Easter

We've been doing some preparation for Easter around here. Some traditional things. The kids loved dying Easter eggs, though they were really confused when we cracked one open afterward and there wasn't any candy inside. :) We've done some Easter crafts, too, which have been fun. And we've read the Easter story from their Bible.

But this year we tried something different as well. I really wanted to be intentional about making Easter a big deal. I know realistically it will never be as big as Christmas is, even though for our faith it is THE biggest day of the year. There just aren't any Easter Carols to sing and hanging crosses around the house to decorate is a little...morbid? So this year, we did something similar to an advent calendar but for Easter. Starting on Palm Sunday, every morning I hide one Easter egg for each of the boys. Inside, there is a treat and a word that I've written on paper. Then we talk about that word, read a Bible verse about it and then do an activity with it. For example, yesterday's word was GIVE. We read the verse that says, "God loves a cheerful giver." Then the kids picked out one toy each to give to their new baby cousin. Low key, but fun and putting into action the things we are trying to teach.

So far, it's been a hit. This morning, A shared our verse about praying with the man from Duke Energy that came to read our meter. And I love listening to them downstairs playing together right now. They are pretending that they are looking in the grave and Jesus isn't there because he's alive! So sweet. I'm hoping this can be come a yearly tradition for us to help with the countdown to Easter and to help make this holiday more meaningful to our family.

Sweet Baby S!

The boys have a new cousin! This sweet baby girl was born on 4/6. We got a chance to visit her in the hospital, and the boys had such a great time. C was enamored with her. He would stare at her and get so excited about every single thing she did: "Mommy... she yawned really big!" "Mommy, she moved her finger." He just couldn't get enough of her. Now several times a day he has told me, "I want to see my cousin again."

Random Picture Update

The perfect solution to entertaining kids on a rainy day: GAK. This mixture of cornstarch and water is both solid and liquid and super fun to play with. 

We met Aunt M, Uncle M and our cousins at a MadCap Puppet show today. It was a very interactive, very kid-friendly show... perfect for a rainy day. There was a clarinet, violin and piano playing classical music and puppeteers putting on Little Red Riding hood at the same time. A was scared at first and spent most of the time with his eyes and/or ears covered in fear. But by the end he decided he loved it. He even declared that the life-sized wolf puppet that sent him crying to the back of the room was indeed his favorite part!

For A's 4th birthday, his super special present was a chance to go golfing with daddy. We pass by a golf course on the way to his school, and he had been begging to go for months every time we passed. Even though the weather was a little cold, he had a blast. Now C is already asking to go golfing for HIS 4th birthday!

The boys love to jam. That guitar was the best $0.25 investment ever made. It is one of the most often used toys in our house!

For A's bday, his cousins got him a birdfeeder that he could decorate and hang outside. He was sweet enough to let C help out. We have not seen any birds eating yet. I'm not sure if they just haven't found it or if the vibrant, colorful paint job was a little scary for them. Thanks Cousins for a fun gift!

One more step to growing up: C now sleeps in a big boy bed. 

We have been blessed with such sweet neighbors. The boys are surrounded by sweet friends. It is so fun to see their faces light up when we get to see our friends. After a rough beginning at our new house with literally NO kids around to play with, we have been blessed with some great friends.

Reds Game

Aunt K called us up this past weekend to invite us to a Red's game. I think it was the highlight of our boys' short lives. It was such an enjoyable game: the boys were great, the game was exciting, we were in the shade pretty quickly and the weather was relatively cool. We have spent many hours since that day playing baseball. The boys are often pretending to be Joey Votto or Brandon Phillips. Even C knows that if he's pretending to pitch, he should be Bronson Arroyo. And A will randomly throughout the day shout in his best announcer voice, "Left fielder Jonny Gomes" or "The catcher Ryan Hannigan." To say that we had fun at is an understatement! Thanks Aunt K for inviting us!

Garage Sale

On May 15th, we are having a yard sale to help us raise money to adopt two children. This was a huge success last year, so we are going to try it again this year.

I know this is the time when people begin spring cleaning and purging items that are no longer needed. Instead of dropping stuff off to Goodwill, if anyone in the Cincy area has any items you would like to donate to us to include in our yard sale, we would really appreciate it. Adoption is an expensive process, but we can't wait to bring these two kiddos home to our family.

Let me know if you have any questions!