Happy Easter!

Our #AtHomeEaster was a little different this year, but still included many special things.  We celebrated Holy Week with online worship and Mark did the readings for our church's Tenebrae service on Good Friday.  We took out our Resurrection Eggs set and colored pictures of the eggs as we opened them and read the corresponding Scripture verses.  Leah participated in the FOL Kids challenge for the week by helping me make and decorate this banner on Palm Sunday:

#AtHomeHosanna

 
We decided to hold the kids' annual Easter Egg hunt on Saturday afternoon, as the forecast looked iffy for Easter Sunday.  Mimi is usually at our house for Easter, and she started this egg hunt for the kids many years ago.  However, this year, she mailed the eggs (already filled with coins and $ bills!) to us and the L&L were so excited to have "Mimi's Egg Hunt" even during our Stay-at-Home orders:

This was Millie's first egg hunt, and she was adorable.  She followed the kids around the yard and was a great little helper to both of her siblings:

The kids checked out their loot after they found all their eggs, and were thrilled with their earnings!

Our neighbor across the street is the pastor of a local church, and held an outdoor Easter service for our neighborhood on Saturday afternoon.  There were several songs, a hopeful Easter message, and perfect weather for families to spread out on blankets (10 yards apart) in the grass to celebrate.  There were goodie bags for the kids and a sign for families to pose for their "Easter photo".  Our attire was a little different than usual, but we loved this opportunity to celebrate Easter with our neighbors and have a sense of community in such an uncertain time:  

After "neighborhood church", the kids made this big chalk creation in the driveway as Part Two of our FOL Kids' challenge:

#AtHomeHallelujah

Families are sharing these photos on social media and in the community (our friends were in the newspaper!) to spread the message of Easter, and we had fun with this challenge.

Apparently, the Easter Bunny is an essential employee, because he remembered to stop by our house and fill L&L's baskets on Easter Eve!

The kids were happy to wake up to find their baskets of goodies and they opened presents on Easter morning:

The kids got right to work assembling their Easter Lego sets...

...and paused to have yummy chocolate croissants for breakfast!

We walked to the park after breakfast and saw this cross displayed at our fire station to celebrate Easter morning:  

We also had lots of fun activities to do as a family on Easter.  After watching our online worship service, we played Family Bingo and participated in several competitions/challenges with the other games:

Roll an Egg Dice Game.

They were very motivated by the Skittles packs that I had as Bingo prizes!

Pin the Tail on the Bunny. 

In the afternoon, we watched the (recorded) Sight and Sound Theatres live production of "Jesus" and we all really enjoyed it.  That evening, we had a fancy Easter dinner (while wearing pjs!) in our dining room.  Millie was super confused, as I'm pretty sure that we haven't eaten a meal in that room since we've had her:

Their wine glasses are filled with milk!

We had coconut cake for dessert, which was the perfect, sweet ending to our lovely Easter at home together.  

He is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed.
Alleluia!

Signs of Spring

Signs of spring are everywhere!  We've spotted the Easter Bunny (who may not be thrilled that her family is home all the time and has LOTS of ideas on how to dress her up):

The kids dyed Easter eggs, and love this activity each spring: 

The farm down the road also planted tulips for the first time this year.  There were 100,000 beautiful, colorful bulbs in the U-pick tulip field.  We walk by this bucolic farm every day, and it was such an uplifting, happy sight to watch the flowers bloom this spring:

We picked lots of tulips to share with our neighbors and it was a fun family activity while social distancing: 

Happy Spring!

Winter Notes

We just wrapped up basketball season, which means that spring will be here before we know it!  Leah's team, The Fireballs, had a GREAT season, and this little girl perfected her lay up recently.  Leah also participated in a skills clinic this winter led by our high school girls' basketball team, and really enjoyed this experience.  Coach Mark did an amazing job with Leah's team this year, and these fierce girls were a lot of fun to watch:

Mark also coached Luke's basketball team, and Luke loved having his BFF, Aiden, on the team with him.  The boys had a tough season record-wise, but got better and better, and finished with an great tournament weekend and several awesome wins:

Grandpa came to visit in January while Daddy was on a work trip to Cancun.  We celebrated Leah's belated birthday with him and had a nice visit:

Meanwhile, this was Big Boss' view:

I mean, some work trips are just more grueling than others.  Here's one of Mark's "meetings":

We loved seeing these pics of Daddy's boondoggle, and the kids (and Mommy) proclaimed that they'd be happy to tag along next time!  

In February, Mark and Leah attended the Father-Daughter Dance at school, and this is one of their favorite nights all year.  They went to dinner at Chick Fil A beforehand (Leah's choice!) and danced the night away, while Luke and I had a movie and pizza date at home:

Millie didn't understand why she couldn't go to the dance, too!

Valentine's Day brought lots of goodies, red hearts, and a dressed up Doodle:

Mimi also visited in February, and watched all three kids while Mark and I went on an overnight getaway to a lovely resort in Raleigh.  We attended a fancy afternoon tea, rented bikes, went to a brewery & pizzeria downtown in the evening, and spent the next morning at the spa.  It was heavenly, and we were thankful for the opportunity to go while Mimi and the kids had fun at home:

Luke had an awesome winter filled with several special accomplishments.  After placing first in both his class and grade level spelling bees, Luke came in third in the school-wide spelling bee and made it through 17 rounds of tough words!  As a 6th grader, this is amazing, and this kid LOVES acadmic competitions.  He also placed second in the school geography bee (after winning his class & team bees) , and studied his atlas "for fun" ahead of time to prepare.  We are so proud of him!  Luke LOVES watching Jeopardy and his goal is to compete in the Teen Tournament in a few years.    

Luke was also nominated by his P.E. teacher to be the Spotlight Student of the month in February.  The character trait for the month was courage, and I couldn't be prouder of our awesome kid.  Luke was recognized at a special breakfast for students and parents, and we watched him receive his award.  I was so anxious about the transition to middle school, and Luke has had an absolutely wonderful year.  He  continues to find joy in all new experiences and approaches them with optimism and exuberance.  Luke makes good choices, stays true to his values, has a great group of peers, and is not swayed by others.  I pray that this continues as he navigates middle and high school.       

Northwest Middle School Viking Spotlight Students

Luke's favorite part of 6th grade continues to be band.  He and Aiden joined the Pep Band, which plays at all the middle school home basketball games.  The boys look forward to each game, and this is has been a fun new activity this year:

We had an in-home trainer come for Millie in February, and it was life changing!  Her observation that Millie has no concept of personal space was spot-on, and she gave us some strategies to help reestablish the order of our "pack".  Since the trainer's visit, Millie doesn't jump on people, has stopped stealing our shoes and socks, and is much easier to take on walks.  We still love her Doodle snuggles, but were so appreciative for some tips on how to communicate with our energetic puppy! 

It's been a great winter, and we are looking forward to the beginning of soccer season and spring activities soon!

Snow!

At the end of February, we finally had a real snowfall with accumulation.  It really was the perfect snow, with only a couple of inches that melted the next day.  In the south, that's enough for a day off school, and these kids were so excited!  It was Millie's first snowfall, too, and she had just as much fun playing in the snow as her brother and sister. 

Enjoy these pictures of our snow day!

Millie ran along side of the kids as they went sledding down the hill!