Easter

This past week was pretty packed.  Looking at the pictures, I can't decide which ones to not include!
The girls and I went down to Govan's Branch Library in the city to do a paper folding program.  We were expecting origami, but apparently each time they do the program it is focused on a different thing to make so we were there on kite day.  The girls got to make a small and medium sized paper kite each.  The medium ones didn't fly well, I guess they are too heavy?  But the small ones are good to run with.  We ended up staying for a Hip Hop Dance they were having too.  I must say that Lyla and Celee really enjoyed it!  It is really funny to see Lyla trying to pop her shoulders.  It was cute though, and the lady who taught was very fun and energetic.  I kept wanting to get up and dance too!  But I'm pretty sure it was a kids only class.

On Tuesday we celebrated Passover.  I don't think we did it anywhere close to how it's "really" supposed to be done, but we gave it a shot.  I printed off seder plates for the girls to color and so they'd know what each part of the meal was.  We went through a liturgy that I found on this Catholic website for a Christian Passover meal.  I made the charoset and lamb chops.  We dipped the greens in salt water.  We drank the four cups of "wine."  We even hid one of the matzoh, the difference is we got to find it later and eat it because our Messiah has come.  We read the Bible passages from Exodus.  I think it was meaningful for each of us to think on the slavery of the Hebrews and what their deliverance must have been like for them, and what it means for us.  Each part of the meal was a tangible way to demonstrate God's provision and promises.  I think it set the tone for us for Holy Week.

My parents flew into town on Thursday.  We love visitors!!  We hadn't seen them since Christmas so we all were missing them too!  We decided that the weather was too good not to go to DC on Friday and we decided to chance it and drive.  I still don't know if that was a mistake or not.  We did get stuck in construction traffic in DC and the last 10 miles of our trip took us almost an hour.  We finally did get to a very affordable parking garage just 2 blocks from the Mall.  We decided to do the Air and Space Museum this time.  This one doesn't interest me as much as the others for some reason.  I guess that it's just not my forte.  But I do appreciate that other people are engineers and innovators and risk takers who can imagine, build, and fly to places we never would be otherwise.  Celee is especially intrigued by all the planes and rockets.  Maybe we have an astronaut or engineer in the making?  They did get the Goldie Blox game for Easter which uses basic engineering to complete tasks and patterns.  Maybe we can spark some interest there.

 After the Museum, we walked the Mall.  My mom had never been to DC before, so we walked the whole thing.  We didn't go over to the White House, but we looked at it from the Washington Monument hill.  The Washington Monument was damaged by an earthquake in 2011.  The monument is fenced off more now and the scaffolding covers more of it so hopefully it will get repaired in the near future.  We walked down the reflecting pool and the girls got up close with some ducks that are no doubt very used to people feeding them.  I think they kept expecting Lyla and Celee to give them something, but we didn't have any snacks.  They just wanted to see how close they could get to them.  We went up into the Lincoln Memorial.  The girls and I had talked about the columns there in our history lesson this past week because they are based on the design of the Parthenon in Greece. So they sketched them to try to figure out which kind of columns they are when we got home.

We walked over to the Vietnam Memorial and then back up the Mall.  It is hard to describe to the girls why countries go to war.  I tried to explain it like sisters fighting over something they both want.  I thought they'd relate to that.  But that just doesn't make sense to them.  They just say, "But we fight over silly stuff and this stuff is serious."  Yeah, I know, but it still happens.  Hopefully our leaders can make wise decisions to only go to war when we have just reasons to.  And our kids will be the leaders one day so I hope they learn the lesson the easy way now.

Saturday we decided to show my parents Baltimore Harbor.  They are more the history-type than the store-type, so we went to Fort McHenry.  It is a really well done place!  The video presentation caught me off-guard and I got all verklempt. The rangers there were all so nice and helpful.  They all seemed to really enjoy their jobs!  The girls did the Junior Ranger program while we were there.  This has them looking for answers to questions that are all around the fort so we learned a lot that we wouldn't have otherwise.  Celee and Lyla got to help take down the big flag and fold it up.  They take the big ones down at night and raise the little one because of the wind.

 
 
 







Afterward we ate at LP Steamers in Locust Point.  We had crab of course, but also lobster, mussels, oysters, shrimp and clams.  It was all cooked in Old Bay (of course).  I don't think my mom is a fan of Old Bay, but I thought it was super yummy.  Then we all needed dessert so we headed up to Afters for yogurt, pastries, and coffee.  So good!

When we got home we finally dyed Easter eggs and went to bed.  The next morning the girls found their baskets of course and looked for eggs hidden all over the apartment.  This year we gave them a gift from us in addition to the basket.  The rabbit gets the credit for the basket I guess.  I never really attribute it to the Easter Bunny, but I guess that's the assumption.  So I had ordered the Goldi Blox game a long time ago and it finally came so I gave it to them for Easter along with a bag and a special candy from Jason and I.  We all went to church and were there early!  The girls did get to wear their Easter dresses, which were done several days prior to Easter for the first time ever.  But the weather did not cooperate.  It was chilly and rainy for most of the day so we had our festivities inside.  We had the usual roast for lunch and then I made Hunger Games Plum and Lamb stew for dinner.  (Shout out to our Champaign small group!)  This is only the second time I've made it and it's so rich, but it is sooo good.

The weather was nice, so we hunted eggs on Easter Monday.  I got up early and drove my parents to the airport.  :(  Then we all bummed around all morning half asleep.  Finally the day was too pretty to stay inside so we headed up to Gunpowder State Falls to find a place to hunt eggs.  We hiked down to a youth camp site and had our hunt at a kind of "stadium" there is built there.  It was a very pretty day although the wind was chilly.  Tinkerbell enjoyed getting off the leash for a bit in the meadow.  And the girls found some frog spawn.  I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to take frog spawn from a state park, so I will just say that we may or may not have some experiential science going on in a big bowl in on our table.  And of course if we ever did have any tadpoles that grew from said spawn, we would take them back to the exact spot the spawn came from.

So Easter came and went and Spring is here.  It's still chilly here though and the sun beckons to me to sit in a warm spot.  I can see the end of winter and an end to this season of waiting for the house to sell.  We are set to close on it in six weeks.  I symbolically refuse to wear my Game of Thrones shirt with my favorite house words on it, "Winter is Coming."  Summer is coming.  And I am ready for it.