Easter Recap

We started the day with a sunrise service at church, which means being out the door by 6:15 a.m. We were dressed and ready pretty much on time, so I had a few minutes to snap some pictures.

Nothing outstanding, but you get the idea.

Like last year, the early hour becomes too much for Elisabeth.

Church, as every other Easter morning service, is glorious. Focusing on Christ's resurrection and singing all those alleluias after a restrained Lenten season is so perfect, each and every year.

During the children's sermon, our pastor asked the kids what three special things they noticed about Easter and Hank's hand knowingly shot up with the answer.

"Yes, Hank?" Pastor asked,

"We get to get up at the crack of dawn!" was Hank's well thought out response.

Not quite the right answer, but it did earn Hank some chuckles from the congregation.

After church and a sumptuous breakfast at our church, we return home. Ah ha-- the Easter Bunny has come and gone in our absence. The kids search for their loot.


After opening, Joe reads to the kids from a lovely edition of Aesop's Fables that the Bunny left for Elisabeth.


After that, we sit down to a heated game of Qwirkle (which the Easter Bunny brought our game loving Hank). Very, very fun game, even though Superdad is the victor. And Hank takes second place, which means I lose (does it count as a loss if I helped Hank with more than fifty percent of his plays?). A picture of the matching victors.

Soon after, guests begin to arrive. We eat our traditional Easter feast: Borscht (brought by Super Grandma), lamb, oven roasted potatoes, ham (brought by Diana), scalloped potatoes, green beans, Paska (brought by Super Grandma), a fruit salad (that Madeleine "made"), a tossed green salad and Jello. Diana made a fantastically delicious trifle for dessert.

And then, after dessert, coffee and chatting everyone departs, including (drumroll, please) all three kids! Thanks, Dad and Diana! Superdad and I don't quite know what to do with ourselves with no kids in the house, so we quickly decide, tired or not, we better go do something we can't ordinarily do. We go see a movie. A sort of fun, very underwhelming The Other Boleyn Girl. The movie has, however, excited some interest in Anne Boleyn and I have been enjoying a few nonfiction books about her life in my remaining time without the kids.

All in all, an excellent Easter day!