Happy Easter!

What an amazing day!

We woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of snow covering everything. Our fantastic neighbor was plowing my driveway this morning while I was getting the kids ready for church. I put everyone's snowboots on and threw their church shoes in my bag and out we went.

The church was PACKED today. This was Megan's first week in the 4/5 year old room. When I sent her in with Joshua, the teacher announced they would be making resurrection buns today. Joshua announced in return that I am the best cook ever and had helped him make some yesterday. He cracks me up. So needless to say, between Megan's anxiety about being in a new room, and Joshua's faith in my cooking, I stayed to help the teacher today.

Now that Megan is four, she goes into the main sanctuary for the initial part of the service and then goes down to Junior Church with Joshua and the other 4/5 year olds right before the message is started. Well, she was being a little difficult before the song service had even started. I hated that I had to give her a time out, but I knew she needed the break from the environment for a minute to know how serious I was about her misbehavior. So, it was my turn to do what my friends and I jokingly call the walk of shame all the way from the third pew down the side aisle of a packed, packed church with a crying child on my hip. Fortunately the song service had just started and everyone was standing singing anyway. We did a time out in the bathroom and then returned a few minutes later with a new bouncing up the side aisle, happy Megan. Sometimes I think kids just need to know that even though the environment is different, the rules are the same. I really believe that kids seek out their boundaries to feel secure. Perhaps it's because I have such spirited children. Keith assures me he has been walked to the back of the church more than once as a child. So I will blame this on him. :)
After the service, we came home to find the eggs that Keith had hidden all over the livingroom. He was up last night most of the night with a migraine, so he stayed home from church lest the noise and lights trigger him again, and boy was it loud in there today during the song service, I can't blame Megan for melting down.

All the kids enjoyed finding the eggs. Keith hid 19 eggs. Some of them were the eggs that had come in the box that grandma sent and some we had filled with mini-packs of M&Ms. Eight of them had clues in them. The clues were squares of paper with a number and a word on them. When Joshua lined them up in number order, he read the clue to find the baskets.

There is Joshua trying to figure it out. The clue said "look where kids go to get clean" when all the squares were put in the right order. So Joshua ran to the kids bathroom to look in their tub, with Daniel in hot persuit.

Daniel is kneeling peeking into the tub. There was another clue that said, "not in here, try again". Which sent the kids running into the master bathroom to find their baskets in the garden tub.

They each got a few cute little things in their baskets and were just thrilled as can be. Then they all excitedly gave Keith and I hugs and kisses. They know we are the suppliers of the baskets and eggs and all that stuff. I never even had to tell them, they just picked up on it on their own a few weeks ago.

The big kids did floor puzzles in the livingroom while Daniel took a nap. I sat out on the back porch for a while just to enjoy the silence.

It was one of those days when you can see that old man winter is trying to put up a good fight, and it looks like spring is trying so hard to get here.

The sky was amazingly blue and clear today. The snow everywhere reflected the light and made everything just look spectacular! I really will miss the beauty of Kodiak. I'll miss sitting out on our porch. I hadn't expected this most recent snowfall. Infact, the kids and I left some outside toys laying around in the yard and I had started to weed the rhubarb bed during our little stretch of warm-ish weather. So today after naps were done, all of us geared up for the snow and searched out all the toys in the yard and put them away. We had a blast playing outside for a couple of hours.

Tonight, I taught Daniel how to Eskimo kiss. He calls it "monkey-mo kiss". It's the cutest thing ever!! We are so looking forward to being near family for next year's Easter. But somehow this year, it just seemed like a perfect day for just the 5 of us.