One of my goals as we wind down the school year and head into summer is to post some of the backlog of photos of these past several months, particularly to update the blog with pictures of Bridget! She's already 3.5 months old and, while I've taken lots of pictures of her, I just haven't carved out the time to post them. (Sorry, Number 5!)
We were sad to have to spend Easter on our own (as I'm sure everyone else was, too). But we did make it a special day of celebration. We sang together and listened to a dramatized recitation of Jesus's passion, death, and resurrection. I put together Easter bags (vs. baskets) that the kids dug into eagerly. They've been enjoying the games, chalk, dot-to-dot books, coloring books, etc. that I included. Jeremy found our saved plastic egg shells and hid jelly beans in those around the backyard, and the egg hunt was a thrilling part of the day for the four older kids. We read a few scripture passages and opened the last Resurrection Egg (the empty one for the empty tomb).
Jeremy and I were a bit too ambitious with our Easter menu so spent much of the day switching off with Bridget and cooking/baking. The coconut cream pie he requested took several separate steps before we put it all together in its glory . . . but it was a bit too rich for our tastes, so I'm not sure we'll go through the trouble to make it again. (Maybe for Pa the coconut lover we will, though!)
Chocolate babka is always worth it, in my opinion. The kids agreed.
Jeremy grilled lamb shoulder chops and put together a wonderful herb-garlic olive oil for dipping it into. Unfortunately some of it was undercooked. But Jeremy and the kids remedied that by "toasting" pieces of it on forks over the candles. The kids would love to eat like this every night! It certainly kept them entertained (and eating lots of lamb).
To Josiah's great delight, we had mashed potatoes with the lamb. He ate mounds of them!
Our neighbors to the west are trying to sell their house, and they said we could have some of their rosebushes. Jeremy kindly transplanted five rosebushes for me--I think I'll remember them as my Easter roses! He put three in front of the lattice of our front patio. He edged the area with bricks and mulched it with some rubber mulch, and it looks so nice. I just hope the rosebushes don't die. The shock of transplanting was hard on those three, and the weather has turned so hot that I'm afraid they may not survive. We'll see. The other two are in shadier spots, and Jeremy did them later--and more quickly got them into the ground again. You can see the vase of the orangey-pink roses on our Easter dinner table. That bush is my favorite, but we also got two pink ones, a red one, and a yellow one.
The twins got new dresses in their Easter bags that they were eager to wear. They're looking so much older these days! Abby unfortunately rubbed up against something black (charcoal? the grill?) and marked up the back of her dress that very afternoon. I haven't been able to get it out yet.
Clara's favorite colors are yellow and orange, so she was excited to find this big yellow egg!
The four big kids did their egg hunt while Bridget was napping.
I promise to post lots more pictures of our littlest one. I just didn't get a whole lot of her on Easter. But here she is--our little Easter bunny!--in her outfit from Aunt Anna, Uncle Justin, Kezi, and Willow.
