Miscellaneous Monday

I meant to stay away, but I did pop in on occasion. I had to check in on Rach to see how Brien was holding up.

But, here goes:

Went to my sister's house on Thursday. She is due to have a baby in a month and as I did with her oldest, I went to help spring clean a bit. I was on laundry duty (and appreciating the mass amount that my washer can hold vs. her sad sack tiny load washer) and I adopted her kitchen on as spring clean project while waiting for loads to be done. I stripped most of the cabinets, washed them inside and out, washed and re-organized dishes and went through food. My sister called me her kitchen hero. I ended up not attending Maundy Thursday service because I was so wiped out, but I was working for Jesus and I thought that He would totally understand.

Good Friday brought us to cleaning our home. K- and I cleaned the house (we normally do that on Thursday, but it got flipped to my slosh cleaning day), then ran up to the local discount store to fetch something for Easter for Grandma and Aunt D-. Both are diabetic, my grandmother 91 and with advancing Dementia and my aunt is legally blind. Grandma got a beautiful blooming Azalea and Aunt D- got a bag of oranges-- her favorite. We arrived back home, had a bite of lunch and I transplanted the seedlings. (See this week's WFMW for details.) K- did homework and helped me as I went. Hubs got home, I did some laundry and before I knew it, it was time for bed.

Saturday provided us with much activity. We had our building clinic at Lowe's. K- built a beautiful birdhouse for Daddy for Easter. We flopped parts of the roof (one side overhangs in the front, one overhangs in the back), but that is part of the artistic handmade thing, yes? We dropped my brother and nephew back off, trotted on home for a short time, I made myself presentable (make-up, changed my shirt), then it was off to the Bowling Birthday Party! I admit that the gift that I purchased for the occasion was a whole $5.50 (the color changing Cinderella). Though I added a gift receipt, I was hoping that they wouldn't have to take it back and see how cheap I was. It was a $12.00 toy at Toys R Us. In theory, I paid full price, right? (I have a $5.00-6.00 price limit on kid gifts since we have to purchase so many. But! You can get a rockin' deal if you watch sales!) K- had a terrific time and her behavior was SUPERB! While we were there, I let her know about the surprise Easter Egg Hunt at my friend, Heather's house. She was so excited! More kids to play with!

We left the birthday party, went with bucket in hand to the S-'s house and hung out there for a while. I read a book to the kids while they hid eggs (to keep the kids from the windows). Oh my! Did the kids have so much fun with the egg hunt! Afterwards, K- was able to play on the trampoline with her friends, something that she loves to do, but doesn't get to do often. Then it was off to home. K- finished decorating her birdhouse for Daddy, while I put his Easter basket together. (Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Bass Pro Shops themed, in case anyone is wondering.) While Hubs was eating (I grazed all day and wasn't hungry), K- watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (she wasn't hungry, either) and I worked on getting things ready to fill her basket with. I filled the eggs (Barbie clothes, little sponge tablets and coins), detagged the gifts and filled Daddy in on the loot. I also made an Easter necklace for K-. The other day, I was going through my jewelry box and found the Troll Bead that I bought at work. We clearanced them out at 75% off, due to over-saturation of the market, so I really only paid $7.50 for it. Still, spendy for a necklace charm for a kid, but I'm not using it so why not? It looks beautiful with her Easter dress, which ended up tearing at church so we had to change her into another dress for the afternoon activities. (The upper layer was a gauzy kind of floral print cotton layered over crinoline and a slip. I think that one of the pleats pulled and ripped. I'm taking it to my seamstress friend to see if she can work any wonders on it.)

Sunday brought us Easter! (Like you didn't already know!) We did the eggs and baskets early, so that we could be at church by 9:00 AM. Look!
It's never an Easter egg hunt if you don't hide the eggs in the houseplants.

Our thermostat art was laying eggs.
They were hiding at the top of hallway pictures.
And even in Daddy's gumball machine. Ew. Don't try to actually eat the gum balls. They've been in there far too long and are kind of icky now. Yuck.
At 7 AM, we were trying to wake K- up. "It's Easter!" "Humph!" And she turned over. After I told her that I was sure that the bunny had been there and left eggs, she thought that it would be a good idea to check everything out.
The bunny decided to hide the basket downstairs in her play area. Daddy, er Mr. Bunny, also decided to beef up the basket with some Star Wars figures that he had in his archives. And for those of you wondering about the condition of Baby Root Canal's teeth, you'll see no candy in this basket. We leave that for Grandma. Actually, we never put candy in the basket. Grandma hits the local chocolate company. Mmmm. Delicious!

So, I'm happy to report that K- was completely in love with her bat, ball and "mitten" so much so that she was having some sharing issues. (The plight of an only child.) Normally, she's pretty good about sharing, but she was under the impression that they needed to be used as a unit by one singular person, who just happened to be her. Um, we had to nip that in the bud a bit. In fact, we left my parents home earlier than planned to take Little Miss Sunshine home for a nap. Normally we don't mandate a nap, but Easter was so much stuff that she really needed to decompress and re-group. We were at church for 2 1/2 hours and that can really wipe her out.

Sunday evening, before bed, K- settled down with her new Thumbelina movie from Grandma and Grandpa and a bag of chips from the bag of loot from the other set of grandparents. Hubs enjoyed his basket. He made me the traditional Easter gardening basket. He purchased some solar lights for the backyard, and I'm so excited with them that I'm going back to get more.

My break was much needed. Truly, it gave us time to talk about the true meaning of Easter, demonstrate it through action and have a really nice time together as family. I hope that all of you were able to enjoy Resurrection Day!