Easter with Extra Kids

Easter weekend began, as usual, with coloring Easter eggs. This year we had two kids staying with us, Q who is 8, and K, who is 5. So this was a messy, fun, loud activity.

My birthday is in March, and it always falls during the time of Paul's basketball semifinals, where he has games all weekend. Although we had celebrated my birthday, I hadn't yet had the home made cake I wanted, so we decided to do it for Easter dinner.
This was Paul's first attempt at making me a two-layer cake. He forgot to spray the pans and it just went bad from there. He had planned to run out and buy me a cake Sunday morning, and then he remembered that it was Easter and nowhere would be open. So he confessed to me he was in a bind. We agreed that he could just make me a sheet cake (that wouldn't be chocolate) and all would be fine. I have the best husband for going to all that trouble and being so stressed out. AND he let me take a picture of the first attempt. :)

Easter morning, two handsome boys playing piano.

Silly boys with bucket heads.

A little pre-church chaos.

Smiling nicely for the camera.

 

 

This is what happens when you try to get three kids in one picture!

 

Mr. Cool. Yes, he came down in those sneakers and I suggested he should change into dress shoes, but Paul said, "I think he looks cool like that," so I was outvoted. (Although he does look kind of boy-band cute!)

Getting ready for the after-church egg hunt.

Counting the eggs.

Back at home after church. Neither boy wanted to change so they were dressed formally, rolling around on the floor playing.

Watching superheroes.

The finished, only slightly marred, birthday cake.

Happy Easter to all.

Easter Eggs

Even though I have been dyeing Easter eggs for as long as I can remember, I seem to be learning something new the past few years. Last year I discovered (after Easter) that if you dye fresh eggs, they can be hard to peel. So I got smart this year and a few weeks ago, stocked up on eggs so I would have some to dye that weren't fresh. Then last night when I pulled them out of the refrigerator, I realized I had bought brown eggs. I think I did the same thing last year! This year I was not going to run out and buy new eggs, so we dyed them. They turned out really colorful - the colors are darker and deeper and look different than just blue and red and green.


Even more amazing is the fact that Paul got in on the act this year. He is very meticulous about his work, so he dyed two or three eggs while Rudy and I powered through the rest. But at least he joined in the fun!

Like father, like son.

Rudy adding some stickers to the finished products!

First Day of Spring Break

Not only is today the first day of our Spring/Easter break. But it is also a week of unemployment for me. I left my job on Thursday and don't start my new one until April 12. I will be teaching adults computer classes at a local career school. I teach there at night, but will now be teaching days too. I will have Fridays off, which I am REALLY looking forward to, since I will continue to work nights for now.
But because of Good Friday, all of us were off today and the weather was gorgeous, so after taking care of a few other things early in the day, we headed out to the park after lunch.


Here is our Guatemalan soccer star hard at work.

After running around chasing and kicking the ball for about 30 minutes, Rudy decided to go to the playground for a while. He went down the slides a few times, but spent most of his time on the swings.

As Paul described him - he looks like he was in a fight between the bandaid on his face (the result of a pimple he scratched and keeps messing with) and the dirty knees (the result of running around on a soccer field).

After dinner, we colored Easter Eggs. Paul took a few pictures and then watched the proceedings (amazing that I would say this about him and not me - but he's a little too much of a control freak to enjoy decorating eggs with Rudy.)

Everything all set up.

Demonstrating how to write on the egg with a candle before coloring it.

Aren't these the neatest things? It's like a pair of tongs or scissors but they are specially made to hold eggs. I know I had a pair or two last year, but I think Rudy played with them and they broke (what do I expect for a dollar or two?), so I had to buy a new one.

Getting creative with the food coloring.

Showing off the finished product (and if you look closely at Rudy's hand, you'll see he's making the sign Spiderman does wen he throws his web - it's not a gang symbol!).

Easter Eggs

Growing up we always dyed Easter eggs. Even when I was in college, and after, my mom and I still continued to do it. Over the last few Easters I've had to dye them myself, or drag someone, like Paul, into it - even though he really wasn't interested. So I was thrilled to be able to introduce Rudy to Easter egg dyeing this year. He had fun and was just so fascinated with the eggs when we were finished.