Time with Family and Friends

We were able to go yesterday to Barnwell and spend the day with Nana and Paba Benson. We had a blast! We went down for Jamie to help his dad with an irrigation system. Since I wasn't tutoring, we decided we would all go down and spend some time. Eli decided he was going to go out and help his daddy work in the ditch.   
I'm not sure how much he actually helped. We had to keep reminding him that the dirt was supposed to be outside of the ditch and not the inside.
While Jamie was digging one of the ditches, he found a frog that was inside the earth hibernating. He decided to give it to Eli and see what he would do with it.    Jamie put it in Eli's hand and Eli started looking at it. I think he thought it was a rock until it started moving. He then jumped and dropped it pretty quick. After that he wouldn't get too close to it. He did observe it for quite a while. He even named it Freddie the Frog.
Eli had a big time playing outside. He and his cousin Olivia  played in the sand right by the golf course. They were making birthday cakes out of sand with candles made of wood. Eli even at one time decided he would taste one of the candles. I don't think he liked the taste very much.  As you can see, Eli was quite dirty. He had chocolate cake on his face and then had lots of dirt mixed in. I don't know if he had ever been quite as dirty. But the way I see it, the dirtier you are, the more fun you must have had.

Today, we had another fun day. This morning Eli went to his first Easter Egg Hunt at the church.  He made a bag that had his name on it with a foam carrot and a foam rabbit and he used that to collect his eggs. They had "hid" over 300 eggs. Actually, the eggs were all over the grass so they weren't too hard for the little ones to find. Eli walked around and gathered up his eggs. We'll have to work on his speed for next year, though, because he let a lot of eggs get picked up by other kids because he was taking his time opening his bag. When he realized that all of the eggs were gone, he was quite upset. But one of the young women had spotted a really cool egg in the shape of a bunny hidden in the pine straw and she showed it to him and that made things better.   Katie didn't do much of anything other than hang out in her stroller while all of the excitement went on. After they gathered all of the eggs, they were able to do drawings on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk and had an egg race. Eli participated in the egg race. He didn't get far before it fell off his spoon, but it didn't break. I tried to get him to pick it up, but he made me finish the race for him. I did pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Some of Eli's cousins were at the Easter Egg Hunt and they all decorated their bags at the same table. They seemed to have a good time too.
After the outdoor activities, they ended with hot dogs in the cultural hall and then we all headed home.
When we got home we rested for a little bit and then made our way to our little friend Andrew's 1st birthday party. We had a great time visiting with everyone, especially Pee Paw Wood. We sure love spending time with our family and friends.