The Schmidgalls

The cherry blossoms are in bloom! (History reminder for the non-locals: Cherry blossom trees were a gift to the United States from Japan in 1912 to symbolize the friendship between the two countries. The bloom each spring for just a couple of weeks.)

We took a brief trip down to the tidal basin the other night and saw the blossoms. I love spring and it is so cool to live in a place where there is something to commemorate the season every year.

Ellie was impressed too!

We were exhausted after a day of egg-leading. We still had to get everything together for Sunday morning kids church and family Easter dinner. We mixed things up to give the kids a new challenge at our family hunt. Each kid got their own color and could only hunt those eggs. There was a puzzle inside for whoever finished their puzzle first was the winner.

Kids on the prowl!

Can you believe Parker is this TALL?

Working on the puzzle

Ella hosted the kids table for dinner

Daddy and Ellie were wiped! They didn’t even make it upstairs for bed!

Happy Easter!

We hurried home from Colorado to put the final touches on our huge Easter outreach! This year was our SEVENTH annual Easter Eggstravaganza! We actually did TWO hunts this year - our usual hunt on Capitol Hill and an additional event in Virginia!

The first hunt (VA) was freeezing! Ella came with Aunt Lora and was not sure why we had her outside in such weather.

Aunt Amanda finished setting the eggs! (As you can see, it is actually more of an egg “race” than a hunt.)

“Explain to me again what I do?”

“Oh yeah guys, this is a blast. Brrrr!!!”

The Capitol Hill hunt a few hours later was much warmer. Ella came ready to hunt.

Ready to go!

“I have the hang of it now!”

“That was fun! Let’s take them back out now!”

“Look Summer! I got some too!”

Fun for the whole family!

We had a blast visiting family in Colorado. After a few days of wedding planning with my cousin Rachel, we went up to Estes Park so I could meet up with my staff for a planning retreat. Ellie played with Mimmy and the family while I was away and she learned plenty of new tricks. She now loves doughnuts, knows the sign for “refridgerator” (not sure when that will come in handy, but it’s cute!), and discovered ketchup. My sister better expect some payback when she has kids!

Our first day in town, my Aunt Carol (known as “Button” to all the kids) introduced Ellie to doughnuts. We eventually had to hide them from her!

We took her swimming in the hotel pool and she learned the word “hot” when she put her feet in the hot tub. Now that she is starting to understand temperature, she asks “hot?” every time I hand her food. “Ot?”

We went trying on bridesmaids dresses with Rachel. Ella made many new friends. (Notice that her hair now goes into pigtails! Yahoo!)

Ella found many ways to entertain herself. The tissue paper stuffing in purses is a blast! (Pigtails already missing)

Estes Park is where Rocky Mountain National Park is located. As we drove in (during a snow storm - oy!), we saw a bunch of elk on the side of the road. Ellie yelled, “Dot! dot!” (dog, dog).

It was hard to be away from Ella for a few days but I enjoyed being with the team. We had meetings, competitions, games…and LOTS of food! We work in a pretty stressful environment so it was fun to get away together. (My girls are in the front row, next to me. Kristen and Jessie keep me laughing!)

On our final day, we served together at a homeless shelter and then had some staff bonding time playing paintball!

Brian, Kristen, Sarah - scrub a dub

Kristen and my boss, Guy. Krissy looks fierce with her gun! The best game was the all-girls game. Kristen and I made it to the tower and unloaded! (If you are wondering if it hurt, the answer is yes!)

My reunion with Ella was so sweet. She just clung to me! She is learning so many new words! Just this week she added apple, outside, hot, Elmo. HUGE thanks to my mom and family for taking such good care of her! We miss everyone already!

Another visit with little Bo before we left town. Mmmmm…heaven!  Ella kept looking at him and shouting “day-day!” (baby)

“Daddy, your beard tickles!”

Sorry we have been away so long! I went to Colorado for work and took Ellie along with me. My mom met us in Colorado to hang with Ellie while I was with the staff. We were able to get family time too!

Since I knew I would have to cart Ellie and all of our stuff by myself, it wasn’t an option to drag my big ole’ camera. Just before I left, I ran by Target and was able to get a point-and-shoot on clearance! It was down to $85 and they had to sell me the display so I got it for $60-something! The pics are nothing to brag about but what a deal!

Okay, so to take a walk through our past few weeks… Joel and I are leading a couples small group this semester and we did a family bowling trip. Ella bowled for the first time! I don’t know how much fun it was for her since we wouldn’t let her run down the alley. Mean Mommy and Daddy!

“Which ball is mine, Daddy?”

“Now what, Mommy?”

(Note: Any fame I might have gained from our last small group bowling outing was not to be repeated. Boooo!)

Since she learned to walk, Ellie has loved to cover her head and play walking peek-a-boo. For her own safety, we should really put a stop to it. But we laugh so hard we just can’t help ourselves! She covers her head with blankets, dish towels, um…dirty clothes (I know!) and stumbles around the house running into things and giggling her head off.We caught her in action the other night after she swiped my dish towel.

“Wheeeeere’s Ella?”

“Am I funny Mama? Am I?”

She stumbled off toward the other room…and we just laughed and laughed!

“Here I am!”

Our good friends, Laura and Trevor (and little Taylor!) welcomed a little boy into their family this week! Laura and I went to college together and moved out here after graduating - two California girls coming east to work for Congress. Who would have guessed we would both fall in love, get married, and start families here?

Bo Lawrence was born March 2nd at 10:50am. He was 7lbs, 5 ounces and 20 inches long. He has the same gorgeous little cheeks as his sister. He had to go under the lights for a bit, hence my pics. I found it a bit funny that I met him while he was tanning. That is probably how I met his mama too! Sitting outside, soaking up the southern California rays, pretending to study!