April 2019!

April 1 - Our time in Bend, OR.  (Kivi went on a different family's vacation.) Dada went skiing at Bachelor with Eben and Jasper and Mama did lots of little kids games, snacks, kid shows, baths and naps at the house and we went out for ice cream. A unique thing about this vacation is that Mama had all of the kids pack their clothes and ski clothes and then she forgot to put them in the van. So they only had the clothes that they wore on the drive. We tried to buy them some warm clothes at Walmart and Goodwill, but they only had summer clothes! We did find a ski suit for Berg/Opal and Jasper.

April 2 On our way home from Bend we got ourselves a membership to the High Desert Museum. It's cheaper for a family of our size to buy a membership anywhere than to just pay for a one day ticket for everyone!

April 3 - Jasper builds a floating hallway fort.

April 5 - Sand time for babies and resurrection roll making.

April 6 Passover at the Strongs. Jeremy led us in a real Seder! We've just done them ourselves before, not always correctly, but now we know, from our real Jewish friend how to pronounce things and how to actually do them. We also learned some fun, new Hebrew songs that the kids get to act out. Jasper found the Afikomen!

April 7 - Opal makes giant meringues. 

April 10 - Pella gets another verse pin in Awana for saying a huge chunk of scripture without any mistakes.

April 12 - At Co-op we learn about Uganda from the Ayer family.

April 14  - The first day of Holy Week! Nonnie and Poppie take the boys to the zoo.

April 15 - The big kids get to have a mock trial at the capitol building, while I took the littles and the Ayers to the children's museum. Sadly, Coal fell and got a gash in his head before we even went inside, but he was a trooper and played happily. Later that day our friend helped blast the rocks out of his head with syringes and glued it back together. Coal kept saying in his sweet voice, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness." Then we opened our pre-Easter presents/outfits.

April 17 - Chuck E Cheese's is a great place to go on a Wednesday morning when everyone else is in school! We have the place to ourselves. That night was Giant Cookie night at Awana.

April 20 - Opal, Pella, Tuff and Swiggy go to a local church's egg hunt and get tons of candy.

April 21 - Ressurection Sunday!! We get dressed up, go to church, have our pictures taken, then play games, find our Easter baskets and many other presents, like new mattresses for some, and have a yummy linner while holding all the new babies!  He is Risen!

April 22 - Baby Hazel, our grand niece, is born! We get to see her in the hospital.

April 26 - Co-op at the Colombian Restaurant. We learn how to make empanadas and all about the country from the Bullocks. That evening we celebrate Berg's 9th birthday with a Mario Party theme. Because of course, he wanted to play video games the whole time. They did stop to eat some corndogs and fries and have ice cream sundaes. But mainly it was video games. Ah, boy heaven.

Berg, you sweet, sweet man! You are so responsible, loving, caring and gentle. You love your Swiggy immensely and the rest of your siblings, too. You love to play games, both video and board and you usually win. (We don't know how because you give everyone whatever they ask for! I think it's God's blessing on you for being so generous.) You share with everyone. You even give toys away. You are fine with being last and rarely do we ever hear you complain. You love to get your work done quickly, so you can move on to free time. You are very brilliant. We love you, Bergie and we love to see how you love others. You are an amazing witness for Jesus! Happy 9th Birthday!

April 28 - The cousins meet baby Hazel!

April 2017 - The Easter of Sick

April 1 & 2 - Peter works on getting the mud room pretty for me to be our makeshift kitchen while we undergo a major kitchen remodel.

April 12-15th  - Kivi and Mama sew Easter dresses. Kivi works on sewing her first dress.

April 13 - Easter egg day! And we celebrate Passover with a simple, modified celebration. We shaped tortillas into matzah and dyed lemonade purple for the wine. But Dada walked us through the whole Haggadah. 

April 14 - Tuff helps with dress sewing. 

We make our Holy Week crafts and display them on Mama's old windows.

April 15 - We're all ready for Easter! Our house is clean, our Holy Week Art is beautiful, everyone is coming to celebrate, our dresses are sewn, the clothes are all laid out!

April 16 , 3am - Kids start throwing up!! Dada and I have a long night. 6am - we tell everyone we have to cancel Easter. 8am - Kivi realizes we're not going to church and that no one will see her dress. Crying. One by one they all go down, Pella, Berg, Opal, Tuff, Eben, Jasper. Only Kivi, Coal, Dada and Mama haven't thrown up. But Kivi and Dada sleep all day. And Mama thinks that Dada is just trying to get out of vomit clean-up. (Some of our children have NO idea how to puke in a container, even when it's right in front of them!) We tell the kids we'll have Easter the next day. But the next day Coal and Mama sleep all day and can't get out of bed even if they wanted to. And Mama feels bad that she thought poorly of her sick hubby, who couldn't help the day before because he was actually sick, not hiding.

Easter 2015

Our Easter was...different.  We had all of our Holy Week and Easter things packed up so no decorations this year or amazing Holy Week like we've done in the past. On Passover, Kivi made a seder lunch because she didn't want to miss it, and we read through the Haggadah as each person ate from their own seder plate. It was very informal and Dada was at work. On Resurrection Sunday, Dada was sick. He stayed in bed and we tried to be quiet for him and let him sleep. I made the kids a yummy quiche breakfast then they got on their Easter Sunday clothes, which we thought would double for my sis's wedding in June, but plans changed, so good thing we used them for Easter!

I let them all watch a Veggie Tales Easter movie and then we took some basket photos.

Last year we had no basket, it was lost. But we found it again up by the mother-in-law. It had been outside for a year. When we found it, it was completely covered in ivy. The poor handle broke off and it's pretty moldy looking, but hey, it's back!

Tuffy's first Easter picture and he's even smiling a little.

I had made the kids a photo scavenger hunt to find their basket (actually it was 2 baskets, one was from Mimi!). Here were the clues they had to find:

 They took turns going all around finding the clues. They do so well working as a team and going slow for the little ones. The clues led them to the shed where the baskets were hiding.

We took them inside to open them up where it would be warmer. It was nice and sunny, but still a bit chilly. The boys got Duplos and the girls got plaster figurines to paint and nail polishes.

While the kids were opening their baskets Uncle Kookie came for a quick visit as he was on his way to Seattle for a class.

We actually had to leave him there at our house so we could make it to Easter service, which Peter woke up just in time to make it to although, he didn't make it through the service. He ended up going to sleep in the van.

We did end up getting a family photo! Then we put Dada to bed and went to Auntie Tonya's house for an Easter lunch and egg hunt at the park with cousins. And we took a cousin caterpillar picture:

 Afterwards, we headed over to the Schock's house to play with our other "cousins" (Grace, Nathaniel and Megan) and have some dinner. It was fun, but I missed my baby. Everything's better with Peter.