Easter Weekend

Come on, let's see how many of us we can get looking in completely different directions...and GO!

   
     So the title says it all, this is mostly a post of pictures for family and friends to gawk and talk about.  Yeah you know the ones, the lovely family photos of things people do over their Easter weekends, you know, like trespassing with your Pastor into gated areas.  That kind of thing.  Wait.  What? You don't?  Well you're missing out then, let me tell you.  And no I'm not going to put up pictures from that, that's evidence.
 
     Anyway, our Easter started on Thursday, much to my surprise.  Apparently the Easter season here  begins on Green Thursday, (actually should be Thursday of Tears...but some misunderstandings and inaccurate assumptions over the years has turned it into 'Green'.  Very interesting linguistic change, but I digress.)  So the boys' last day of Kindergarten was Wednesday.  We took advantage of the nice weather to clean out the flower beds, plant seeds, and return to organizing the house.  In case you have never had to move, it takes months to years to get around to unpacking everything and put it away after one moves across country, or in our case intercontinental.

     On Good Friday we took Dash to get his eyes checked for the first time, we are happy to report that other than being slightly Far-sighted, his eyes are fine and he doesn't need glasses yet.  Yep, we are assuming he will need them eventually, he pretty much has no hereditary chance of not needing them at some point.  Grins will get his eyes checked later on this month, but for now it was fun to see him be such a big boy in the chair.    Funny he can see just fine, but can't seem to get them to look AT the camera...sheesh.  He was actually disappointed to learn he wasn't going to get glasses, but happy that he was a 'big boy' and surprised the Optometrist with his ability to recognize and name all the numbers and letters required for a normal adult eye exam.  Go Bug!  We also stopped at the Garden Center to pick ups some solar powered outdoor lighting and some potting soil.  Or at least that's what we were supposed to be picking up.  We ended up leaving with that AND three window boxes and flowers for said window boxes, plus a grill.  Yes we finally replaced the old rusted out charcoal grill.  It's a nice Char-broil propane grill, I know I know, propane just doesn't taste as good as charcoal, but we've decided that until the kiddos are old enough to make it practical to go out and prep the grill, we'll have to settle for quick, easy, and efficient over flavorful and more time consuming.  This way we can grill at all.

      Saturday was filled with more housework and filing of our taxes...yes I waited a long time to do so, but hey we had a baby, moved to another country, and started new jobs, so yeah I wasn't done by mid January, but hey I didn't have to file an extension.

Rare Blueberry Muffin Perch

      Easter Sunday was a wonderful day, it started with breakfast at church, we brought blueberry muffins.  I made them from scratch.  I would have made all of them fish...but that would have taken too long, and besides, it may have creeped out the other church members.  I mean really what would you think if you came up on a bowl filled with these things?  Note the blueberry conveniently located in the 'eye' socket as well as the blueberry 'lips'.





   
During breakfast we learned that dressing up children all fancy in suits and frilly dresses is a very non-European thing to do, they absolutely adore and loved seeing the boys in their suits and Princess Lumpy in her dress.  However, as one lady put it.  "This is an America and Canada thing to do, not very European.  It is so pretty, but you cannot get this stuff [these clothes] here."  It was apparently so endearing that many older women in the church kept coming up and taking Lumpy and taking pictures just holding her in her "little wedding dress" as one person put it.  We love it here. :D


  

After everyone ate breakfast, we cleaned up and had a wonderful Easter worship service and enjoyed sharing communion with our new church family.  When church was done I scooped up Lumpy and wrapped her up in her blanket and the towels leftover from the muffins and placed her in the serving bowl.  Placed said bowl on my head and headed out the door.  She was so comfy and tiny that from the ground you couldn't tell I had a baby on my head.

       While I was all ready to walk home now, we opted instead to stop and take Easter pictures in front of our friend's flowers instead.  Then went home, took a few more pictures outside in our backyard before it was naptime before we headed over to the home of our pastor for tea and cake.  We got to learn all about the church's plans to expand as we've outgrown our current location they are looking into buying an old building from the city and remodeling the interior.  Or if they should look elsewhere, so prayers for wisdom as they begin the search and decision making process for this are greatly appreciated.  After cake we went for a walk to check out the building site in question and the men 'snuck in' to inspect it and discuss their ideas while the women and children stayed outside admiring the scenery.   Oh and for those who don't know me, I'm being somewhat tongue and cheek, we weren't really in any danger of being arrested, and it was more a 'question of authority' as the Pastor put it, in regards to accessing the site over the weekend instead of during the week like would normally be done.  So while it's more fun to think of it as a sneaky adventure, it was more legitimate than that.  Although the boys "aka grown men" were having a blast being all sneaky like school children sneaking into the gym after hours.  The building in question is a historical building that was originally a textile mill in the 20's then the US Army took it over after WWII and it was a tank repair workshop.  It has been derelict since the 50's when the US withdrew from the area and gave the land back to the government.  So it is an interesting structure to say the least.

    Well here they also celebrate Easter Monday, so yesterday was filled with more working on the house and goofing off as a family.  Not much to write about, but hey I have tons of pictures of Easter to share.  So here ya go.  The final picture was the result of tons of coercion on our part and equal amounts of noncooperation on theirs.

 

Lumpy 1.5mo, Chubbly 1.5yr, Grins  3yrs, Dash 5yrs

 The boys singing before Church.