Funny Things They Say (Volume 6)

We are going to stay at an Amish farm in Pennsylvania in a few weeks with Nate's parents. I have been reading Amish Life books to the kids in preparation for their questions. Right now, we have 2 friends over for a playdate and they are playing airplane to New Mexico. Rita is describing (I am writing it word for word) the Amish to the other two kids.

"They wear caps and no jewelry. They are very elegant. They have dolls with no faces. And they don’t like their pictures taken. We have books of them. When they get married they wear black caps. And no jewelry. After their wedding, they have the next people come into the house to get married and then they have dinner. Seriously no jewelry."

Funny Things They Say (Volume 5)

Sammy was putting on his tie and shirt for Easter this morning and said to Nate, "Am I going to work too daddy?"

He was serious.

Good Easter Morning Washington DC!

Here are some photos from the Easter Sunrise Service at the Lincoln Memorial. It really was not that difficult to attend this morning... even with children. Our kids wake up very early anyways so we just woke them up a little earlier and they were very excited. We got in the car around 5:15am and arrived and was parked on Constitution Ave by 5:45am.

Here we are sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. So memorable!

This was the beautiful view while listening to some awesome music.

The pictures don't do it justice. We would highly recommend it to anyone who is in DC for Easter. Ellen was a little active but we contained her in the backpack (thank you Carrie!)

After the sun rose...

Beautiful weather outside...

Nate and I really liked the "mix" of people there. Many young professionals made up the crowd (with their Starbucks cups) but also there were many older people and and joggers and white dresses/hats and young families and Amish.

We were also very impressed with how professional and detailed the service was. It was all easy to hear, ushers were everywhere, seats were rented, bulletins handed out...

But most of all, it was an awesome way to put Easter into perspective and celebrate that

Jesus WAS RISEN!

Stay-Cation... "Festival Day" - Sat...

Friday was a wash but Sat was great! Our church had an Easter festival. It was the best Easter Egg hunt I have ever been to. The kids had to listen to the REAL Easter story before hunting for eggs. And they had thousands of eggs all over our church property (20ish acres). This was the first egg hunt lineup.

Sammy got to play with some baby chicks.

Ellen enjoyed the stage.

Funny Things They Say (Volume 4)

I was cleaning Sam's feet last night before he went to bed and he says to me, "Mommy, this is what Jesus's wife did."

Stay-Cation... "Swap Day" - Thurs

On Thursday, we drove to our friend's house in our old neighborhood for a "Mommy Swap." On the way, we drove by "The Pig". This is always a highlight for the kids as you can see.

We picked up Matt, my good friend Jenni's son, for a morning of play with us. Don't tell his mom I let him play "pretty pink princess castle!!"
Then we did the SWAP! This is a huge event that my moms group throws and it is so fun. Everyone brings things to swap and you get a number. You go around and pick things that are interesting to you in a round robin style. I let the kids pick out what they wanted. I was sad to donate some of my linens but I never use them so it was time.

Here is the SWAP room.

Wendy is showing off her new Pashmina (this is Wendy's beautiful home!)

Then we came home to a special treat: Lunchables! See the kitchen in the background... it won't be like this long. I am painting... reveal is to come soon.

Stay-Cation... "Georgetown Day" - Weds

So on Weds, we took a 20 minute drive to Georgetown to run a few errands. First stop, Georgetown Hospital for a little check-up. Don't be alarmed! It was just the only place we could see a Pediatric Dermatologist quickly. Nothing big!

Next stop... get Nate at work and go to Georgetown Cupcake. Well, it is Spring Break and the line had about 300 people in it. So we went to Thomas Sweet - our favorite place for ice cream!
Then to soccer practice!

Stay-Cation... "Garbage Day" - Tuesday

On Tuesday, we went up to the church to meet another friend to organize some last minute items and make labels. We have even more fun on Tuesday. The kids loved it! They rode bikes and scooters all day in the church lot. My friend Candi (see below) brought only 5 of her children over with her, but we still got a lot done.

Warning LONG STORY AHEAD: We ended up having a huge - I mean huge - pile of unusable items from the clean-out the day before. We are talking old furniture that someone dumped on the church property, mice-infested banners, wasp-nest filled flower pots, etc. We jumped right in calling some junk hauling companies and asking friends and handymans to see who could take these items to the dump. We were quoted prices of $600 and up for the junk removal. What were we to do??? We have a big Easter event at the church on Sunday - it must go!!

We decided to call the church's trash removal company to make one special pickup. We knew one pickup would not be enough but it was the best we could do for under $100.

When we heard the garbage truck come to dump the dumpster, I ran out with one of our international pastors at our church to say "we were happy to see you" to the garbage man. We chit-chatted with him and asked if we could load up a little more and have him do an extra dumpster dump. He said sure. I ran over to the "crew" of kids, called the pastors that were in the office to come out, and long story short, our wonderful garbageman ended up dumping 6 dumpsters full for us while we frantically ran back and forth from the dumpters with about 15 children, wheelbarrows and wagons. We were laughing SO HARD. We tipped him way over $50 for being so kind to us! It was quite a scene. God really provided for us. God is good! We were so energized.

Here is Candi with some grain sacks...

The race is on... get the trash into the dumpster ASAP!
The garbage man brought the dumpster to us after 3 dumps!

Run people RUN! Get the garbage in - quick!

GO GO GO!

Our last load...
Another great day of SERVICE! Don't worry -

Weds is...

GEORGETOWN CUPCAKES

(and GTown Hospital)!

Stay-Cation... "Service Day" - Monday

On Monday, we had planned to organize a shed at church with some friends and our kids. We had 4 adults and about 10 children. It was a really fun time. We worked from 9 AM until 3 PM and the "decorating" shed at church looks just awesome now. It is so easy to find what is needed and our church is now ready to throw a big Easter event on Saturday. Although, we never found the Crown of Thorns, we found a lot of mice.

BEFORE

AFTER
These are some in between photos. We found some really fun, funny, and laughable things that kept us going. Here is Kristen with a little wedding favor we found thrown on the floor in the shed. Kristen is a good family friend and kept making me laugh - she really helped us with the babies.
Here is Liz holding up the picket fence and some old VBS decorations before everything fell on us!
And this is what the kids did all afternoon. They played wedding, race cars, parade, house, and angels.

Another trip to the dumpster - throwing away the mice!

Ellen enjoyed herself all morning with the flags.
What a crew! This was taken around 3 PM.

Stay-Cation... Spring Break Day 1 - Sunday

Because we already went to Florida and we plan to go to Lancaster in a few weeks, we decided to stay home for our Spring Break. We call it a STAY-CATION. It was kicked off on Sunday after church when we went to our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Since we are new in the neighborhood, this is new to us. The kids loved it. We have some friends who live in our neighborhood that just had a newborn and so we also picked up their daughter and brought her with us (that is the extra little girl!)

Sam and Karina

Sisters - see the eggs in the background???
Ellen was EXTREMELY possessive of her eggs. She knew exactly what was going on at the Easter Egg Hunt and wanted all her eggs in her basket and the basket to be held by ONLY her. This is Nate trying to take it away from her.

On Sunday night, Nate told Rita that if she pulled her loose tooth out, she would get ice cream. So Rita lost her first tooth - VERY VERY exciting!

Happenings around here...

Ben and Jerry Free Cone Day with friends from school...

Ellen's first free cone day!
Baptism at church - 24 were baptized on Sunday.
It was really neat.

"He is Risen!" Party

Two of the moms in our class through a fabulous Easter party in Grace's class on Friday. The other 3 kids and I went to celebrate and make cute crafts with Grace.

Doing the crafts...
TThe finished "egg lamb"

Birds Nests for a treat...

Our # 1 first grader!

Beautiful Cross...

Every child at Rita's preschool brought in a flower today to make this "Living Cross." It is so beautiful that I had to share.

Everyone is asking about Nate and his job.

So far we don't know.

Mystery Question

Does anyone from Cedarville who read my blog know what this is?

Hint: Spray Paint