Easter 2013

Rejoice!  He is Risen!

Easter weekend was splendid.  Spring break was delightful.  We had 7 sunny days in the past 9 days.  Today I wore a tank top.  It was 75º and gorgeous!  Made celebrating Christ's resurrection even more delightful.  We celebrated with our Home Community this year.  We love living life with them!  We also let the kids have one last egg hunt, as I think I will let the tradition die next year.  It was kind of rushed today and caused too many arguments.  Looking for more peace next year.  The kids will be 9 and 12 (GAH!), so it may be a natural time to leave egg hunting behind anyway.  The day isn't about eggs and candy anyway.  Jesus lives!  And He intercedes for us and is our strength in weakness and our power in defeat.  He has overcome death and now we can live!  Hallelujah!

Egg Drop!

A friend of mine from nursing school had invited me to her church's annual egg drop.  It is a huge deal.  Over 1000 people showed up.  A helicopter comes and drops about 30,000 plastic eggs for the kids to gather.  I took the kids and we had a blast.  Face painting, bounce house, games, and of course, the helicopter full of eggs.  So much fun!

Girls Beach Trip

Yesterday and today, Alayna and I went with some women from Home Community for a short retreat to the coast.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered for me.  Oh, how I miss living near the beach!  I will let the photos speak for themselves.

The beach cottage

Sunset

Haven

Swing

The Crew

New At the Zoo

While Peter and the kids have gone a few times, I hadn't been to the zoo since early September (due to the busyness of nursing school).  But, today, the first official day of Spring Break, I finally got a chance to go, along with a friend from school and her son.  It was a GORGEOUS spring day!  Perfect weather for strolling through the zoo (or, rather, chasing 3 children around the zoo).  We had a great time.  It was super crowded and we had to park about 3/4 mile away and then hike through Washington Park to get there.  But it was awesome.  Again, gorgeous weather.  And it was worth it.  I finally got to see the new baby elephant, who is now about 4 months old (the kids and Peter had already seen her a couple times).  Also, the flamingos made their debut at the zoo, and we got a glimpse of them too.  The kids got along spectacularly.  It was just about the most perfect day I could imagine.

They bonded quickly

Alayna loved them.

Cave dwellers

She would be such an amazing big sister.....

Lily!

Feeding the Lorikeets.

Frosties!  What a treat for this family that never eats out and keeps it low-sugar.

  

Hey, Gepetto!

(Anyone else remember that song by Belly?  Nevermind--I am nostalgic for 90s alternative rock.)

So, last night we got to see Jeremiah make his stage debut in Pinnochio.  A lot of folks turned out to support him.  HC crew, Aunt Jill, and lots of school friends.  It was a great night and he did a fantastic job as Gepetto.  It is always nice to be able to praise Jeremiah for something than to correct him for misbehavior all the time.  I look forward to more opportunities to do it.

Most of the pictures came out blurry and the videos have poor sound quality, but here's a look at the play.  Everyone did a great job!

Peter was the set manager!  :)

Pinocchio takes a bow.