weekend recap

Friday night we went to our church's family fusion event. This event was 'The Colors of Easter'. The kids and I met Joe there. But the only color I was seeing when I drove up to church was RED. Fiery hot ANGRY (and frustrated) red! It started earlier in the afternoon at the library when I told the kids it was time to go. The girls were (mostly) cooperative with our departure. Isaiah on the other hand responded with a whiney "No. No. No. No. No. No. No." And tried to refuse to leave until he had finished coloring two more sections of his umbrella. I was going to let him finish one section...until he threw a fit. Out the door we went, unfinished art work in hand. On the walk home a very sulky Isaiah declared life unfair because Charlotte found the perfect stick and he did not. The injustice! Once home he broke Charlotte's stick. And with the snap of that twig I lost it! My patience was instantly non-existent and I had NO desire to fuse with certain small members of my family. After (harshly) expressing my disappointment in him we loaded up and drove to church. To have fun. And learn about Jesus! And enjoy our family!! Oh the irony. Honestly I was this close to dropping the kids off (with Joe) and leaving. But I didn't. I stayed.

Of course in the end I am glad I went (and stayed). It was a great evening of remembering the true meaning of Easter through the use of colors. 

Red...the blood of Jesus

White...He made us clean

Green...growth and living with God 

Gold...the promise of heaven

 

Hannah was there too...not fusing with her family. She hung with the babies in the nursery. 

Grandma Cyndy flew in late Friday night to spend the weekend with us. Mostly to help me with the kids (and their assorted activities) while Joe gallivanted around the city...

...errr...I mean attend an all day conference on his day off. That's fun too. If you are into that kind of thing. Clearly he is/was. 

My Saturday morning started with forcing Isaiah into jeans and a polo. As in I physically had to wrestle him into the clothes. He acted as though I was asking him to wear barbed wire woven with poison ivy. The reason for the "dressy" outfit? He had his first ALL DAY chess tournament. I didn't know if there was a dress code or not for such an event but I certainly didn't want him under dressed. Dress for success and all that...

Turns out sweat pants and a t-shirt would have been completely acceptable as that is what the majority of the kids were wearing. There was one other child in a polo....paired with sweatpants. Oops. I may have won that battle but I am not sure it was worth it and certainly not necessary. 

After dropping Grandma & Isaiah off at chess, the girls and I headed to Charlotte's dance class. It was a very exciting week...Miss Kim handed out their recital costumes AND allowed the parents in the studio to video them performing their recital piece. Big stuff. 

Speaking of big stuff, Hannah thinks she is a big girl and insists on using the potty like a big girl. Occasionally she is successful. This time she was only successful in touching every surface in the public restroom which is always fun as a parent. 

Once dance was done the girls and I made a pit stop at home to make lunch for our little chess master and chess watcher. We had a fast and furious hail storm come through during lunch prep. The girls were fascinated. Charlotte was especially excited because she has "hail green eyes"! 

 

 

She insisted on eating her cheese with the wrapper ON.

 

After lunch Grandma and I swapped roles. She became the little girl wrangler (at home) and I took over as the chess cheerleader. It's kind of embarrassing to admit but I was really nervous for Isaiah. He really wanted to win a trophy in his division - as in he spent most of his time in between matches oogling the trophies. Unfortunately despite his strong start he quickly fell from 3rd place to 7th place. The top 6 places received trophies. So close yet not quite.

 

 

He took the loss better than I expected. I was sad and proud of him all at once. He left determined to perform better at the year-end tournament in a few weeks.

The rest of Saturday was spent at the playground and eating dinner and more playing and bathing the children. Just regular life stuff. But better because Grandma was here! And the 70 degree weather helped too:)

[Joe watched the dance video and immediately declared the $5/recital ticket a waste of money. And while I agree with him that there is a 90% chance of Charlotte doing absolutely nothing during the recital besides standing on stage smiling. I disagree on the waste of money. Because man she is going to look cute in her costume...on stage!]

 

 

On Sunday the kids participated in the Palm Sunday service. They wore their new Easter outfits that Grandma Cyndy brought for them (in her backpack...along with all her belongings for the weekend!). Just call her Mary. Mary Poppins that is.

 

 

We foolishly attempted a family picture after church...

 

Because dangnabut I had showered and put on a dress and looked decent! Too bad my children did not get the memo that this was supposed to be a nice family photo...

 

This next one was as good as it got. Which I would rate as decent. Nothing extraordinary. None of our children look particularly happy to be in the picture. Good enough. Lucky for them there will not be a Easter family picture session since we are ditching daddy and heading out of town (again). But they will be forced to take sibling pictures. Win some. Lose some.

 

And this is where my camera battery died... so I will call it quits with the recap. Because oh my goodness this is getting loooong (and let's be honest) a little boring. 

That's a wrap folks. One of the busiest weekends we have had in awhile. And overall a pretty good one too.