Happy Easter!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 

~1 Peter 1:3

He is risen!!!  

We enjoyed celebrating this Easter weekend together as a family.  The joy of spending time together, all while being reminded of what truly matters in this life, sometimes is just too much to take in.  We are indeed so blessed.  

Saturday morning got off to a somewhat slower start.  While I made breakfast, Lucia read to the rest of the family. :-)

Later in the day, we dyed eggs!!  It's amazing; what used to be a little more stressful due to little hands trying to be part of all of the activities is beginning to be mostly just fun, because little hands are getting bigger, and my girlies are growing up.  (This is happy and sad for me at the same time. :-) )

Rhea requested roasting hot dogs, so that was dinner on Saturday night -- a perfect day for it, too!

Late that night, I got the Easter breakfast table ready.  The girls and I had made the paper eggs about a week or so ago, and they added the perfect touch. :-)

Early Easter morning.  (Please excuse my appearance. ;-) )  He Is Risen!!

Sadly, it rained all morning, but by the afternoon it stopped just enough to have our hunt outside -- it was soggy, but boots still made it possible.  I'm a little sad I didn't get a good Easter picture after church, but that just gives us a reason to wear our Easter dresses again... next week? ;-)

With much love to you all!!  We're going to go eat some chocolate... ;-)

Ice Cream

After posting those pictures last night, I thought of another ice cream picture I love...

 
They grow up so fast... Love this girlie! (And the other two too!)

Spring Break!!

This week has been spring break here in our neck of the woods, so we've been having more than our usual amount of fun family activities. :-)  

One afternoon, we packed up hot chocolate, coffee and cookies and headed to a nearby park.  Lucia requested to bring a friend, so that's what we did.  Feonn, a neighbor friend, was outside when Lucia went scouting. :)

It's been so fun having Papa around this last week!!  We could get used to this!! :-)

The girls rediscovered the apple peeler/corer/slicer from Tante Margit and have been having lots of fun with it recently.  Speaking of... I need to go buy more apples...

Finishing up a serious conversation over Sunday lunch.  (Isn't L getting so big?!  Agh!)

Then we celebrated spring break with some homemade Frosty ice cream - in a cone, per the girls' request.

 Happy girls! :)

Also, I told the girls we could pick one fun "special" destination for the week, and they chose the zoo.  So we went on Wednesday, which coincidentally turned out be half-off day.  And it's spring break.  Recipe for disastrous crowds.  That was one of the dumbest things I've done in a while... take my kids to the zoo DURING spring break one the HALF-OFF day.  Needless to say we were sandwiched into the throngs of pilgrims slowly parading past all the exhibits.  We may have to go back soon...

 Trying to decide where to go next...

Tonight, we rode our bikes to a new restaurant that opened close to our neighborhood!  That was fun... working for our food on the way there, and working off our food on the way home. :)  It was the perfect distance for Lucia to ride, and Rhea rode on the tandem wheel behind David, while I had Alexa in the child seat on the back of my bike.  Making fun memories!

 Daddy and his girlies :)

 Checking on Cyclone Pam which is threatening Vanuatu these days.

 And home again...

Like I said... I could get used to this!  Having David home has been so much fun (home as in ... no grad school.)  7 weeks to go!!  He's so close to being done!!
My heart is full, and we still have 3 more days before the craziness starts back up again. ;-)

3 Girlies at 3 Years Old

Just for fun, tonight I looked at some pictures of Lucia and Rhea at 3 years old.  It's always fun for me to compare the girls' pictures and remember their stages.

You might enjoy these pictures, too! :-)

I can't believe these years have gone by SO fast.  Just the other day I realized that more than a third of Lucia's childhood has already passed.  It's amazing how much of a difference four years (and two, for that matter) has made in Lucia and Rhea... kids change so quickly.  Looking forward to the next three years with each of them!

Cousin Time

Now that I started posting pictures in reverse chronological order, I might as well add a couple more of our time together in Chicago over Thanksgiving. :-)  Some of these are too cute to pass up!

Lucia demonstrating her budding piano skills.

Playing a game together

Jaida watching the snow come down.

Lucia and Westen shoveled a path on the deck

Jaida on her birthday morning, excited to see the decorations!

A bunch of fairies having breakfast. :-)

Just waiting for the fairies to make this party happen!

The younger girl cousins plus one of Jaida's friends.

Ashton patiently waiting for juice.  You can see him saying "juice" in the picture. :-)

So fun to be four!! :-)

Some fairies never change. ;-)

Some grandma snuggle time.

Papa and Lucia racing :-)

Rub-a-dub-dub, four cousins in a tub!

Getting ready for our Thanksgiving meal

All minus David (who was taking the picture).

One of my favorite recent pictures of Alexa. <3 p="">

Doing his best trying to keep up with those big snow boots on. :-)

Westen showing off. :-)

It's always so fun to be together. The kids absolutely adore their cousins and their memories are so special.  And they were thrilled that they got to see a little snow too! :-)  Already looking forward to our next visit.