Much Better

Today we got out of the house and into the sunshine, which was much needed!

I'm afraid my kids have had to deal with a very grouchy mommy the past few days... there's only so much gloomy weather I can take before it begins to seriously affect my mood.

Off to Botanica to see the peonies (one of my favorites!) and Emily and Evie.

Unfortunately, I was slow in getting out the camera today and by that time Evie had reached her limit and needed a nap. We were sad to see them go...

But determined to stay and continue to enjoy the wonder of God's creation.

What is it with Eliana and her tongue?

Diego and I were determined to get a picture of both of them smiling... we just had differing opinions on how it should be done.

It also happened to be TPA day at Botanica.

Diego ran into a lovely little red-headed girl who is using the same Kinder curriculum. (When I get to heaven, is it okay to make requests about what my new body will look like? I'd like red hair, please. I think I inherited my granny's red-hair obsession.) I refrain from taking her picture- mainly because Emily and I had just had a conversation about not taking photos of strangers' children. (Not cool!)

However, I had a lovely chat with her mom and the kids enjoy playing together in the fountain. Quite literally. They were drenched. Apparently, I was a little too involved in conversation.

Fortunately, no one caught us and revoked our membership... (that would have been a tragedy I don't think I could have survived) and we will get to return again quite soon. 

How has your day been? Have you had a chance to enjoy some sunshine recently?

I Miss You

Sunshine!

Freetime!

Playing Outside!

But I hear you might be back tomorrow... I hope so because I need your warm rays of love!

{Praying for days of sunshine and warmth for those affected by storms today, too!}

Easter

I hope you're Easter was as lovely as ours.

My kids woke up from afternoon naps to discover that the Easter Bunny had been by.

Nothing like eating chocolate and trying to get a good shot of the kids at the same time.

See the Life with Jesus dvd? The Easter Bunny should have done a little bit more research, seeing as how halfway through watching it she thought: "Who created this crapola?" The answer: Gaiam. Yeah, nothing says Easter like Eastern religions, right? I think the E.B. may have a return to make and a bone to pick with Family Christian Store.

Shortly there after, we were off to Yaya and Grandpa's for an egg hunt and dinner with some of my favoritist peoples.

Diego and Eliana's techniques were complete opposites:

Diego had his basket filled to the brim in two minutes flat.

Eliana found an egg, opened it, played with or ate the contents.

Evie was somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

Cruz watched his big brother and sister with great intensity.

Finley was just busy looking dapper on Grandpa's lap.

We are so blessed.

Thank you, Jesus for your act of grace! 'Cause that's what Easter truly is all about!

Resurrection Rolls

Our Bible Story for the night:

You know, whenever someone does something wrong--when someone sins, the rule is that something has to died. We know this because the Bible says the payment for sin is death. Sin makes our hearts dirty and hearts that are dirty with sin can't live with God in Heaven. But God didn't want His people to die and not live with Him. He loves us. So instead He told the people to kill a perfect lamb. One that was white and didn't have any marks on it. The white was to remind us of a promise He made. That one day, He would send someone to save us...someone to die as us. Someone who was perfect and didn't have any sin on His heart.

Then, when God sent Jesus, His plan was started. Jesus would grow up and never sin-- never do anything wrong. He never did anything wrong because He was God. His heart was perfect.

His heart was clean and white kinda like this marshmallow.

Jesus grew up and taught people how to live... how to love each other. Then one day, a lady came to him and poured a perfume made of oil and spices on his feet. Usually people didn't do that to someone unless they were dead. But is Jesus dead in this picture? No, he's not. Why do you think she's doing that to him then? Diego:Because he's about to die. You're right! Jesus said she was doing this for his death. He's about to die; just a few days later he would die.

Dip your marshmallow in the oil and spices. (Butter and cinnamon.)

Jesus died on a cross for us because he wants us to live with Him in Heaven.

His friends were so sad. They took Jesus' body and put it in a tomb and closed it up. They thought they would never see Him again.

Let's cover our marshmallows up so we can't see them. (Crescent rolls)

Now that we're done. Let's put these in the oven. (375 for 12 minutes.) Then it's time to go to bed. Diego:But I'm sad. I want to eat them tonight. I know, and Jesus' friends were sad when they went to bed that night too. I guess we'll just have to wait until the morning to hear the rest of the story.

Tomorrow morning, we'll talk about Jesus Resurrection. Our rolls are empty... just like the tomb!
All pictures are from "The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" by Kenneth N. Taylor

O the Wonderful Cross!

Thank you, Jesus, for Your work on the cross! It is through His gift of life that all may enter into His presence. If you have not received His gift of eternal life and would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Happy Good Friday!

Six Hours Later: Take Two

My sister invited Emily and I (and our kids, of course) over to her house for a little egg decorating event today. I thought we'd spend a couple of hours with them, do our thing, leave for home and have naps. But apparently none of us remembered this day not long ago.

It was fun, alright. And the results were awesome! We enjoyed each other's company tremendously. But I don't think anyone was prepared for the six hour stay that ensued.

It started by boiling eggs. Okay, I actually waited until mine reached a boil at my house and then took them in the pan over to her house at 11.

We were supposed to take the eggs out of the hot water and immediately put shaved crayon bits on them to melt. These ones did well.

But none of the others did much... they were all too cool to really melt the crayons well.

So I decided to try melting by fire. Out came the matches. I went through two small matchboxes.

The kids? What were they doing during our, er, I mean their egg dying project? I think they tore the house apart about three times and watched Tangled.

And then we sent Emily to the store for a lighter... which I ruined almost immediately, because I didn't read the directions and failed to realize that you shouldn't keep it lit for more than 30 seconds at a time. I guess four minutes melts some mechanism inside that makes it work.

We gave it up and then decided to let the kids dye some eggs finally.

Did I tell you that in the middle of this whole thing we sat down for a gourmet pasta lunch? (Which I forgot to take a picture of.) It was even vegetarian! --more on that later. And then she gave us these yummo hot cross buns for dessert!

After the kids started to dye some eggs, Elisabeth still didn't like the results, so she broke out the blow torch. The perfect place to lay the eggs for this is on the air conditioning unit, right?

The end result was beautiful.

And after my son's clothes had been washed (yes, he did managed to dump an entire cup of red dye on himself) and dried, we finally left at 5. So much for nap time!

Thanks, Elisabeth and Emily (and kiddos) for the lovely day!

Hello, There

Sorry it's been awhile. Things have been crazy here. Like: 

Jesse's parents came back in town for another week.

And Jesse's been in between jobs this week just doing odds and ends here and there for people. Need him to work on your place? Now's the time to give him a call!

My insurance lady won't call me back.

And today, my washer that's been on it's last leg for the past few months decided now would be the perfect time to die. Thank you, Momma, for cleaning that mess so I didn't have to come home to it!

But on a brighter note:

Tonight at work, I shared the resurrection story. After I was done teaching the lesson, Javier came and told me it was the best story he'd ever heard... I agree, Javi! I totally agree!

And a couple of weeks ago when I went searching for glitter for this project, I ran across the supplies I purchased on clearance a couple years ago to make these cards... and I realized it was just stickers... no need for glue which meant the kiddos and I could easily do them together and send them out!

So, we've been talking about how the caterpillar changing into a butterfly resembles Christ's resurrection.

We also made palm branches earlier in the week but we started beating each other with them and they got confiscated. (Nothing says hosanna better than a slap in the face.)

I finally broke out the Easter books. No, I still haven't decorated for Easter... it's this weekend? My how time flies! But I'm looking forward to reading this one... it's one of my favorites. I L.O.V.E. the illustrations.

And tomorrow we're decorating eggs with some of our favorite people. And then I'm going out on my girl's night this Friday. Yippee!

Hope you've had a Wonderful Wednesday. Hope to see you tomorrow!