He Is Risen!!

April 12, 2009 - Easter Day - Thank you, Jesus!!

Celebrating Jesus = matching Johnsons. The color this year was... what color is that? Chartreuse? Neon Lime Green? I don't know, but I like it! Peter - not so much. But he's such a great hubby that he wore the tie I made him without complaint all day! I love him! I also love Mashel, my great friend who took our pictures at church with her new spiffy camera even though the whole Hall clan was already all packed up and headed to Easter festivities. And all those pics only took her about 2 minutes to take!

After we opened Easter baskets and went to church, we headed over to Auntie Tonya and Uncle Chris' house for the Easter feast, and pictures with cousins.

These next two are random cuteness:

Yes, he's going potty. It takes him forever to go. He sings songs, makes up silly nonsensical phrases and finally goes.

And skip ahead a few days till... today! Hey, it's closer to Easter than last year.

Drumroll...  The Easter Basket Picture!!

They still fit, and they're all smiling - Yes!

Pre-Easter Fun

The week before Easter we crammed in as many Eastery activities as we could. As a bonus, some of those days were gorgeous and we were able to play outside for the first time in a long time!!  Eben put on his own egg hunt in the yard for Jasper and Kivi and photographed it himself.  Crystal let us join her at the YMCA for their toddler gym egg hunt. The foam pit was a big hit! And we went to the Lebow's church for their egg hunt/story/craft/cookie time. And of course we had to  dye some eggs. Well, Eben and Kivi dyed eggs, Jasper smashed them. And we did Resurrection Eggs every other day. The kids love them!! Plus, it's a great way of teaching them the story of Jesus dying on the cross and coming back to life. A confusing concept. But they can tell the story all by themselves when reminded by a toy donkey or piece of leather in an egg!

 

We Love A Parade!

On April 4th we went to the Daffodil parade in Tacoma with our HFG. Our mission was to be kind to random strangers and help our kids learn to serve and give. So we handed out free coffee. Eben was great at telling people about it. Kivi smiled at people. Jasper kept getting lost. (And random strangers were kind to us and returned him.) And Opal sat for an amazingly long time and just watched the parade. We were in awe of her attention span.

Mr. Nevil, Dada and Opal handing out coffee.

A family shot before the parade started.

 

The Parade!!!

Their favorite parts were the cow and chick, the princesses, and the balloon swords. The mini YMCA carnival across the street was a lot of fun too. My favorite part was dancing, I mean watching them dance whenever a band passed by.

Worms & 3 Little Indians

Poppie came at the end of March and along with helping Eben complete his dream of eating worms (see below) he also inspired 3 days of traditional Indian living.  This sounds confusing, I know, but let me explain: First, Poppie went to the pet store and bought some small meal worms, cooked them in butter and garlic with Eben and we ate them! Eben has been asking to do this for a long time, we just never seemed to be able to find any. But thanks to Poppie, Eben can check this off his to do list.

Then, after hearing Poppie's olden day story of how he went to school on Halloween dressed as an authentic Indian (a towel, that was all) our kids were inspired to do the same. Unlike Poppie however, Eben, Kivi and Jasper wore underwear. They put my headbands on their tummies to keep the towels on and wore them for 3 days straight! Even at night under their jammies! They made wigwams all over the house, pretended to fish, hunt with bows and arrows, skinned their kill, made blankets, and did some Indian dancing. Dada even enhanced the outfits on the second day by making them Indian headdresses.  

The Lady and Gentleman

The rest of March included many dress up activities. Eben has already used his Easter jacket more times than I intended. We are definitely getting our 4 dollars worth out of it!

#1 - March 19th - Grace's birthday, a princess tea party. I took pictures at home of the prince and princess, cause they were so cute! And I know that when they get older, I can kiss seeing these kind of pictures (kissing and hand holding) goodbye. Which, is probably a good thing. They are brother and sister after all.

#2 - March 21st - Mary Cassio (now Moralez) Wedding - Eben was so excited to go. His first wedding. As he watched her walk down the isle he whispered to me, "Why does she still look like Mary?"  I guess he thought that once you get married, you look completely different. I don't know, but I thought it was funny. He was such a little gentleman.  Before we left for the wedding Jasper kept telling Eben, "You handsome, Eben. You handome!"
#3 March 29th - The Princess House - Well, that's not what it's called, but I can't remember the name.  Adeliz told us about this cute place where you can go for free!  We met a Alice, heard her sing and tell a story, had a little tea party, made bracelets and danced.

Opie Moos

No not Moves. Moos. (Although she does show off her cool dancing moves too.) On March 17, Peter took this video of Opal trying to show off her cute animal sounds. She actually knows a lot of them. But this day she only mooed.

Up Till The Ides of March....

The beginning of March included a lot of stay at home activities. Both Eben and Kivi have quiet reading time now while Jasper and Opal take a nap. We make a huge mess every day and then try to get it cleaned up by the time Dada comes home. Dada is very patient with us on the days we don't. We've been going to Mops every Tues. at Rainier View Christian Church and Lake City.  Wednesday we have HFG, our small group, which meets at our home. (So this is a no option cleaning day.) 

March 3 - We went to an indoor water park in Federal Way. The kids loved it. They floated around in their life jackets, and on inner-tubes, went down the water slide and played in the spray jets.

March 9 - Kivi got her "Baby Jesus Set", which she has been asking for since November. She even asked Santa and he said, "You want a what?" To which I replied, "A baby Jesus, you know the reason we have this holiday?" He just gave me a blank look. She earned her set by keeping her panties dry at night time for 2 weeks - a major accomplishment!

March 10 - I finished the girl's matching skirts and they wore them to Mops. The boys both had green on too, so I took a picture of all of them. 

March 13 - Eben gets computer time. Peter set him up with his own log-in and he loves it. He gets to play on the computer after he does his reading, until the end of nap time. His favorite sites are pbskids.com and allrecipes.com And he's forever getting new ideas of what we should cook.

Ok so it's not the Ides, but it's close to the middle.