Easter, Easter, Everywhere

Just like everyone else, we are in Easter mode FULL FORCE in our house this week. The week started off on Tuesday by celebrating my mom's birthday (a couple days late). I decided that she and I needed some quality mother-daughter time (without kids or husbands) and it has been a REALLY long time since we have done this. So I told her to clear her calendar for Tuesday night and surprised her by taking her to My Monet and then to dinner at DePalma's (Dad and Sam met us there). For those of you who don't know what My Monet is, it is similar to Sips and Strokes. You show up, pay $35 and they "teach" you how to paint your own masterpiece. Each class is a different painting and everyone does the same painting. It's amazing how different each person's can be. We had been talking about doing this together for some time, so I thought, what would be better than to do this for her birthday. We had a ball and we both did pretty well on our paintings - the picture of the eggs is the one I painted.

Anna's class had their party and Easter Egg Hunt Thursday and she had a ball! I'm not sure she really "got" it, but oh well! She was terrified of the Easter Bunny too! She kept telling us last night, "Anna not yike bunny rapit!"

Today is MMC's party and hunt. We signed up to make cookies for the lunch, so yesterday while Anna napped, we made cookies. After Anna woke up (and after threatening MMC to be patient until Anna woke up), we dyed our Easter Eggs! I only boiled about a dozen (plus a couple extra, just in case) this year and that was plenty! MMC was the only one that got to help last year since Anna was still a baby, but this year they both helped! Anna was not about to get left out of that much fun! So after getting everything ready and together, and getting the girls clothes covered in smocks, the first round of eggs went into the color. Next year I think I will try and plan some activities around the time it takes to dye the eggs because trying to keep their little fingers (especially Anna's) out of the bowl while we "waited" on them to dye was a huge challenge. MMC had a meltdown (one of many these days) because she got the dye on her fingers and it wouldn't come off by just wiping it. Whew - thank goodness we only dyed a dozen. They are not the prettiest of eggs (despite me wanted to make the Martha Stewart-ish), but the girls thought they were the best. Anna did not quite understand that we couldn't THROW the eggs into the dye - she cracked one doing this - again, oh well, it's all about the experience and the memories, right? Now only if I can keep the girls from getting them out of the frig until the Easter Bunny comes.

On a more serious and more meaningful story, I have been reading MMC the story of Easter out of her Bible and they have been discussing it at school, too. So the other day, she asks if she can color on my little chalk board man in the kitchen. I was not really paying attention until I looked up and saw that she had drawn what looked like a cross to me. I said, "Mary Mac, what is that you're drawing?" And she looked at me dumbfounded (like, duh?) and said, "It's a cross, Mom!" Ok, I thought, WOW, she really is starting to retain some of her Bible Stories - yea! I get busy again and come back to see the picture (above). Again I asked her what that was and she said, "Well, mom, that is the cross that Jesus was nailed to and that is Jesus on the Cross!" WOW!!!! How cool that not only is she retaining the stories, but she is able to tell the story in her own words and images! She is totally our artistic child and has such an imagination and ability in her art. Oh, and by the way, she said she drew the hair on Jesus crazy like that because He has long hair and he was sad! I have never been artistic (or didn't think so at least) - I pray that I can nuture her artistic spirit in a way that will always feed that side of her! May the Spirit be within you all as we celebrate the true meaning of Easter this weekend!