Easter Weekend

Friday
I wasn't planning to do the egg hunt today, but Kate kind of informed me yesterday that she was so excited because we would have an egg hunt today... so we did!  I suppose my only stipulation about the egg hunt is that it doesn't take place on Sunday.  I only want the Sunday of Easter to be about our Savior.
First order of business was to hide stuff!  I hid the baskets upstairs, the peeps in the guest room, and the little eggs in the basement.  I was going to try and clean up the basement before I hid the eggs, but then I decided that it would be more fun to hide the little eggs amongst the messy toys in the basement!  Either way the girls had fun!
Oh and one other note about the hunt.  Last night I also asked Kate if the Easter Bunny was real or pretend.  She giggled and said, pretend, like I was silly for even asking.  I am not the least bit sad about that.  I'm still not sure what I really want her to believe...

At some point today Ken's sister Laura called to see what we were up to.  It was perfect timing.  Ken and the girls were going to make pizza for dinner which meant there would be two pizzas, and we had no other plans.  The girls and I cleaned up and waited for their arrival.  And then we just had a most lovely visit with family.  I'm so glad that Laura called, and that she and Joaquin and William were able to come over and spend time with us!

Saturday
Fairy Lake and a dishwasher!  It is finally starting to get nice out.  Our first stop of today was Fairy Lake in Newmarket.  We played at the park, went for a very short walk and then went to find a dishwasher.  We found one we liked at Home Depot and it will be delivered a week on Wednesday.

Sunday
Easter Sunday.  Church of course, and then some napping.  Some hanging out in the backyard.  It just feels so good to be outside! 

And then a walk in the woods.  There are Simcoe County forests at Highway Nine and Tottenham Road.  I've always wanted to go walk around and so today we did.  It was a fun little walk with the girls.  Just far enough, just enough fun stuff to look at, and it didn't rain and it was just lovely!

One more thing about Easter.  We talk about Jesus almost daily.  But I feel like we didn't quite talk about the real meaning of Easter enough this year.  Christmas is easy to talk up, it's about a baby, and birth.  Easter is of course about the resurrection, but it is also about pain and torture and death.  I feel like I don't really know how to talk about Easter with my little children.  I want to do better next year.  And at the same time, do better talking about our Savior all year long!

 

 
Monday
Zoo number 2!  We planned to get together with the Lim-Andersons.  We decided to meet up at the zoo.  Two weekends in a row after not going for so long seemed perfect to me!  We had such a fun time together, we always do!  The animals were great, but the kids had the most fun at lunch finding snail shells and just playing.  After the Lim-Andersons left, Kate, Alice and I went on a zoomobile ride.  Fiona was sleeping and Ken sat with her, sweet man that he is.

What a wonderful, happy, full long weekend!

Egg Decorating

I love egg decorating.  It would seem to me though, that there are never enough eggs.  Two dozen, is not enough.  I'm not sure what would be enough?!  Perhaps we need to make paper cut-out eggs and decorate those as well.  Or come up with something that isn't also food that we can dye.  It feels kind of wasteful, because the eggs are never eaten. 

Back to the point!  We boiled the eggs for a really, really long time.  When they finally cooled down we decorated.  The girls had fun, Ken and I had fun.  Fiona broke an egg or two.  All in all, good fun!

Forty-One

Birthdays!  I love birthdays.  I want them to be the best most all-encompassing event EVER!  Putting that much pressure on one day isn't healthy.  Perhaps I should re-read this next year at the end of March...

Last night Ken and I went out for dinner at the 1812 Grillhouse.  (We went there for the first time on to celebrate Ken's birthday.)  We talked about a few different restaurants, but in the end I wanted to go there again and try out a few more things on the menu.  The food was very good.  We had a nice time.  I was anxious to return to the girls, but Makenna and Abigail had everything under control!  I was worried about Fiona - but she was asleep in Abigail's arms!

After the girls were in bed I continued my back and forth about what we would do in the morning.  Ken pointed out (rightly so) that I was putting too much pressure on one day.  He logically encouraged me to make the final decision in the morning.  When I woke up this morning and looked at the weather I made my decision, and we went to the ZOO!  I love the zoo.  We renewed our zoo membership today and had a great visit.  It had been almost a year since we'd been.  I had really missed the zoo.  And of course it was Miss Fiona's first trip!  She was pretty calm about the whole thing, but I do think she enjoyed it.

(Before actually getting to the zoo, we had a yummy breakfast - waffles, I was given cards and Ken got me an awesome CD - A Tribe Called Red, we then left kind of late, the girls fell asleep on the way - all of them, so we had an impromptu shopping trip at Bonnie Togs, I bought things for the girls while Ken and girls all slept in the van.)

After the zoo it was off to the parents.  We were supposed to go swimming and then have dinner.  However, since the whole day started a little late, we got to my parents a little late.  So it was play/dinner/hang out first, and swim second!  We had Swiss Chalet for dinner.  Ken made a yummy cheesecake mousse and then we swam, and then we went home.  Today was a great day, and it just happened to be my birthday!

The Bunny!

I am so in love with this picture! I love any and all - no matter how ridiculous - opportunities to take cute pictures of my girls. Today we went to the Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket with my friend Melanie and her daughter Liv. We took our pictures with the Bunny, ate lunch, played in the play area and just generally had a great day!

Bacon

I was going to tag this onto the end of my Mom's birthday post, but I just can't!  This was one of the sweatshirts that Jon and I got for Dad for Christmas.  Jonathan commented that his boys were lucky, what with bacon being such a fad right now.  I would have to agree.  Everything's better with BACON!

A Fun Sunday

April 6th, so many reasons for this to be a fun day.  (Fiona was the first priority - she's 10 months old today.)  This is also the day that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored on the earth in 1830.  It is also the day that we believe Jesus was actually born.  It is also General Conference weekend.  AND last, but not least it is my Mama's birthday.  Mom turned 68 today.  So weird to think that in two years she'll be 70!

The plan was that we would all get together next Saturday for a joint birthday celebration on my birthday.  General Conference means many hours of church meetings - 8 for the women, 10 for the men.  (The women have their special women's meeting the week before, so they get ten too!)  I didn't think that we would see Mom today.  However, it was beautiful out today, and Mom decided that she really wanted to go for a drive.

We all visited on the porch and gave Mom/Grandma her gift and cards.  Mom actually asked for her wedding album to be repaired.  Instead of repairing the old one - wasn't sure how to do that, I found a new one on ebay.  The siblings all agreed to go in on it with me and Mom and Dad were very excited to look at it today.

What to say more?  I'm grateful for the home I grew up in, for the parents who raised me.  I'm grateful for the lessons I was taught.  I'm grateful I was raised to know Jesus Christ and to love music.  There are so many other things, but those two things are the most important to me, and I feel they are gifts from my Mother.  Happy Birthday Mama!  (Blogging about General Conference will have to wait until another day.)

Fiona is 10 Months Old

Today is a noteworthy day for a number of reasons, but for this post, I will just focus on my sweet Fiona.  Fiona has had a cold for the past week.  I'm not sure which number this makes.  She has not been as fussy with this cold as she has with others, so that's something!

This past month Fiona has learned to climb the stairs.  Her only real challenge where the stairs are concerned is her clothing.  The hard wood section that leads up to the bedrooms is so slippery when she's in a sleeper!  We haven't really begun the process of going down... that will come!

She continues to babble up a storm.  She does seem to say Mama and Dada, but not consistently in addressing us, so I'm still not really ready to declare her first word.  She loves to growl too.  It's pretty funny when she's loudly growling "ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma" as she climbs the stairs.

She pulls herself up to standing and cruises around the furniture with ease - unless there's mess everywhere, then she cruises with some difficulty.  Good thing my house is never messy... ya right!

One more thing, she is a Mommy Monster.  A 100%, completely certified, Mommy Monster!  Knowing that she is my last makes the times when I so desperately want to put her down, but can't, bearable.  I do love my little monster.   So much.  So so so much! 

I'm so grateful to be a Mom, and to be home with all my girls!