Easter 2017

Christ is risen!

(I know I've posted several times in the past week here. I don't expect it get back to blogging regularly. During the children's spring break I couldn't work on my regular writing so I blogged...and I had photos to share.)

We haven't had many Easters at home without company, but this was one of them. (Last year was another, but that was a very different Easter for our family.)

Meghan gave herself bangs (again) a couple months ago. I think she's ready to grow them out again.

Evan asked to not wear a shirt and tie this year.

 Esther's hair was still wet from her bath.

 All of those photos were before church.

We stayed for the brunch after church so we had a late (for us) Easter dinner after 3. (We weren't full enough to hold out for a true evening meal.)

The children have come to love Easter egg hunts. Even Meghan, at ten. We had a few indoor hunts earlier in the week with the children hiding eggs for one another, but I knew they (especially Meghan) wanted more. The past several years their grandma provided a fun scavenger egg hunt for them.

I decided to include our resurrection eggs in the hunt. Evan and Meghan have lost a lot of interest in the resurrection eggs. Last night I filled empty Easter eggs with a few "coupons" and a few other things in sets of matching colors. Then I placed them around the yard. (I won't call it hiding.) Each set of eggs had one or two resurrection eggs with them.

They had to find the eggs in proper order to open the Easter eggs.

They seemed to enjoy it. 

If you aren't familiar with resurrection eggs, you can read about ours here. 

4-H Service Project

Meghan joined 4-H this past fall. Her specific group meets once a month as a textile club. She has learned a basic crochet stitch and has learned to sew with a machine. (She learned to sew by hand when she was six years old.)

Her first sewing project with 4-H was a pillowcase. Meghan did a good job. The pillowcase is waiting for the summer competition so she doesn't have it.

Look at that stitching!

At Monday's meeting she began sewing a fleece blanket for the Linus Project. They distribute blankets even in our small town to children in need such with serious illness or after/during a traumatic event.

The blanket is finished.

Meghan did a GREAT job!

Longwood Gardens

Today is the first day of spring break for Evan and Meghan. (Esther has school on Tuesday and Wednesday...she only has Thursday off. Derek doesn't get spring break.) We took advantage and went to Longwood Gardens on this beautiful day.

With spring just arriving, few flowers were out. However, we did visit all three tree houses.

 I really tried to get a nice picture of the three children together.

 It didn't really work.

 Meghan wanted to hug a tree and thought the tree house was the perfect place to do it.

 It was a tall tree!

 The water was relaxing.

 I kept trying for a photo...

 Except when I didn't have the camera. Evan took a bunch of photos of me from the top of a tree house.

 I finally tried some individual photos, and the children smiled!

 This may be the best smile I've captured from Evan in a LONG time!

Meghan sure is growing up!

The next two photos are the best I have of the three children together.

The children's garden was their favorite place! It would be better named a water garden.

 How do insects pollinate the indoor flowers?

 When I ran out of coins, the children would stretch out to borrow coins from the fountains. Then, they skipped the coins like others skip rocks!

But here's a photo of all four of us. 

Play Ball

Meghan and Evan enjoyed playing Upward basketball this winter. Now that spring is here, it's time for baseball.

Today kicked off the Little League parade in town. Each team creates a banner with the team name and sponsor along with each child's name.

 Esther is thrilled to play t-ball for the Giants this year!

 Evan is playing machine pitch baseball for the Yankees. Derek is coaching again.

Meghan will cheer with me from the stands. (Okay, in all reality she'll read a book or play with a friend instead of cheering them on.)

Prankster

Over the last year Meghan has really enjoyed pulling little pranks on us. This week I found a giant plastic fly in the peanut butter one evening. It didn't phase me. I took it out and placed it on the counter.

Unfortunately, the next morning at 5:50, the same fly in the same peanut butter jar made me jump! Someone loved every minute of it.

A couple days later the fly was part of Meghan's sandwich at school. Ha!