yay, first easter!

a few shots from our easter egg hunt @ church today:

please ignore mama's slip strap:

we had some family and friends over for lunch afterward, and had a really lovely time. what a great day. :)

-m.y.

babies, pick up your mallets.

magz & daddy lending MORE musicality to the arcade fire (the band playing in the background). our Christmas gifts to her were the xylophone, some fun maracas, and the pink radio/iphone dock up in the corner of the screen.

thanksgiving 1.0

during my Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers group last week, I got the inspiration to serve a thanksgiving meal to the kids that come to church on Wednesday night. they already get snacks and stuff, I just thought it would be incredibly appropriate to actually have a real meal. so on Sunday, we asked the church for donations and as of COB Monday we had a bunch of money and willing volunteers to help! here's a peek at how it went down:

group shot #1. they look so SERIOUS.

group shot #2. MUCH BETTER!

look at whitney's cute banner! I made the signs with beth c's help:

sara's explaning what's what. we had turkey, ham, pizza, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, mac & cheese, and broccoli-rice casserole, along with lots of fun desserts and drinks (including hot apple cider, which many of the kids were somewhat suspicious of). our guests were actually really good about trying some new things (even the apple cider!), and after we invited some of the adults from Cafe Grace over to have a bite we were still able to send a lot of food home with the kids:

we like these people a lot:

V.I.P. table:

the older kids (mostly) patiently waited for the little kids to go first:

my main cohort in thanksgiving crime. this girl was a huge help and is just a seriously lovely human being:

magz was with me @ the church for most of the day. she had her rough patches, but all's well that ends well. :)

I'm so glad we did this, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped! thanksgiving blessings!

-m.y.

belated halloween photoz

to begin, Marmee made Magz & Mo sweet sweet halloween dresses... we'll probably get to wear ours next year, too! thank you for the fun, pretty dress Marmee!

here are some photoz from our church's halloween event:

we had a really great turnout (estimates are over 300 people). I'm hoping this event continues to grow... it's one of the times our neighbors come in and say hello, and I'm eager for this entire area to make us a safe, fun trick or treating destination:

by the way, the baby's been able to hold her own bottle for a couple of weeks now:

and we took some family photos with the tripod/timer after church last Sunday for the calendar we grandkids give YaYa every Christmas... this was the last photo we took:

picture perfect. :)

-m.y.

BOO!

we were so 'boo!'ed last week! a knock at the door one evening revealed a 'boo!' on the door and halloween bucket with goodies, including this chic outfit any baby would love to ghoul and drool in. happy hallowed fun times from the Bells, and thanks to our boo-ers!!

be mine, valentine! but give me the stretchy pants because I'm going back for seconds.

valentine's weekend was absolutely fabulous this year. aside from the fact that the Browns were in town visiting and sleeping in our guest room, we had a great time feasting and playing with all sorts of friends. a common thread was my expanding waistline, and it had nothing to do with my growing little spaghetti squash (we're about 11 inches long at 22 weeks!). girls night started it off Friday with sushi - in preggo-speak, that was a seaweed salad and 2 orders of cucumber rolls - and dessert of chocolate fondue with goodies to be dipped and s'mores at Whit's. I lumbered home happy as a clam.

Saturday night we went to dinner at BT's house with some other friends and absolutely gorged ourselves on good food and great company. she'd prepared a sensational shrimp bisque to start, then we moved on to homemade crab cakes, then steamed mussels in a delicious broth with bread for dipping, then the main course of paella, scallop casserole, beet and citrus salad, and fruit. when I crawled into bed I could barely breathe.








we also came home with sweet valentine's cards and a gorgeous, longlonglong-stemmed rose courtesy of PRice, which made the ladies all feel so special. mine went into a gorgeous bunch of wildflowers given to us by the Browns. here's Bethy and I before church showing off our bumps and maternity wear (see, sister-in-law - your clothing is being used! and getting compliments, I might add!):



Sunday was officially V-day, so we took part in our annual Sweetheart Banquet at church, a celebration honoring our older members. it went off really well - the food all turned out great, and my little cupcakes ended up being gobbled up. they were supposed to be red velvet, but I didn't use quite enough red food coloring. oh well... they were really tasty, easy to make, and looked so pretty on the platter Aunt Paula gave me and YaYa's cake stand:




other snapshots taken:







I was trying to get clear photos of E & M playing, and finally gave up and embraced the energy and happiness of two little girls having a giggly blast:









as for Mr. Bell and I, we ended up going to the house to work for a bit, then going and price-shopping at the hardware store, then finally came home to share some sparkling water, pizza, and chocolate-pecan-covered granny smith apple whilst watching Castle and Mad Men. heady love-stuff, indeed.

s.w.a.k.

-m.y.