be able to spend time catching up with everyone. But this was just a warm-up for the big event - next up, pictures from the wedding day!

Day Three, Part One

Friday morning, we got out early to enjoy our last few hours in the Big Easy before heading to Slidell to visit Cousin Patti & her family.

I took this picture of the girls in the lobby of our hotel (which was the JW Sheraton, by the way.) This was only one of four murals in a little circular lobby on the way to the Canal Street entrance.

Instead of walking, we decided to take an alternate mode of transportation back to Cafe Du Monde. The girls were very excited about riding on the red trolley!

Mmmm... beignets! Even though we'd just had some for dessert about 12 hours earlier, they were just as delicious for breakfast!

Here are the girls, posing in Jackson Square, a very picturesque & historic park right across from Cafe Du Monde.

This square is surrounded by artists selling their wares. (It was only about 9 am when we were there, and it was already about half full!) I ended up purchasing one of the small square trolley car paintings from this artist to commemorate our time in New Orleans!

After this, we checked out of our hotel and drove to Cousin Patti's house. Check out our visit in "Day Three, Part Two," coming up next!

Day Two: Arriving in New Orleans

We started Day 2 of our trip in Birmingham, Alabama. After getting up early and enjoying a dip in the hotel pool, we were ready to get going. On our way out of town, we found a great place to eat breakfast:

The Original Pancake House! The food was fantastic; Chris had buckwheat pancakes, I had a Dutch Baby, and the girls split an order of peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes. Yummy!

This is how the girls spend the bulk of their time in the car on our second day: watching DVDs of their favorite cartoons. We only had about five hours to go to reach our destination..

New Orleans! Here we are on Canal Street, just outside of our hotel. We were on our way to the French Quarter for dinner. Our concierge recommended, Remoulade, a casual Cajun restaurant on Bourbon Street, so that's where we went. I had Jambalaya and Chris tried the Natchitoches Meat Pies - both were great!

We ended our evening - where else? - Cafe Du Monde for some of their famous beignets & cafe au lait.

If you've never had a beignet, this picture of Jordi is an excellent depiction of how wonderful they are. What a great way to end a great day!

Day One: We're Off to Louisiana!

For about six months, we've been planning a trip to Louisiana for my cousin Deb's wedding. So, we left home after work on Wednesday, headed for Dixie!


As we planned on being in the car for about 8 hours, we planned ahead and put the girls in the pajamas from the get-go. Chris set up the van with pillows, stuffed animals, and DVD players; don't they look comfy?

I took this picture about 10 pm. They're out cold! They slept soundly until we arrived at our first pit stop, Birmingham, Alabama, at about 1 in the morning.