Easter 2013

This Easter, we dyed eggs and spent a beautiful day at the park hunting candy eggs with the Ayres, Malones, Wolfs, and Randolph families.

Dave one afternoon joined Jessica for a little contraband Easter candy under cover. 

Jessica's Easter basket wasn't overflowing with presents and candy Sunday morning.  The only mention of the Easter bunny was to say he was leaving a basket, because I like to emphasize the religious reasons for Easter. So I bought some new Christian movies: Ben Hur & The Ten Commandments, Prince of Egypt, and The Miracle Maker (a 60's claymation of the life of Christ, which was pretty good for kids.)

For religious remembrances, I hung up a picture of Christ for every day in Holy Week. We invited the Bonneys and Ayres families over for Monday's Family Home Evening. We acted out the triumphal entry (kids in a vest riding adults who crawled over blankets and plastic palm fronds) and the cleansing of the Jewish temple (knocking over little stools with dimes on them.) The kids thought it was great fun. Dave gave the lesson of the Easter symbols in plastic eggs, and we made resurrection buns for a treat.

On Good Friday we hosted a "Jerusalem Dinner". Not a Passover meal, but a meal like Christ would have eaten. We sat on the floor, eating food from the first century Jewish culture: cucumbers, grapes, dates and plain yogurt, lentil soup, fish, honey and flatbread, and the conversation dish: beef tongue.

The Albert and Young families brought food, but it was the Davids family that had a frozen beef tongue from having their cow butchered, and thought this a perfect meal to use it. They brought it made up in the Jewish tradition: rough outside peeled off, sliced, then slow cooked with leeks and carrots, and eaten topped with a salty anchovie and caper relish. I ate a few bites; it was savory, but the idea of it was too much for me to take second helpings. The missionaries however, despite a 15-minute tongue discussion, (i.e., how a whole beef tongue is the shape and size of a sneaker,) were clueless to the fact that they were eating tongue until after they ate several helpings!  You can see the glass dish of tongue at the top of the picture on the right.
 

And I decided to spend my birthday money on table decorations for Easter Sunday. {I wanted the tablescape to be turquoise, but tablecloth selection at stores these days is pretty bleak. And the only fabric at 60-72" wide is made for sofas, not spring tableaus. So I bought a 10-foot, banquet-sized white tablecloth, and topped it with purple fabric leftover from Jessica's birthday. I choose spring silk flowers and a birdcage for the centerpiece. (I shunned the summer roses and daisies for native daffodils, tulips, dogwood and cherry blossoms, and pussy willows.)} 

And voila! It was definitely bright, cheerful, and symbolic of new life with the nest of eggs and twigs laid in a cross. I know I could've made this a simpler production. But what does it say to Jessica when we invite friends over to eat the same everyday food on paper plates, buffet-style? This is not just any party; I want to make Easter feel very different, because it's as important to Christians as Christmas.

This year was extra pretty, and the food even matched the tableware to a degree: white dishes, purple and yellow cakes (thanks to the Wights), yellow ducky rolls, purple-dyed hard-boiled eggs, and a record-setting 10-layer jello (Jared! you're the man!).

And the best part of course was eating it with our new Lynchburg friends. We have really enjoyed getting to know so many great families at church. Over dinner we had fun chatting with the Wights, Gentrys, and Penrods.  Thanks for your friendship, and making our celebration of the Lord's Resurrection special!

The sacrament service was uplifting; we heard a talk with the theme of "What does the Resurrection mean to (various people)?". A double octet sang a beautiful, part a capella "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands", and our choir sang a very moving version of "He is Risen", accompanied by me. I practiced a lot, because I wanted to add what I could to the spirit of the day. I injured my arm a little practicing it, the notes being very loud and complex, but it was worth it. Happy Easter!

There's a Triceratops Prowling Around Our House!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. One week before Halloween we went to the  church Trunk-or-Treat. Jessica and I made these crow and acorn treats (from Oreos & Hershey Kisses) for it.  I have to say the crows look more like crazy birds, but they were easy to make.

 

(Story: I saw a picture of the crow cookies online, but I wasn't going to do them. I thought "those eyes are too much work, and where would I find black thin licorice?"........But then I was in Walmart buying favor bags in the cake decorating isle, and there they were in 2 neat packages: edible candy eyes and black candy whips. It was destiny, so I gave in. And bonus: the candy whips taste like fruit punch, not black licorice.)

We choose zookeeper outfits to match Jessica's dinosaur costume, which she sorta picked out. I already love sky blue, (it's the color I bought for her to wear on her first day out of the hospital.) She likes dinosaurs. She loved the tail and it fit like a glove. Lions & tigers & sharks were "too scary" she said; other cute costumes she liked didn't fit. She was more interested in the nearby toys anyway.

She was tired at the beginning, but perked up soon, and showed her disappointment when she saw cars leaving.

(We also bought a rocket costume---she knew exactly what to do when I counted down: took off running on a circle tour of the toy section. I didn't show her any princess, pumpkin, witch or cat costumes---she'll probably pick those herself someday. I think next year she'll understand she can ask me to be something specific.)

All we had to do for our costume was buy Dave a two-pocket khaki shirt and make labels. Dave quickly rigged up some bars for our trunk, and we brought the stuffed animal zoo we made for Jessica's new toy room. And I couldn't resist the giant plastic shackles from the Halloween store. My mommy-alarm went off when I saw them: I could see my future children having a blast with them!

Dave passed out candy from behind bars and told the trick-or-treaters that the little Triceratops put him in there.  They thought that was funny. Jessica loved her triceratops costume. She kept the hat on, ran around, barred her teeth, and cat-hissed at people. 

We fully understand the symbolism of parents who want to play "lock up the child" for Halloween. It could be a disturbing sign of psychologically tormented parents that fantasize about doing this to their toddler, bwa - ah- ah - aaaaaah!

A few days later, Dave helped me make some fake bones. He made the economical version using watered-down glue to adhere white paper napkins to taped newspaper; (after they dry for 2 days, you have to paint them white). I tried the more expensive version with cardboard tubes, paper & masking tape, and plaster wrap (from Michael's craft store). I just dipped strips of it in warm water, and smoothed it on, and it dried in 1 day: white & hard as a rock. Now we have some cool homemade decorations!

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. Jessica used the little carving kit tools to pock mark our pumpkin while Dave scooped and carved.

Then I tried to light it and get a good picture, while Jessica thought it was funnier to keep blowing out the flame. So I pretended I was very offended and she just giggled more and kept huffing and puffing.

We started Halloween with my Mom's cheddar holiday soup. We had a great time trick-or-treating with two other families from church in their neighborhood. 

Julia, Jessica, and Nolan are all the same age and brought up the slower tail of the group. It was frigid.

I loved seeing that gaggle of kids waiting on doors! Last year Jessica was just learning to say "Ween!" This year she said "Whick or Wheat!" "Fank you" and "Happy Hawoween".

We also trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood a bit. Dave wanted to leave after an hour, when it got dark. Jessica during the second hour spent more time admiring carved pumpkins and petting dogs, rather than running around for candy. Only I wanted to keep going. We imposed a heavy parent tax on her Halloween candy, but she still got a big pile.

We were supposed to have our Joy School party the day before Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. Frankenstorm came through and we decided to hold it the day after.  With nine preschoolers, nine moms, and four extra kids, we were squished in our new house, but it was jam-packed fun.

Our local mother-taught Joy School is awesome: reliable fun women, smart little kids, and a pre-made curriculum. It's split into 2 groups. Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The kids got some darling portraits taken, thanks to the talented Jessica Shorter; I love the bone clenched in our triceratops's hand.

The kids decorated cupcakes and foam pumpkins. We asked Jessica if her pumpkin had the measles or just extra noses--she said the latter. I think the eyes make it extra hilarious!

Our friend Zachery here is singing our 2 songs: "First You Take a Pumpkin" (to the tune of "Sing a Song of Sixpence") and "I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat" (for which one girl left the room for fear of witches). Jessica is not phased by scary stuff, yet. She's the one who asked for a "mean" face when we carved our pumpkin at home.

We played 3 games based on our first three lesson units: Musical *Hugging* Ghosts (Relationships), Hot Potato/Pumpkin (the Earth), and Skeleton Treasure Hunt (Bodies). I altered them to be less competitive for toddlers. But 3-year olds are clueless about basic game play, which makes them extra funny.

The first was like musical chairs, except you stood on paper ghosts. The more ghosts that were taken away, the more you had to "hug" to stand on the last ghost. Some kids got the humor of cramming together, but some were so eager to help, they assumed when the music stopped it was time to clean up all the ghosts.

We played "hot potato" with a small pumpkin. When the music stopped, whoever held it was eliminated; and the last kid would win a large white pumpkin. But they didn't understand the passing part, so the whole time every mom had to coach their kids "Ian, give the pumpkin to Jessica." "Jessica, pass it to Julia!" etc. But I didn't want kids upset, so I gave them a treat bag when they got out. This incorrectly incentivized the kids, like Haven below, to keep the pumpkin because they would rather lose and have candy than be the winner. The last round of 2 girls passing it back and forth was very confusing for them.

The last game was a Skeleton scavenger hunt, which ended in our basement and a bone-themed dance party. 

Sadly, I don't have a picture of it. My kid "skeleton songs" playlist was cute, but not loud enough. It wasn't dark enough to see the glow-in-the-dark bracelets or dance lights. But each kid got an animal balloon in the shape of a bone, which they loved using to beat each other and a plastic skeleton hanging in the middle. When they were all popped, it was the perfect segue into cupcakes.

That's pretty much how children's lessons go for church, piano, or preschool: plan several activities in the hopes that part of one of them sticks!

Family Olympics

For a summer Primary (church kids group) activity, our presidency wanted something everyone in the family could do, and something involving water. So for July we combined a water gun/balloon war with a "Family Olympics", composed of picnic games and Minute-to-Win-It games. It was pretty fun. 

Each person chose a country to represent, and colored that flag on a name tag. We wore the soccer jerseys Dave bought on his mission and played for Brazil. Here Dave stacks 6 dice on a Popsicle stick in his mouth.

Here Dave put Vaseline on his nose, and transferred as many cotton balls as he could from one plate to another in one minute. When I saw only one other child in Jessica's age category had attempted the cotton ball game, I coached her through it, and she took the "bronze" medal.

I also did the 3-legged race with Jessica, as well as with Ashley Bonney. We biffed it on our first try, but we took the bronze when we tried again. I also lost the water-balloon toss, but it was just fun.

There was also a really hard game with ping pongs balls that I couldn't complete, and Dave kept cheating to finish. You strap a tissue box to your back, add 10 ping pong balls, and time how long it takes to shake them out. It's a real calorie burner and spectator sport. We also had a team Cheetos-and-shaving-cream-on-the-head toss, gallons of water for keeping cool, and a tug of war, for which I was on the losing team three times.

The very competitive Leech family, with only 1 child, still won the most medals, and the grand prize: a chocolate Olympic cake made by our Primary president, the amazing Kristina Randolph. We brought home several silver and bronze medals (made from salt dough), and a fun memory. I loved the activity because it didn't require too much planning, clean-up, and there was lots of help, so it wasn't stressful. It geared us up to watch the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

Fourth of July at the Shorter's

The Shorter family invited us over for July 4th dinner and backyard fireworks with the Sample and Lovelace families. More captions to come.