Easter

Easter was interesting. I wasn't sure how important it would be to me to be "with" people on the holiday, but as the weekend approached, I started to feel a bit regretful that I hadn't made any plans with any local friends. Jonathan was spending the weekend (his birthday fell on Easter this year) in Dublin, Ireland, so the option of being with the only available family was out. (I've encouraged him to travel as much as possible while he has the time and money and is living in this prime location, so I couldn't be too sad about it. He says he had a great time there too, so I'm glad for him.)

Since it was just the children and I, the holiday itself was very much stripped down, tailored around my little guys. The children were super excited, counting down the days to Sunday so that they could do the Easter egg hunt. I love the simple, unjaded joy of children. To them, it was a Super Great Amazing day!! Because we got to hunt for Easter eggs, watch Donut Man in the morning (instead of after naptime), and eat a whole lot of candy!! (Lavella kept re-locating eggs all day, and I would find her at random, with jelly beans stuffed in her mouth, drooling green. Oh goodness.)

I have to say, it was more difficult than I'd thought to find coloring pages online that were Easter themed with the Biblical story. Copious pages turned up with Easter bunnies and eggs, but besides that there was one of the disciples taking Jesus' dead body off of the cross (isn't that kind of gruesome? "Here kids, color a picture of this bloody dead guy!! It's Jesus, isn't that great?" I don't know, it sounded kind of barbaric.) I finally was able to come up with one of a cross with some flowers on it (not sure how appropriate that was either, except that it symbolizes new life), and another with Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem. I found both of those acceptable, and so we all colored them in together.

Our kid-friendly dinner was (are you ready for this?): fish sticks, snow peas and Velveeta macaroni and cheese.



It took me about 15 minutes to put together, all of the children ate without complaining, and Lavella asked me for seconds (and ate it!) Miracles abounded.

As we sat around the table that night, I looked around at my precious little people that I care for. It was far from a lonely holiday. I was surrounded by (almost) all of my favorite people. What more could I really ask for?

Here are pictures of Andrew, Elijah and Lavella hunting for eggs.



Entering the room with their little buckets







Her bucket was forgotten as soon as she located her first egg









"Ummm, I only have two hands..."







The amazed looks here are priceless (it was only about the 20th egg that they'd found, but it was still So Amazing.)




Elijah has his terrible, intense expression here, discussing where the next egg may be found.




Getting ready to watch Donut Man Resurrection Celebration


During all of the excitement, this is what Jonah was doing:



He's started rolling himself over now onto his back. Sometimes this makes him panic, but sometimes it's apparently very comfortable, because fairly often I'll find him asleep like this.




Happy Easter, everyone!