Easter

More goodies for Easter!

Kids checked out their Easter baskets.

Annual Easter picture - the kids have sure grown!

We followed the Easter bunny after Mass.

Waiting for the Easter egg hunt at our church.

Go, Anthony, go!

He showed off his loot.

Easter dinner.

Later, Daddy and Joseph hid the Easter eggs.

Hunting for eggs.

We got them all!

Waiting for the next egg hunt.

New kittens born on Easter.

Ready for another hunt - we had about 4 in all!

Kittens, Easter Eggs, and Cinnamon Rolls

On the morning of Holy Saturday, the kids went outside to play with the kittens.

Four little kitties.

There were almost enough to go around.

Anthony found they have sharp claws!

Anne with Snow.

Patch walking all over Catherine.

Meanwhile, I had boiled a ton of eggs for coloring.  This was the first year we got to use the eggs from our chickens.  When they were ready, we got to work.

The first eggs were in the dye.

Catherine showed off her first egg.

The boys took their job seriously.

Sweet little Anne.

Anthony's shirt met with some dye.

Most of the dyed eggs.   Using brown eggs works wonderfully!

Playtime after coloring eggs.

Some of my first ever batch of homemade cinnamon rolls, made for Easter morning.

Holy Thursday

On Holy Thursday, we made unleavened bread to eat with our dinner.  The kids really liked doing this, because they all got to help.

What fun!

Yes, ALL got to help.  Although after Anthony dropped his on the floor, I let him just eat the dough.

With Anthony, I either get solemn face or goofy face.

After they shaped and flattened the dough, each piece was poked multiple times with a fork.  As far as I could tell, this was for decoration.

The girls enjoyed tasting leftover dough! 

Then, later that afternoon, the girls worked on a Last Supper scene.  We got the templates and directions from Catholic Icing.  They were able to finish the whole thing in a few hours.

After I printed off the pages from the templates, the girls colored the apostles and cut them out.

Here is the finished product - a nice centerpiece for our Holy Thursday dinner!

Early April

When the phone company was trimming trees in our area, they dumped two huge loads of fresh mulch in our back yard.

The kids have been helping to move wagon loads of mulch to spread around the trees.

Catherine and Anne with Mittens.

A tiny wildflower!

Peach tree blossoms.

Things were growing in the greenhouse!

Climbing on the hay bales.

Jump!

Boys had fun with an old rope.

Upside-down Anne.

The magnolia all in bloom was very fragrant.  Mmmm!

We had lots of these purple wildflowers all over the yard.  It's nice to be out in the country where the lawns don't have to be a homogeneous green!

Anne enjoyed the nice weather on the front porch swing.

We went on a field trip to see Peter Pan, performed by the CYT.  The kids all loved it.

Even Anthony was able to go!

First Stitches in Our Family

And the winner was Dominic, age 8.  I guess it is not too bad to have stitches from an injury once in 11 years of marriage.  So here is the story of how it happened.  You know the game Marco Polo, which is usually played in a pool?  Well, the kids learned a version at a homeschool event and on the first Sunday afternoon in April, Dominic and the girls went outside to play it.  One person is blindfolded (this was Dominic) and he calls out, "Marco!"and the other players must answer, "Polo!"  He then tries to catch them.  You can see where this is going.  Dominic was soon running around the yard blindfolded, trying to catch the girls.  One of the girls (who shall remain nameless) climbed up onto the grotto, which is large and built out of rocks.  Did I mention these rocks are rough and jagged?  So, Dominic ran toward his sister, tripped, and fell headfirst into the grotto, striking his head on one of those rocks.  If you are squeamish, you might want to stop reading now, and also skip the middle two pictures.  I was inside, relaxing on the couch, reading the Sunday paper, when Catherine burst in through the back door and exclaimed, "Dominic fell down and he's bleeding!"  We all rushed outside to see Dominic standing in the yard, with blood gushing down the side of his face, partly staunched by the blindfold which he had pushed up off his eyes.  After checking his wound, he and I went off to the ER.  I do have to mention, the girls and Joseph were a bit hysterical.  They'd never seen so much blood before.  I think that they thought he was half-dead!  Dominic was a trooper, although he did keep saying, "I wish this didn't happen!"

In the ER, waiting for the topical anesthetic to take effect.

When the doctor came in to stitch him up, I took a picture of the laceration.

5 stitches!

A few days later.

Dominic said afterwards that he will never play that game again!