Easter Recap

Happy Easter Monday!  This is my favorite season of all and I love celebrating it with both my personal family and my church family. We had a great weekend, and although I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, I've still got lots of memories. And I was able to live in the moment with my kids.

This is the first time in a lot of years that Ken has been able to attend the Triduum services with me.  We went Thursday night for Holy Thursday and he was able to come because Henry's soccer practice had been cancelled.  Frances had volunteered to have her feet washed, so I got there early with her and Benjamin.  At the end of Mass, with the recessional, Benjamin had had enough and so I didn't get to stay very long for adoration, but I'm okay with that. The boys are still a bit too young to understand all of that anyway.

Friday Benjamin's daycare was closed, so he got his wish of coming to work with Mommy.  I only worked a half day because I knew he wouldn't let me get much work done and he would need a nap anyway.  He loved riding the elevators with me and pretending that it was raining in my office. 

Friday afternoon I picked up the kids and we ate our baked fish and then headed out for Good Friday services.  Ken met us there because he came straight from work.  I was slightly misty from listening Frances explain how to venerate the cross to Henry.  Henry ended up bowing and Benjamin got mad a slumped down on the floor in front of the cross, but I offered it up and kept going!  It was another long service, but we made it and we didn't have early plans Saturday anyway...

...So of course, the kids got up at the crack of dawn!  Henry kept getting upset because he couldn't reconcile the difference between going on an egg hunt and it being Easter.  I kept telling him we were going on an egg hunt and then later he would ask me if it was Easter and I would say "no."  Then he'd get mad because I had said we were going on an egg hunt.  Ad naseum...

So we did some brief cleanup around the house and went out to the park for our church egg hunt and hot dog picnic.  It was warmer when we got there, than when we did the hunt, but it wasn't too bad.  The kids had a good time finding eggs and playing games. And Frances won the coloring contest and left with a new coloring book and box of 64 Crayolas!

We went home and attempted a nap that never actually happened.  Then we did a bit more cleaning and I got out our Resurrection Eggs.  I love these eggs! And every year Frances can tell more and more of the story with me.  After those eggs we decorated our own Easter eggs.  The kit I bought this year was wonderful!!  It was supposed to make marbleized eggs. You put the dry egg into the provided baggie, drop in a few drops of color and smoosh the color around on the egg.  INSIDE THE BAG!  As in: NO MESS!! The kids thought it was fun and I loved it too!

After the eggs, the kids got cleaned up and took baths.  Then we made Resurrection cookies that I saw on another bloggers page.  I messed up the recipe, so they didn't turn out exactly as they were supposed to, but the kids enjoyed taking part in the story and I think we will try it again another year.  They LOVED taping the oven door shut!

After they went to bed, I got their Easter baskets ready and headed to bed myself.

I even put the Easter place mats on the table!

Sunday morning the kids were again up bright and early.  They found their baskets excitedly and ate their colorful eggs before it was time to go to Mass. At Mass we sat with Henry's favorite people, Michael and Michelle.  Michael is a high school student who helps teach Henry's Sunday school class on occasion with his mom, Michelle.  Henry just loves the both of them and he especially loves palling around with Michael and giving him high fives (which Michael always pretends to get hurt from). Henry helped Michael to be an usher during the collection and Communion. They looked so precious together!

After Mass we went home for our huge cleanup and the kids actually got excited about dusting pictures for me and making the dining room look nice for our company.  It doesn't hurt that our company being GRANDMA AND GRANDPA just makes every thing exciting!!

We had a wonderful Easter dinner with ham, scalloped potatoes, steamed asparagus, tropical fruit salad and dinner rolls.  My mom also brought about three different desserts and we had to try them all.

We finished off the night with some family pictures with some uncooperative people. But, hey! That's real life, right?

Happy Easter! He is risen!!