Happy (Second Day of) Easter

I love how pretty our church's altar looks on Easter morning. It's even more beautiful after seeing it stripped bare on Thursday evening.

But. 

The lighting in there is horrible. Every picture of I've ever seen in our sanctuary is marred by this orange-ish glow that frustrates me to no end because 1. it looks bad and 2. I don't know enough about lighting and photography to know how to fix it (if there even is a way).

However, I also love photo editing software. With just a few clicks of a mouse, I was able to create a passable picture. The lighting is still imperfect and a few of us are wearing weird expressions but, hey, we are a family of six: good enough when it comes to family snapshots is better than nothing.

My Trick-or-Treaters

My '80s Pop Star (too wet and rainy for the super fab '80's boots she had intended to wear):

My little soldier (he was pretty impressed with all the salutes that came his way):

Rapunzel (as represented in E's favorite movie, Tangled). How absurdly ridiculous and cute is that dumb wig?

And our little . . . um . . . I'm not sure what she is, exactly. We were all set for Caroline to wear the same dog costume that all my other kids wore when they were two-years-old (shown here on Elisabeth). But when it came time to put it on Caroline ran away and shrieked, "NO GOG! NO GOG! DON WANNA BE GOG!" I then had the ingenious idea of simply painting a dog face on her since, at this point, I just assumed she was scared of the costume. To the idea of face paint? "NO GOG! DON WANNA BE GOG!!!" At this point it was about five minutes before trick-or-treating, all my other trick-or-treaters were dressed and ready to go, so I ran upstairs and yanked the first dress I saw out of Ellie's dress up bin. Caroline saw the dress, smiled and said, "I be pincess." So, I guess she was a crown-less princess, or someone who, no matter what, gets her way.

(Belated) Independence Day

I must confess, should I be accused of romanticizing certain things that I am to talk about later in this post, that I have loved Independence Day most of my life. I mean, what's not to love: usually reliably warm weather, family, friends, relaxation, hot coals on the grill, fireworks . . . need I go on?

But now that I live here . . . now I love it even more. The town that I live in lives for Independence Day. I mean, our Civic Foundation and other village groups do a lot things throughout the year, but nothing compares to how we go all out on the fourth of July every year.

There's a parade. A festival that everyone walks up to after the parade (literally by following the tail end of the parade up). At the festival there are games, food and a dixieland band. After the festival we go to our house and do nothing. Nothing. We won't even walk inside to get a drink, instead we keep a cooler close at hand containing all our favorite beverages so we don't have to move. We grill out and, if I may say, this year's meal was ridiculously delicious. And then, of course, fireworks.

The whole day feels idyllic. Magically idyllic, as if the stresses and worries of real life are paused for one long, too-perfect day.

So, yeah. We had a great fourth, and I hope you did too!

Easter Recap, 2011

As long as Joe gets a vote, I think our family will be doomed treated to the early (6:30 a.m.), sunrise service on Easter Sunday. Amazingly, even little Caroline adapted just fine to being woken more than two hours earlier than normal.

Our Easter morning service was, as always, moving and wonderful after a long, somber Lent and, as a special treat, we were treated to some incredibly gorgeous music thanks to our talented organist and numerous brass players (all extremely talented volunteers).

After the service we tried for our annual family picture in front of the altar. I think we'll continue the tradition if for no other reason than to prove that getting a nice family photograph with four kids is an impossible feat.

The Easter Bunny is nice enough to accommodate our early morning schedule and hold off on his deliveries until after we leave for church. That means that following the fun of church and Easter breakfast at church we have more fun to look forward to at home. Hidden Easter eggs! Baskets! Small gifts!

After we watched the kids play around with the new loot, cut Caroline off her her jelly bean feeding frenzy and drank some coffee, I started in on getting the house ready for our guests. This year I got smart and put all the kids in the basement, which meant we were only ten upstairs, and all adults.

Shortly after that, guests began to arrive and my camera fell on my list of priorities as cooking and playing with friends and family took precedence. 

After lots of enjoyable hours spent sipping wine and, later, coffee with all assembled, Joe, the kids and I changed into our PJs at 7 p.m. and cuddled in to watch Tangled, one of the few movies everyone in our family enjoys. 

It was, if memory serves, one of the most fun, relaxing Easters, we've had in awhile.

Christmas 2010 Recap

What a whirlwind of traveling, overeating and celebration the past few weeks have been.

Christmas Eve. Here. Dad and Diana are here. They bring Alex, fresh off an airplane from Tulsa. Bob arrives around the same time, but falls victim almost immediately to a harsh stomach bug and spends the evening resting.

Those healthy feast on beef tenderloin, Mrs. Butland's potatoes, fresh steamed green beans tossed with butter and lemon pepper, roasted carrots tossed with olive oil and thyme and dinner rolls (of the most basic sort: flour, yeast, etc.; nothing fancy).

After our Christmas Eve service we return home where the kids open new pajamas from their parents and a new ornament for the tree from Dad and Diana.

Christmas morning. Here. Just us. The first kid is awake by 5:28 a.m. This after a night when I finally went to bed around 12 a.m. Still, though, what parent-- even a tired one-- could be upset with excited children on Christmas morning?

Cinnamon rolls. Stockings. Coffee. Christmas story from Luke. Presents.

Christmas afternoon. Silver Lake. Dad, Diana, Cloe and Alex are present. Blake has been stricken by a stomach bug and is home resting. 

We eat, and we eat well. Ham. Turkey. Twice baked potatoes. There was more, and it was all delicious and worth every calorie.

Sunday, December 26. Silver Lake. A day of nothing. Wonderful, wonderful nothingness. Unless you were Diana, in which case it was your turn with the stomach bug flying around at warp speed. 

Friday, December 31. Oconto Falls. Doug, Wicky, Steve, Sue, Cassandra, Cody and Cedar. We arrive early afternoon and within an hour or two the kids are ripping into their presents.

Later we feast on steaks. Baked potatoes. More decadent, delicious Christmas feasting. We stay up to ring in the new year (all but Caroline).

Nice celebrations, all. 

Cookie Baking

Decorating cookies is more fun with friends, and I'll tell you why. First of all, you can get away with making one double batch of cookies and end up with multiple kinds of cookies since all participants contribute cookies. Second of all, it's just more fun because there is lots of laughing and chatting, both for kids and adults.

And, in my case, I get help from someone much more talented than I am. Here Erin is showing the girls how to carefully pipe the frosting on, as opposed to how I usually just slap it on.

See? Far prettier than anything I am able to do.

Forgotten Caroline didn't really get to decorate. Instead she walked around whining. To get her to be quiet the other kids kept sneaking her cookies. I think Caroline ate 6,720,000 sugar cookies this afternoon.

And speaking of sneaking sugar . . .

I am pretty sure Gus ate about eight pounds of icing. 

I think he would rather have had nine pounds.

Somehow, the cookies got frosted, and I think the kids did a really good job. Don't you?

Ornament Tour

Every year, going through Christmas ornaments and decorations is akin to strolling down Memory Lane.

That darling clay pig? Made for my mom by her cousin in Vermont when she was first married and on her own. It, along with its clay brethren, have hung on every childhood Christmas tree I ever had (not shown is also a duck among various other things, some of which now reside on Quantum Void's Christmas tree)).

Oh, this crystal unicorn. Every time I look at it I'm back in my childhood living room, staring at it longingly as it twinkled away ever so beautifully. I think I wanted to take it off the tree and play with it and pretend it was real. I think maybe I may have done that a time or two.

Miraculously, the unicorn survived. I now hear the same tenor of angst and desperation that my mother's voice must have contained when my children get too close to it.

The silver angel. This is the defining Christmas tree ornament of my childhood. It was sent to me upon my birth from a great-aunt on my mom's side and whenever we decorated my childhood tree I always had to do it near the end of decorating. The rational was saving it for the end would guarantee it would be on the outside, in one of the best spots, but I also think it was to amp up the anticipation of getting to the "good" ornaments (we all were forced to put up the ones no one thought were any fun, like balls, first).

Even though it was always my ornament, it hung on Mom and Bob's tree even after I was married and had my own tree. I always sort of hinted that maybe it was time for Mom to hand it over already, but I think she liked having those reminders of her kids around her, so I never pushed it. 

Almost every ornament on our tree has some story associated with it. It's no wonder putting up our Christmas tree is one of my favorite days of the year. 

Trick or Treat!

My witch, 

my S.W.A.T. member, 

my Tinkerbell, and

my Poky Little Puppy.

Each of the three kids is pictured next to the jack 'lantern that they carved (or, in Ellie's case, drew on the pumpkin, watched me carve, and then added those necessary touches, like hair, with marker).

Father's Day 2010

We're one of those families that never makes a big deal about Mother's Day or Father's Day and, as a result, we don't have anything we traditionally do on those days.

Yesterday Chris and Erin invited us to spend Father's Day with them and their four kids taking advantage of the Pioneer Village's open house (read: free) Sunday afternoon about a half an hour north of here.

What a wonderful place! I mentioned we recently visited Old World Wisconsin and Pioneer Village is definitely very similar, though on a much smaller scale. But because it's smaller there are also less people so the kids were able get their hands dirty and do a lot of interesting things, like vote,



grind coffee,



experience a one room school house,



wash clothes,



and make rope.



The kids even took a turn at attempting some old-fashioned games.







And then Chris and Joe decided the kids shouldn't have all the fun, so they warmed up their hoop rolling skills and eventually raced.

Joe took off gang busters, but Chris eventually prevailed.



And, though rarely photographed, the babies were there too. Caroline and Gus spent their time together swapping boogers and illnesses on the grass while everyone else played.



I know yesterday was supposed to be all about fathers, but our whole family had a really fun time.

Happy Easter!

Preparation.



After our Easter service.



Looking for, and finding, Easter treats at home.



Getting ready for our Easter feast.



We had a joyous, blessed Easter, and I hope you all did too!