Easter 2012

I love Easter. New life springing up all over town. Remembering the new life we can have because of Jesus. So much to celebrate. So much to be thankful for.

The kids and I did a few activities to get into the Easter spirit. I think these Resurrection Rolls are going to become a new tradition in our house. Such great meaning and symbolism.

Unrolled crescent roll: the cloths that Jesus was wrapped in
Marshmallow: Jesus - white and pure because He was without sin
Melted butter: - embalming oil
Cinnamon and sugar - spices used to prepare Jesus body for burial
Oven - the tomb

I only had the mini marshmallows. Next year I'll use the big ones. We dipped the marshmallows into the butter and then into the cinnamon and sugar. That was then placed onto the unrolled crescent roll. We rolled it all up and stuck it in the oven.

When they had finished baking, we took them out of the oven, cut one in half and discovered that the marshmallow had disappeared. (I didn't take a photo of that)

He is risen!!!

Saturday morning was the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our church. There were over 800 eggs scattered throughout the church property.

Each of the kids had quite the collection.

Lots of candy and prizes! We had three happy children.

Later that afternoon, we dyed our eggs!

Curtis enjoyed dyeing eggs so much that he was sad when it was time to take them out.

Don't they look pretty!

Finally, Easter was here!

Bella let me take a couple of photos before church.

The Sunday School class had their program before the church service. We misplaced Bella's lines for her recitation, so she didn't get a chance to memorize them. But for the first time, Bella was actually able to read the lines herself.

The older kids did a reading about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Bella won that part after the original child didn't want to do it. I thought she was SO incredibly ADORABLE in her part. I felt so happy watching her flap those wings as she ran up and down the stage. It's hard to put into words, but it was such a pure, innocent moment that I loved.

I tried to get some photos of the kids after church. Some day Graydon is going to comment on how I have so many more photos of Bella. And this is the reason. He is just not the most cooperative photo subject.

But I did manage to sneak one of him while he was playing in the trees.

Curtis was even trickier. And I could not get him to let go of his fistful of suckers (or the one in his mouth for that matter).

We didn't get a whole family shot this year, but Andy and I each have a photo with all three kids.

Soon it was time to get comfortable and look for Easter baskets.

Graydon found his first - under the computer desk.

Curtis was next - under a side table in the living room.

Bella had to search the hardest. Her basket was in the dryer.

A few little gifts and lots more candy (just what they needed). :P

That Curtis sure does love the suckers!

The kids

Sunday morning rolled around and I realized that I didn't take one photo ALL WEEK!  So, I rounded up the kids after church and took a quick photo of each of them so that I would actually have something to put in the blog this week.  And it gives me a good chance to give little updates into their lives right now.

Miss Bella is a busy Bella these days.  T-ball practice on Wednesday evenings, swimming lessons on Thursdays, and Girl Scouts every other Friday.  We normally wouldn't like her to have so many activities at one time, but with the warmer weather coming up (and all of those visits to the pool and shore), we really thought that swimming lessons would be important.  And she's been really looking forward to playing T-ball after watching Daddy play softball for the past two summers.  Fortunately, swimming lessons end at the end of April, T-ball ends at the end of May, and Girl Scouts in mid-June.  We have all summer to be schedule-free!

Bella is becoming an excellent reader.  We read a Bible story together every night.  She reads any sight words that she knows and any of the words that she can sound out.  I'm very impressed with how well she is doing.  She is a very hard worker, a perfectionist at times.  Sometimes this leads to tears and frustration on her part.  We just continue to remind her that it doesn't have to be perfect and that we are happy as long as she tries her best.

Last Friday night, her Girl Scout troop participated in Princess Bingo, an evening of fun put on by an older Girl Scout troop.  I missed the memo about the girls dressing up as princesses for the event if they wanted to.  Bella ended up being one of the few girls not dressed up.  I had horrible mommy guilt about it.  A little girl in Bella's troop said to her, "You were supposed to dress as a princess."  Bella replied, "Only if you want to.  You don't have to."  I pulled her aside to see if she was really OK with not being dressed up.  I can't remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of her being totally fine.  And she was.  I'm so happy that she was confident enough in herself not to care that she didn't look like everyone else.  Maybe I need to take some lessons from her. 

If you look closely at Graydon's forehead, nose, and chin, you can see a few little scrapes.  We were outside riding bikes in the church parking lot.  I turned my head for a few moments to talk with Andy who was in our yard and Graydon, who was on his bike, went down a hill off the lot that leads to a small field.  I turned my head back when I heard some crying and saw him emerge from the hill all covered in dirt and wood chips.  He managed to cut his lip in the process as well.  I really cannot take my eyes off of this boy.

Bedtime is different though.   Graydon is so wonderful about going to sleep at night.  He willingly gets in his bed and stays there.  He's been in his big-boy bed for a little over two months now and has only gotten out one time, which was in the early days.  Even then, I put him back to bed and that was the end of it.  He loves his sleep.  But he is the first kid to wake up every morning.  It's usually around 7:00 am.  We usually get him something to eat and let him watch Dora (his current favorite show).

Graydon loves to help out in the kitchen.  If he sees me working at the counter, he quickly grabs a chair, pulls it up alongside me, gets up and says to me, "Mommy, I cook too?"  I think he enjoys the process even more than the end result.  We made smoothies this morning and then he didn't want any.  We made brownies this afternoon.  And he didn't want any of those either!  But he is a wonderful fruit and vegetable eater overall.  He will readily grab an apple and snack on it.  Carrots are another top fave.  And he has recently developed a taste for orange peppers (or 'pickled peppers' as he calls them).        
On a totally different note, he has mastered the art of going to the bathroom while standing up!

Curtis is growing up so much.  Literally right before my eyes.  And I think he is in some type of growth spurt right now - he's been sleeping in a ton lately.  The other morning, I had to wake up him at 9:30 am so that we could get to storytime by 10 am.  When I go into his room in the morning, he usually perks right up from the sound of the door opening and the creaking as I walk across the floor.  On one particular morning, none of my noises woke him up.  I looked down at him and he was still completely out - laying on his back, mouth open.  The room was a little dark from the shades and window coverings.  He was just so still that, for about a second, I got a slight feeling of panic that something terrible had happened.  But then I touched his cheek and her stirred awake.  Phew!

We are really enjoying Curtis's expanding vocabulary.  Unfortunately, his favorite word right now is "no".  Everything is "no".  Even "yes" is "no".  It makes for some very confusing times in our house.  And he will often use one sound for multiple words.  "Dahter" can mean "water", "finger" or "together".  "Cracker' and "sucker" are both pronounced "er er".  He definitely knows what he is saying, we're still just learning how to decode.

Curtis has been dealing with a runny nose for the past 3-4 months.  I've never had a child with a runny nose for so long!  I think it started as cold and then moved into teething, then another cold.  Now I think it's from allergies.  No matter what the cause, it has led to some pretty robust boogers.

**************

There's your quick snippet of what the kids are up to.  Next week I should have tons of photos from our upcoming Easter fun.  

Somebody turned 32!

And it wasn't me. (Not yet anyway).

Bella tucked Andy in to bed on the night prior to his birthday and then she and I prepped the house for a birthday celebration. She worked very hard at decorating this bag with streamers. The inside was filled with chocolate.

One of Andy's gifts was a choose-your-own variety pack of beer. He usually drinks the cheap stuff. I chose the beers and the kids decorated the plain white case.

Bella's artwork:

Graydon's artwork:

A couple more gifts waiting to be opened.

The day was super busy for Andy. He gave a presentation at our church that morning (Saturday) at the Men's Prayer Breakfast. His work wasn't done after the breakfast as he still had to prepare for the church service the next morning. Not quite the relaxing birthday, but we still managed to get some celebrating in.

That evening, Bella and Andy wore their coordinating pajamas.

Earlier in the week, Bella had her first T-ball practice. Most of us parents got a kick out of watching the girls. Some were playing chase in the outfield or drawing in the dirt. Not quite the focused bunch, just yet. But they are having fun and that's the main thing.

And Mr. Curtis is becoming quite the artist.

I have his masterpiece on display on our pantry door.

With three kiddos doing artwork now, I'm running out of surfaces to show off their creations. But I sure love all of the cheerfulness that it adds.

In the kitchen. . .

Sometimes I have no idea what to title these posts. They usually consist of the random photos that make up our week - but it seems pretty boring to just title them, Week of _______. So I look for some type of theme in the photos or what I have the most photos of. This week, I seem to have taken a lot of photos of our kitchen activities. So there you have it.

Earlier in the week, the boys and I made some chocolate chip and walnut cookies and decided to take some over to Andy's office. That's one of the benefits of him working so close to home.

We have a Rita's Water Ice just down the street. It's pretty much Bella's favorite place to be during the warmer months (besides a pool or the shore). She wanted to go one afternoon and I didn't have any money, so she offered to treat the boys and herself with her own money.

It cost two weeks of her allowance!

Thursday evening was Bella's first swimming lesson. She was actually supposed to have her first lesson last week, but a little boy in the class before her threw up in the pool. We arrived to find out that she wouldn't be able to swim. Big bummer for her - she was so upset. But a week goes by pretty fast and soon enough she was back at the pool - this time she could go in! Unfortunately, I had to miss this one since I had some birthday dinner plans with some friends. But I will be at every lesson from here on. Here's a little bit of video from that first class.


Friday night has kind of become pizza night around here. I love how you can't really mess pizza up - a perfect meal for little hands to help with.

Saturday morning snuggles.

After the kiddos got out of bed, Bella and I got all dressed up for the Women's Prayer Breakfast at our church.

No boys allowed (except for working in the kitchen), so Curtis had to fend for himself with breakfast.

Later that afternoon, we had a fun little St. Patrick's dessert to make. Graydon stirred the pudding (vanilla with green food coloring added in).

Bella assisted, though her main job was to crush the Oreos.

Curtis was the first to sample our creation.

I had some too. Pretty tasty!