A recap

Don't you love January? Everything is so new and possible. Last January I was feeling so ready for a new year. One thing I did was make a list of all the birthdays in our lives that I wanted do something more than a card for. I also made another list of all the holidays that we celebrate and ideas for gifts for the kids for each. I figured I had plenty of time so I could really do some special things. Well, January was 4 months ago now, that birthday list has really just meant some more projects for my unfinished projects tub and most people haven't even received a card. And the holiday list...as I sat up finishing my Easter crafting at 11pm Saturday night I was remembering fondly making that list.

For the kid's Easter baskets I had seen a cute bunny that another blogger made a few springs ago with the link to the free pattern. So I downloaded the pattern and made plans to make the Wee Wonderfuls Bunnies for each kid. They were easy-ish to put together and I thought they turned out pretty cute. I can see all the weird seams and where things didn't go exactly like they should have but the kids liked them.

Our egg decorating didn't happen until Saturday morning. I had boiled the eggs on Thursday so they'd be ready for Friday afternoon but I went errand running which took way longer than I expected and by the time I was back, unpacked, dinner made, served and cleaned-up Mr. Wiedz decided decorating eggs would be better the next morning when we were all fresh. And fresh we were. I went for a run with my new neighbor-friend at 7:30. When I got back I folded a load of laundry, took a shower then mixed up egg dye. #1 and #2 tried making multi-colored eggs, #3 got more dye on his hands, table and shirt while spooning dye over his egg to get it as bright as he could just like dad and #4 peeled the only egg we gave him. Everyone had fun though and our eggs looked really great.

#1 streaching to reach the counter to roll out pie crust...how'd she get so big?

After the egg fun it was lunch time then quiet time. While the little boys were sleeping #1 and #2 helped me start my Easter cooking. We made Angel food pie, Angel food cake and chocolate bunnies and eggs.

Easter morning dawned EARLY! #1 came in just before the alarm went off at 6AM to get me out of bed for the sunrise service. I said something about her waking up so early and she informed me she'd woken up at 5:30 and waited until 6 to come get me. I told her how much I appreciated her waiting. She told me, "Sunrise service is my favorite part". So we went up the cemetery near church for the sunrise service although there was no sun rising but we only got sprinkled on which was a blessing. We then went down to the church for the breakfast put on by the men. The did a great job again with sausage, fruit trays, scrabbled eggs and pancakes. Mr. Wiedz asked the kids if they thought the Easter bunny had come to our house while we were gone that morning. That's all it took, they were finished, cleaned-up and waiting at the door in no time.

We came back home to find that the Easter bunny had stopped by to hid some baskets filled with treats but had to leave before he could hid any eggs...he'd have to come back after he'd made a few more stops.

Here's where I have to tell you about #1's wish for an Easter dress for her doll, Kit. #1 poured through the American Girl catalogs marking each dress that would a suitable Easter dress, narrowed down her choices and finally decided on a beautiful dress that with shipping would have cost $30 (and probably not gotten here before Easter). Well, I had to gently let her know that there wasn't really and extra $30 to spend on Kit's Easter dress so she'd just need to use what she had and help Kit accept an older dress that still looked nice. But it got me thinking. One of my great friends at church has grand-daughters with American Girl dolls and she had made Shelby's Kit a dress at Valentine's Day. She'd told me how easy it was to make but I knew it was far beyond my sewing skills. I emailed my friend asking that if I provided the fabric if she'd be able/willing to make Kit an Easter dress to surprise Shelby with on Easter. She responded that she was thinking of making her grand-daughter's dolls dresses so she'd be able to do one for Kit as well. I picked up the dress on Saturday morning after my run...Oh. My. Gosh. Beautiful. So Wonderful. A blessing. Kit received her own Easter basket with the dress and a wee wonderful bunny that I made shrinking the pattern down from the ones I'd made the kids. #1 was thrilled.

Everyone's baskets were thoroughly gone investigated and enjoyed and then it was time to get ready for church. I even ironed the boys' shirts! Huge. My mom will probably faint with this news. I had found a dress on sale for #1 and a cute hat at the $1 store. I underestimated how much time it would take to get us ready, photographed and out the door so we were a few minutes late for the service.

After church we participated in one of my favorite traditions at our church. We'd brought flowers from home to add to the cross outside in front of the church. Then posed for a family photo in front of the cross.

We arrived back home, ate a quick lunch and got #4 down for his nap and the older kids watching a movie. Put the finishing touches on the house and appetizers while Mr. Wiedz's entire family arrived for the Easter party. Aunts, Uncles, big cousins, Great Grandmas, Grandmas and Granpdas. It was a great time.

We had a great Easter dinner. We'd cooked the last ham left over from butchering our pigs this fall, which turned out delicious. We were even able to send everyone home with a baggie of ham for sandwiches this week. Mr. Wiedz left our pile of meat on the cutting board and when I came in from saying good-bye to the last car-load I saw #3 shoving the last of it into the garbage and shutting the cutting board...helpful little bugger. So everyone has delicious left-overs but us!

Mr. Wiedz's aunts were fabulous and made a huge dent in the kitchen clean-up before they left but a sign of a good party is the aftermath.

The kids, Mr. Wiedz and I spent the next couple of hours relaxing and trying to bring the kids down from the sugar highs. After baths and a thorough brushing and flossing (Aunt M, the dental hygienist's request) everyone was in bed by 8:00 and I was happy to take the evening off from the treadmill, curl up with my book in front of The Amazing Race.

The episode that prompted my blogging break turned out to be an outbreak of Norovirus at the school and although #1 never got it, the symptoms of one kind or another hit the rest of us the weekend before last and closed the school for the week. Today everything is back to normal, #1 and #2 off to school, the little boys laying down for naps (at least when I started writing this post) and the house quiet for a little while. I'm already missing my girl and get to pick up #2 in just 15 minutes!

Now that the Easter crafts are complete I need to check my list to see what I should start working on...maybe my thinking-ahead plan can still work.