Easter at Our House

We decided to attend Saturday evening service to avoid the crowds Sunday morning.

These are the LuLaRoe Mommy & Me dresses, with the girls wearing the "Scarlet" which is the kids' version of the Carly.  I added the ribbon sashes to make them a little dressier.

We did a variety of egg decorating methods this year, including the food dye and coffee filters, which was new for us.  Other techniques include glitter podge, Sharpies, and the old vinegar baths.

Zach's cute little family is so photogenic!  I seriously only snapped about 8 shots, and they turned out great.  I think I'm going to put this one up on the wall next time Shutterfly offers free 8x10s.

Zach and Heather hid the Easter eggs for our backyard hunt.  We didn't count them this year, so I wouldn't be surprised if the kids find one in September.  Paul brought one in the Thursday after Easter.

The annual "let us out!" pose by the back door.  Everyone ready to hunt.  Except Josiah.  He wasn't feeling well.

I knew that I'd started out with a dozen eggs for each person and then added 2 full buckets that I didn't count when there was still candy left, so I told the kids to each find 20.

They found about 24 each (it varied a little).

Zach was a little extreme in his hiding for some of them.

And Brianna had to go over the fence (in a dress) for one that somebody tossed through the gap.

She looked great, though, didn't she?

Yup.  Another egg hidden up too high for any mortal to reach.

We found them!

My peeps.  Everyone except Annaliese, who's in New Zealand.

Paul took a couple pictures with me in there with them, but this is the only one where my head isn't blocking Eli's face.

And there's us.  Co-conspirators of all this craziness.

Zach & Heather brought their dyed eggs to our house, so we had lots of them.  We ended up doing an egg toss, which was rather hilarious, until it started raining on us.

Then we went inside to play games.

Zach and Heather are really good at Taboo.  I'm glad they were on separate teams.

We also played dominoes.

And, of course, there was much trading and consuming of candy.

It was a lovely day, and I hope you had a pleasant Easter, too.


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An Announcement and Egg Hunt Pictures

Let me preface this by saying that we've made a rather huge decision for our family.  A few months ago, we started talking about school for Jack.  Our kids usually homeschool for elementary and junior high and go off to private school for high school.  (6 of our 9 have also gone to classroom schools for kindergarten because I kinda sorta hate teaching reading.)

We had some concerns about Jack being able to attend the school that the older kids attend.  They're very driven by test scores, and Jack does not test well.  A friend of mine put her kids into a much smaller private school, and has had nothing but great things to say about it.  She calls it the next best thing to homeschooling, and says that with the small class sizes and flexible teachers, they really cater to the needs of each child (she has a child who is working ahead of her grade level in some areas there).  This sounded like it might be a better fit for Jack.

Once we finally made the decision that he would go to school next year, I started wondering if it might be a good idea to send Katie, too.  Katie is afraid of getting anything wrong, and I get frustrated sometimes when trying to get her to answer a question.  While we're making it work, I think it would be beneficial to our relationship if I could just be Mom and have someone else be Teacher.

I could continue to homeschool Hannah.  And I'm sure we'd have a wonderful time together.  But she misses having friends at school.  She attended our neighborhood school K-2, and she likes school.

So the long and the short of it is...  All the kids will be in classroom school in the fall.  Brianna and Eli will continue at their school, and Jack, Hannah, and Katie will start at the smaller school.  In an effort to start to get to know the school and the kids that go there, Paul and I took Hannah and Katie to their egg hunt.

I just love this picture as the girls wait for the signal to go gather up all those eggs!

And they're off!

This new season for our family will be different, and I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but I'm kind of excited about it.

I've never been able to be a "room mother" type mom, due to homeschooling, having younger kids at home, and Paul's work schedule, so I'm looking forward to being able to get involved at the school.

I think the coming school year will bring about huge changes in the kids, too, mostly Jack, who is just edging into teenager-hood.  He and Katie have never been to school, so the adjustment period may be a challenge for them.  I'm pretty sure Hannah will rock the transition like she has everything else that's come her way.

Look at all those eggs!

My girls usually get run over at egg hunts, so it was nice that this one had a large number of eggs and a small number of children!

The empty plastic eggs were then exchanged for tickets, and the tickets were taken to tables where they could be used to buy candy, bubbles, plastic jewelry, and other trinkets.

The girls got the chance to try out their new school playground.

I think Katie missed the idea of how to go down the fire pole.

I love them so much!  And as much as I've loved having them here at home with me, I'm looking forward to picking them up from school and hearing all about the new things they learn without me, too.

Isn't she beautiful?  I think it will be good for Katie to have peers who don't shriek when something doesn't go their way, so she can figure out some different coping skills.

Impersonating a small family

I'm planning to really savor this summer and enjoy hanging out with all my kids (who still live at home) while I have that opportunity.


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Mission San Diego De Alcala

I have a thing about the California Missions.  I don't know why.  I never did the "build a mission" project when I was in elementary school, nor have any of my children, although most kids in our state do them around 4th grade.

But I love the missions.  They're such a fascinating part of our history.

And since we studied California history this year, and since we were going to be in San Diego anyway, and since it would be prohibitively expensive for our "not quite group rate" sized family to go to any of the touristy attractions like the zoos, I decided we were going to see a mission while we were down there.

And not just any mission, but the very first mission in California.

You may remember we went to one of the missions last year.  I've always thought it would be really cool to do a road trip, hitting every other mission on the way south, and then catching the ones we missed when we head north again.

Visiting the missions is not only historical, it's also tranquil.  They're very peaceful and this one was just gorgeous, with flowers everywhere.

We walked around, enjoying the sights and taking pictures.

My boys.  I just adore them.  I feel very safe when I walk around with these guys.

Last summer, I took a picture of Zach, Josiah, and Sam, as "my big boys."  But suddenly Eli is taller than me, and Jack is a teenager, and I realize...  they're all big boys now.  I'm so proud of them.  I really enjoy spending time with them.

The sanctuary here was very similar to the one at the mission in Sonoma, except this one has benches, as it's still an active church.  In fact, there were candles lit at the back when we came in.

This is the bell tower.  We've been reading a kids mystery about the mission bells at several missions, so it was neat to see them in real life.

The girls were fascinated with the idea of people throwing money in the fountains.  Reminds me of the book From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, wherein the children live off fountain coins while staying in a museum.  (affiliate link)

I've threatened to send this picture to Eli's Spanish teacher.  Escuela means school, hence the ew face.

There's a small museum on the mission grounds,

with interesting local artifacts.

Sheet music has come a long way!  I'm guessing this hymn is in Latin.

I loved the tiny replicas of all 21 of the California missions.

This is the one in Sonoma, which we visited last year.

And this is the one near Paul's work.

And this is the one we stopped at one year on the way home from Monterey.

When I was a kid, I found a flag at my grandparents' house that only had 48 stars on it.  This one was even older, with only 13 stars!

History reminds us that sometimes the best of intentions have disastrous results.  I wonder how different things would be if, instead of trying to convert and westernize the Native Americans, the European settlers had respected their rights, their lands, and their way of life.  If we had come alongside them as equal neighbors, and realized they had things to teach us, as much as we had things to teach them.

My boys just liked the swords, of course.

Jack was a little horrified at the effort that the handwritten books of that time would have taken to create.  "And they didn't have erasers!  If you messed up, the whole page was ruined!"  We really have so many blessings we take for granted these days.

The grounds here were so lush and pretty that we couldn't help but take lots of pictures.

Miss Katie matches the blooming geraniums.

The center fountain was very pretty, and the gentle sound of the trickling water reminded us to be thankful for fresh, safe, running water in our home--a convenience that many people in the world are still without, even today.

And it made a lovely backdrop for more pictures, too.

Certain areas of the mission grounds were off limits.

So these photos were taken through a gate.

We've talked about mortar & pestles before, so it was neat to see ones that the Native Americans here used to grind acorns.

And the domed ovens they used to cook in.

Between Brianna and I, we took so many flower pictures that I decided to do a collage rather than share photo after photo after photo with you.

We didn't do a whole group picture while we were here, but this was pretty close.  I think someone was in the bathroom when we took this.  (We're missing Brianna, Paul and Josiah here.)

There's a fenced off not very active looking archaeological dig.

House of the Fathers had all these little QC codes that you could scan with your phone to have videos explain what you were seeing.  It's an interesting spin on self guided tours.

When the mission was secularized, these rooms were used by the highest ranking military officer and his family.

It was a beautiful day to see a piece of history, and I hope someday I can see the rest of the missions.  4 down, 17 to go!


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