Spring Break and Easter

This week the girls had their spring break. We tried to do something fun every day, but some days our fun involved just being together at home. The weather was wonderful all week, and Jared only had to work on Wednesday and Thursday so we were able to spend a lot of time as a family.

On Tuesday there was a flight barbecue for Jared's work. It's always a little not fun for me to hang out at Jared's work stuff. I don't know if it is the military in general or cops specifically, but none of the things I've been to have really seemed like good family fun. It's the alcohol consumption and the bad language that gets to me. Still, the kids had a great time running around all afternoon. There was a softball field where Natalie spent most of the time digging in the dirt. She was covered in red dust from head to toe by the end of the barbecue but she was so happy. I taught the older kids how to make daisy chains with all the flowers that were growing in the field. It was a big hit with them and they made crowns, bracelets, necklaces, and even earrings and rings.

Samantha had school for the first three days of the week and on Wednesday they had their big Easter celebration. There was a traditional Easter breakfast, which Samantha told me was Easter cake and apple juice. I wonder what else there was, because it can't have been just cake and juice for breakfast! At the end of the day there was a program with singing and dancing and then a basket search on the playground. The songs were really cute, all the children wore bunny ears and hopped around. Samantha found her basket pretty quickly and it had a really cool whistle inside. It's shaped like a bird and you fill it with water and then when you blow into the whistle it sounds like a bird singing.

Jared works mid shifts so he sleeps all day. On Thursday we sent the day mostly out of the house so it would be quiet for him to sleep. We went to an optometry appointment for Madison and learned that she needs new glasses again! Every year her prescription gets stronger and she needs a new pair of glasses. It's probably nice for her to keep changing her look, but I'm ready for her to stay with one pair for longer than a year this time. After Madison's appointment we went and bought flowers and soil for the window boxes that I mentioned in last week's post. Then we came home and got our hands dirty and planted all the new flowers. It was so much fun to pick the flowers out with the kids and then to make a mess planting them! This picture is of the window box outside Emily and Abigail's room.

On Friday we had a huge bonfire! Jared is an awesome fire maker and we burned through a lot of the wood and leaves in the pile in back. Really, his fire on Friday made my attempt last week look so sad and pitiful. Once it got dark we broke out the marshmallows and made smores. It was a great night and it's actually nice to have more junk to burn so that we can look forward to more nights like this one. Going back to Jared's wonderful fire for a minute - it was so great that there were still hot coals out back on Saturday morning, and Saturday night, and Sunday morning!

On Saturday we went to Neunkirchen, which is about half an hour from our house. There is a zoo there that we thought the kids would like. It was such a gorgeous day and we were able to see all of the animals thanks to our excellent map readers and navigators, Madison and Emily. Everyone had a favorite of course - Madison liked the giraffes, Emily was very excited to see the seals, Abigail really got into the baboons, Samantha just wanted to see zebras, and Natalie was most excited about the birds. There was a falconry demonstration while we were there and it was really cool to see those huge birds grabbing their prey right out of the air. We had pretty good seats, at one point a bird flew over us and it was so close that it ruffled my hair.

Sunday was, of course, Easter. We have church at 1 pm so we all slept in and enjoyed a bit of a lazy morning before leaving for church. I had the chance to lead the ward choir in their number this Easter and I was really nervous about it. I can sing in a choir, and I can lead a congregation, but leading a choir is a totally different thing. In the end it turned out well, I got lots of compliments about how the song sounded. And even Jared, who I knew would be brutally honest, said it sounded great. It was interesting to hear all the kids in the congregation get quiet as soon as the music started. Before that it had been a pretty noisy Sacrament meeting!

After church the kids were able to search for their baskets out in the yard. It was a pretty simple thing that probably lasted all of two minutes, but it's always neat to see the excitement on their faces. Natalie especially loved it; because she can't ever get enough chocolate. She kept saying over and over, "chocolate, mine! chocolate, mine!" Really she was mumbling it because her mouth was full of chocolate!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter!