Easter, etc.

I've missed tons of birthdays and holidays. I'm just treading water here. But here's a quick recap:

Exhibit A: EASTER

A little bit of reverse chronological order, but let's start with today. We hit some snags, but my expectations were low, and to be honest my preparations were even lower! Example 1: buying cute hats and ties for the boys but forgetting to even check whether the girls or I had anything remotely spring-ish to wear...

Example 2: Planning a day or two in advance to defrost that ham I found carefully wrapped when I cleaned out the freezer last week, but opening it today to discover that it was instead a quarter of a triple-layer chocolate cake. Easter fail. [Or was it a win???]

I disappointed my kids by announcing that I didn't want to do the traditional food color egg-dying but instead wanted to try going au naturale and using vegetables to dye eggs!

Pros: I thought the colors turned out super cool! (These are red cabbage and beet)

Cons: White-crayon art did not really show up. 

Also the dying process of boiling beets and cabbage and then letting the dye sit around all day made my house smell *awesome*.

I stalwartly marched my family to the backyard for some obligatory family pictures after church. Again, very minimal expectations. We got a couple good shots, but I am rusty and also lazy and/or inattentive, so some of the best ones were brutally out of focus.

Easter morning:
We don't really do mythical Easter bunnies at our house [creepy...?], and we don't buy gifts. But we hide eggs and have brunch and there is lots of candy and chocolate. Perfect Easter morning in my book.

When all was said and done, I loved Easter this year! I think low expectations help!! Seriously though, I am pretty certain nothing can ever top THIS Easter, which is canonized in history as my favorite Easter ever. I don't know if a sunrise service at Arlington National Cemetery (where my grandpa is buried) followed by brunch with friends and General Conference can ever be matched. Ever.
Church was fantastic - I felt like a lot of the messages (all of them?) struck a chord with me. Above all I am grateful for the example of my savior Jesus Christ, who spent all of his time and concern caring for and serving others and none on himself, which is something I'm trying to refocus my efforts on. How does one ever overcome those self-centered tendencies? He looked outward to the sick, afflicted, lonely, rejected, sinners and saints alike. The best gratitude I can show is emulating Him.

Trying to work chronologically now:
Travis's birthday!
Travis turned 39 last Saturday.
He really really loved the birthday badge I made him.


I made it for him to wear while running the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon the morning of his birthday!

It was awesome.

We ran "together" for about a mile, but we were too slow so he ditched us.

My friend Amy and I ran the rest of the race, and we pretty much looked like this the whole time:

Running for 2+ hours is tough. There are not very many things I can do for two hours. But talking to my friends is one of them. Having Amy with me is the only way I made it through!

[Selfie at about Mile 2]


Look, we are still conscious and didn't throw up!

After the race, Kate's ballet studio had tickets to KC Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty.

Kate and I went together. It was fantastic! It was fun for me (very much a non-dancer) to go with Kate, who observes a lot more and can explain it to me.
Sample comments she made: "Look how quiet their pointe shoes are!"
"Normally you don't bend your knees while on pointe, but she's doing it here to make her steps look more fairy-like."
"Did you see her fall over? When you lose your balance while on pointe, you just turn it into a graceful curtsy!"
I had no idea and was kind of watching the orchestra half the time!

Later we took Travis out for dinner and celebrated the next evening with cake!




The next day was Brooklyn's 9th birthday! We were still exhausted from the weekend, so she got sidelined a little. But she got a new bike (I don't know where those pictures are?) and we took her out to dinner.

We finally made her a cake of her own tonight! The kids have become fanatics of The Great British Baking Show. So she requested Mary Berry's Cherry Cake for her birthday cake. We weighed and measured and Googled and I think it was a success! Though definitely a little overbaked.

As I drizzled the icing (okay, glopped. It was a long night.) Brooklyn observed, "If you were on the Great British Baking Show, this would look 'rather clumsy.'" Yes, she was right.

 

Her party will follow in a week or two, when we catch our breaths and actually plan it. Stay tuned. 

 Also Kate and I went to a Royals game with friends last week. Not sure where to fit this in. The Royals lost. Also we left in the 7th inning (score 8-0) and in the bottom of the 9th they scored a home run. As always we had fun, though! And ate a lot of treats.

Whew! That's it for my recap. That took way too long. And yes, I did have to pull a penny out of the SD card slot in my computer delicately with the tips of my fingernails in order to retrieve these photos.