Easter Week

What a full week! We started off our Spring Break with MCC Sale (see post below). Then, after recuperating on Sunday with a long nap and a relaxing dinner with great friends, we were ready for our week! Monday we walked around the neighborhood, first to the library for some books for the week, then to the grocery store to get ingredients for our dinner. We had a great dinner, catching up with the Isaac's. And since there was no school the next day for any of our kids (or for Jason and Jane, both being teachers) we hung out, watched the basketball game, enjoyed pies from the MCC sale, and chatted until well past dark. When our kids started to "melt down" around 10 we finally decided to call it a night. Tuesday, the kids and I braved the wind and eminent thunderstorms and headed to Oso de Oro Park to play, swing, feed the ducks, and run and run and run! We had a great time, but all that wind made for a rough night of coughing (all those pollens and stuff in the air triggered Isaac's allergies/asthma and gave Violet a stuffy nose). So Wednesday we laid low and watched some movies during the day. By dinnertime we felt so cooped up though, we called the Wiens' family to join us for a dinner out! All nine of us headed to Chevy's (a great place to dine with kids: loud, inexpensive, and all the chips, tortillas and salsa you want for free)! Thursday the kids enjoyed a play-date with some friends in the morning and then, they spent the evening with just Dad, since I drove to Bakersfield to attend Barbara's memorial service. Thank you to all of you that prayed for my safety driving back and forth by myself. Although the whole day was emotional and difficult, I am glad that I went. My friend Jill (Johnson) Lee met me at the church and we sat with most of the other girls that lived in the dorm with me and Barbara. I spent quite a while after the service looking through picture books that Barbara had made over the past years, and reading her "cancer journal" which was sad but inspiring as you could see Barbara's faith and hope in God reflecting through her words. I took advantage of the driving time alone, over 4 hours total, to listen to encouraging music (as well as some Easter podcasts from Imago Dei's Rick McKinley) and reflect on God's love and His promises to Barbara, to her family, and to me! Friday, Randy had the day off, and joined us for the annual Easter Eggstravaganza that our church holds in the neighborhood park. The kids enjoyed the morning, full of friends, a craft, music, the Easter story, a bounce house, and an egg hunt! Saturday we attended another egg hunt, but this one wasn't for our kids. Grandma Arlene joined us for a trip to the Fresno Zoo, where the zookeepers had made special eggs (they looked like paper mache) with treats inside for the animals. The kids had fun spotting the brightly colored eggs in many of the habitats, some still intact, others broken open to eat the goodies inside! And Sunday, of course, was the big day! Randy and Isaac started their morning at 5:30 a.m. when they woke up, got dressed and headed out the door for a sunrise service. The girls and I slept in until 7:15, about the time Randy and Isaac got home. We enjoyed a wonderful celebration of Christ's resurrection with our church family in the morning, then headed to Randy's mom's house to spend the rest of the day! We ate lunch, hid more eggs for the kids, I took a nap (what holiday wouldn't be complete without a snooze on the couch after a big meal?), and just relaxed the day away! Here's a few pictures from Easter Sunday.