Easter

This past weekend we celebrated our risen Lord. Amazingly, John really knows the story well. I'm sure there are big gaps in understanding, but it makes me so grateful for his preschool and the childrens' ministry at our church that he's learned so much about Christ! During Lent we chose a special project. Ash Wednesday the kids made a list of 40 people (or groups of people, i.e. siblings). I put each on a slip of paper and each day we prayed for one person. The intent was to send a colored paper with a little poem explaining that because God loves them and we love them we prayed for them that day. I have to admit we slacked off on sending the messages part-way through, but the kids were very diligent in praying for friends and family and have continued even after Easter.
This Easter was a bit different because we had church Saturday night, but didn't go on Sunday. Since our church is casual, and even more so Saturday night, that begs the question When do we dress for pictures? We ended up taking pictures Saturday afternoon. I hope you're ready...here we go...

It's not easy getting 3 kids to cooperate for pictures. The next few are to show what goes on "behind the scenes", and why we're lucky to get a few out of a hundred that at least have all 3 in the frame. Don't expect any times family pictures any time soon :)

I'm sure people driving by get a kick out of watching me jumping and snapping my fingers. "Look at me! Fishies!"

OK, Ellie, stand up again...wait...don't fall off this rock ledge!

Wait, Eve, get back over here...(notice John mid-cheeeeeeeese)

OK, so then Sunday was great because we had a nice relaxed breakfast, put on play clothes, and headed out to look for eggs. The kids are fully aware that Mommy and Daddy are the Easter bunny. They find mostly candy and maybe a small gift in their baskets (transformer and princess watches and a packed of flower seeds this year). They really enjoyed looking for the eggs, and for the first time some were actually "hidden".

I love this picture Buck took

After hunting eggs, John helped me pick flowers for the centerpiece. The purple and yellow iris were perfect!

Eve helped me arrange them. Grandma came over for a casual dinner at our fancy table. John and Eve didn't think it looked yummy, but they cleared their plates a few times each (as did Ellie)!

After nap time we headed to one of Mom's neighbors' house for a hunt/party.

They had a great egg/spoon race with plastic eggs. It was a challenge to even get all 4 to the finish line...forget the eggs!
We had a great Easter. Great weather, great family time, and great food. More importantly, a great Savior who made a great sacrifice and accomplished a great victory over sin and death!

Developmental Steps

Today was Easter. While that's extremely important, I'm going to wait until pictures are uploaded to post on that. In other news, I was joking with Ellie today as she was hanging around the bottom of the steps and said, "You know you're not supposed to go up these, right?" I was on the phone with Aunt Michelle and Uncle Greg, taking it to John for a turn. When he finished his turn, I came out of the playroom to find Ellie at the halfway point on our stairs grinning at me ready to start the next half. For the next few months I'm going to hear, "MOM, THE GATE IS CLOSED!" a bunch of times. Time to focus hard on downstairs skills.

Message in a Bottle

Caution - You may need to cross your legs while reading this.

So Eve has been doing pretty well with potty training. For some reason she decided the long trip home from Florida was a good time to start using the potty. Once she made up her mind, she had a few accidents in pullups for a week or so, got better and better, and I'd say is pretty much good right now (for now). We just started letting her wear undies at home 2 days ago, and I'm comfortable letting her wear them out now. So far, so good. So anyway, now that she's using the potty, it's a great stalling technique, especially at bed time and nap time. Since she's in a pullup then anyway, I've given her a 1-time limit. Yesterday at nap time, per usual, she said she needed to go. Limit reached. A few minutes later she said she needed to go again. Sorry Charlie, you've reached your limit. After "nap" time (no napping lately) she came downstairs. She mentioned something about going pee pee in a bottle. "Message in a Bottle" was playing, so I brushed it off as one of her crazy mixups. A few minutes later, John yelled downstairs from the bathroom, "Eve, I poured your pee pee from the bottle into the potty!" Wait, what?! I went upstairs with Eve and asked where she did it. She pointed to a general area. With cleaner and rag in hand I felt around, but didn't feel anything wet. Surely she didn't...right? I can't prove it either way, but I do know there was an empty plastic water bottle in her room. John had the bottle in the bathroom when I went upstairs. John wasn't around when she mentioned it to me. More than all other "proof", I can't imagine a 2 and 4 year old could corroborate so well on a story about something they don't even know (to my knowledge) is so complicated...and quite honestly, awesome. Only a Buckingham.

The Pascal Farm

Yesterday Mom, the kids, and I took a trip to Valdese, NC to visit my second family. No disrespect to the Buckinghams...I'm just not sure how the math works on this. Anyway, I've known the Pascals since Laura and I became bestest buddies in middle school. I suppose we've about reached our 20th anniversary! Actually Buck and John (her older brother) were friends and rowed together in college. They used to live in Simpsonville, but moved to the Pascal homestead about 8 years ago. It's a beautiful farm. No matter where they are, when I see them, I'm home. Laura lives in Washington state now, but was in town visiting. We had a beautiful day and a fabulous visit. The highlight was the visit of course, but the camera's highlight was the chickens. Somehow with all the pictures of the kids and chickens, Laura and I didn't get a picture together. That just means she has to come back! So anyway, the chickens. I told the kids they had chickens, but the kids were sort of indifferent...until they saw the chickens. At first they just chased after them and acted like them.

Then they tried to pet them (not so easy after just chasing them)Apparently the secret to a chicken's heart is food.

Ellie really liked watching them...

from a distance (actually, she was just a little unsure for a bit, but really loved them)

Eve also enjoyed their swing. Really, it's such a beautiful farm.

Papa Pascal took John and Lilah (Laura's oldest) to the dirt pile to find worms. John didn't think twice about holding them for the chickens to eat.

And he quickly made friends

Out of order...there are more later. We setup a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. While they were finishing up their movie, we found the chickens hunting eggs. What a riot! They were so interested in the eggs. Maybe they were looking for their own? Maybe they could smell what was inside? Who knows, but it was funny.

Emma and Ellie are 5 months or so apart (just like Eve and Lilah). You'd never know it by their size. They were so busy it was tough to get a good picture. I can't wait for them to grow up together!

Laura snapped this one of Ellie. I love the colors. Apparently while we were inside Ellie took her first step! None since...that I've seen, so maybe I'll pretend it didn't happen and say I saw the first. Other firsts, John rode a 2 wheel scooter and did awesome!

How cute are they together? Laura, you've got to move back home!

This one just cracked me up.

Ready for the movie. Such pretty little girls.

And here's the Easter egg hunt

What a great day! I can't wait to go back!

HULK HANDS!!!

This year I wised up and decided we'd dye Easter Eggs long enough before Easter to get rid of our hulk hands in time for Easter pictures. Today was really windy, but an otherwise beautiful day, so we did it! Because of the wind we couldn't go naked like last year, so I suited them up in some of my old shirts. Proof that we started with a clean slate.

It was actually pretty calm...at least compared to last year. They worked on it a long time and only busted one egg. No major stains on the shirts either. I was rather surprised. Something tells me when Ellie enters the mix next year we'll be back to the screaming and bashing and splashing we had last year.

Funny how different Eve and John are. While I was mixing in the vinegar to make the dye John had his mouth covered to make sure none of it magically dripped into his mouth (traumatized from that discipline method, I suppose). Eve, on the other hand, kept licking the eggs and her hands. First she said it tasted yucky, then it tasted like pickles. She's crazy!

Working hard.

There are the hulk hands!

Notice Eve's are two different colors. She was standing where the dye that started out yellow (they all end up about the same color) was on her right side, and the ones that started red and blue were on her left side.

I wanted to get a picture of their hands. I ended up with proof that I live with monkeys!

Never a dull moment. Another fun Easter Egg dying session in the books...and green hands and tongue to show for it.