Easter Sunday

With Matt sleeping off a night shift, I was on my own with the kids for much of the day.  Here’s what we did:

6am: Henry wakes me up with, “Jesus is raised, Mommy!”  To which I reply, “He is risen indeed, Henry.  Don’t you want to come snuggle before going downstairs?”  No such luck.  We go downstairs and start making Resurrection rolls together.  Somewhere along the way Lucy wakes up and joins us. 

8am: Time to dye eggs!  Poor Lucy was left out of this one entirely (though she was sitting right with us).  Even Henry didn’t have much to do with the process after he “gently” dropped the eggs into the dye and cracked several of them.  But he thought he was helping and was fascinated. 

10am: Easter baskets.  The kids were restless and it was already approaching 80 degrees outside, so we decided to move the party outside.  I didn’t have time to do riddles, so I just settled for trying to surprise both kids with their baskets while getting them outside at the same time.  Amazingly, it worked.  It helped that Henry snuck out the back door while I wasn’t looking and Lucy was so preoccupied with climbing down the porch steps that neither of them noticed what I was holding.

It’s such a beautiful day and you two look so cute, don’t you think we should get a picture? 

All right fine, maybe later. 

The rest of the morning we spent playing in the backyard, talking to the Flemings on skype, and just enjoying a peaceful and beautiful day outside. 

3:30pm A storm was rapidly approaching, so we hurriedly did an egg hunt for the kids in the yard (Matt was up to make this happen). 

4pm: Dinner!  I got the smallest ham I could find in the store, but we barely made a dent in it.  Hope everyone around here likes ham, because I think we’ll be eating it all week. 

6pm: Mass.  We were there early, so I tried again to get a shot of the kids, now dressed up for church (minus a lost bowtie and tucked in shirt). 

Oh well.  Home again after Mass for strawberry shortcake and pajamas.  Lights out, everyone!  And a very Happy Easter to all of you!

The “Almost Easter” edition

We love having an early Spring/Summer here in Virginia.  Our tulips are blooming and beautiful right now.  We’ve had a good balance of rain and sun, so the grass is thick and green and delightful.  With Matt in school all day on Saturdays, I’m trying to learn how to mow the lawn.  Apparently my skills could use some refinement, but at least I’m trying.  In the garden: the carrot seeds are doing very well, I have ONE zucchini seed that didn’t get stolen by the birds, and my herbs are starting to sprout.  Hopefully this week I’ll get a chance to add a few more plants/seeds to our plot of vegetation. 

We’ve been babysitting for some friends lately. This is Henry with his buddy Lola. We’ll miss her when she moves to Nigeria at the end of the summer!

The kids met the Easter Bunny this weekend. I’m sure I’ve never mentioned the Easter Bunny before, so I think there was some confusion. But they were good sports about it and didn’t fuss.

We’ve been doing our best to prepare for Easter.  I’m not brave enough to take the kids to any of the Triduum services (especially not by myself), so we’ve been listening to them on the radio (hooray for Catholic radio!) and talking about the story using the Stations of the Cross eggs my friend Lacy came up with.  Go check them out at her blog (CatholicIcing.com)!  Henry can tell me what all the symbols are for, and in so doing can tell me what happened on Good Friday.  This morning he was eating breakfast and saw the Lenten calendar on our wall (also from Lacy) and he told me, “Mommy, Jesus is almost out of the tomb!” 

And of course, our reluctant walker is finally figuring out what her legs are for.   At least, this is the first time I’ve been able to convince her to do it while I had the camera out. 

How does your garden grow?

Well, the garden has been started.  The previous owners just happened to leave this fencing and posts in the shed, so we have a little bit of a barrier.  I told Henry it’s to keep the rabbits out.  I have a feeling there is more danger from the intruders of the toddler variety, however.  Hopefully at least something will grow!  We’ll keep you posted. 

This stroller got a makeover this week.  Bye-bye princess stroller, hello boy stroller.