Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter Weekend 2012

First of all, apologies on the photo quality. Picasa has made some changes and, consequently my edited photos are not the ones appearing on my blog. I still have SO much to learn!

Regardless, last weekend was Easter.  After Eli's basketball game, Ruby, Eli, and I went to a Maudy Thursday service at our new church.  It was a bit unusual, but the more I thought about it, it was quite amazing.  We began with a huge feast and fellowship time and continued into a quiet reading of what happened to Jesus that night.  It was interesting to go from a celebration to a somber rememberance, but I image it is the same type of range of emotion the apostiles felt that evening.  Ruby really seemed to be understanding to sadness behind Good Friday this year. 

Friday morning we made the drive up to my mom's house for lunch and an egg hunt.  There were SEVEN children this year.  I was amazed at how "in to it" David was at nearly two years old (especially once he found out there was candy inside those eggs!).



Saturday morning we made it to our city's annual egg hunt, although, temperments being what they were, I'm almost sorry we did.



As the hunt began, the fire engine turned on its siren.  At that point, Dave could focus on nothing but finding out what that sound was!  Luckily for David, Eli was too big for the egg hunt this year (tear!) and "helped" him get several eggs and packs of M&Ms.

I love taking photos of their Easter baskets before I hide them.  It helps me remember what they were "in to" from year to year.  As you can see, for David, it was quite the Sesame street Easter!


Getting everyone clean, dressed, and off to church is a challenge on an average Sunday.  On Easter, it's almost a nightmare.  I made have had a mini-meltdown when I discovered that David's only pair of kacki pants had a huge blue stain on them.  In the end, though, everyone left the house looking fantastic and I even had time to shoot a couple photos.

My Grandmother always attends Christmas Eve & Easter services with us.  While Jason was attempting to get her out of the building, I got one more shot of all the kiddos together by the Easter lillies.

For lunch we met up with my aunt, uncle and cousin from Zionsville at a local hotel.  There was a nice buffet and plenty of treats given to my children.  The boys got eyeball balls from Aunt Sharon and David had a great time throwing his eyeball and then "eating" it.  Yep, nothing says Easter like eyeballs!

After all this excitement, the boys headed home for a nap while the girls went to go fly a kite!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Lazy Parent & the kite

OK, I'll admit it.  Sometimes I can be a lazy parent.  There are just some things that, when the kids ask, I picture how energy-zapping they are going to be and I say, "Maybe some time." (which is, of course, code word for never).  Taking them to fly kites has been one of those things....

Insert Ruby's kindergarten teacher.  Let me start by saying that Ruby has the best teacher on the planet.  Seriously!  Every month she sends home a homework calendar with the whole month's homework on it, which I totally love!  Most of the ideas are academic, but some of them are things that I would call "citizenship" things, like setting the table or cleaning your room (I told you she was the greatest teacher ever!).

And then, April's must anticipated calendar comes home and one of the items is to fly a kite.  And we have to do it.  It's homework! (Have I mentioned I was a teacher in my former life?  Yea, I can get a little it's-the-end-of-the-world-if-you-don't-do-it about homework.)

So, what would any "good" mother do?  I bought her a kite.  For Easter.  And took her to fly it that afternoon.  Let me just say, Ruby is a pretty happy girl, but I can not remember the last time I saw her that happy!  And all I had to do was sit and remind her not to get it tangled in the power lines (and take like 45 pictures!). 

It was SO much fun!  I got Mom of the Year award.  I think I love kites!



Friday, April 6, 2012

I Heart Faces: Happiness



Happiness is St. Patrick's Day hikes!

 

Head on over to I Heart Faces for more pictures of happiness.