Holy Week and Easter Weekend

Palm Sunday held the second of our two egg hunts after church, you'll recall, kicking off a Holy Week that is theoretically supposed to be somber, but sometimes it's hard to keep the fun away. ;0)

Monday night was the NCAA final, in which Kentucky beat Kansas for the victory! This was great a) because my family is a UK family (it's where my parents met, and they were in New Orleans for the game), and b) I had Kentucky beating Kansas in my bracket and in general chose more games right than Matt did, so I won our annual tourney bracket competition.

Tuesday, we met up with my parents as they drove back through Nashville on their way back to Louisville. Since they would be returning three days later for Easter weekend, they didn't come out to our house or anything, but it was dinnertime as they were passing through, so we met up at a Panera by the interstate.

Wednesday, our usual midweek church dinner and discussion were cancelled since there were Holy Week services Thursday and Friday, but we still had choir practice to prepare for our Easter anthem. I was bummed for about a second that I wouldn't get another night to chill at home with the fam, but then I became elated at the thought of a night out by myself! I could run some errands on my own before or after choir!!! (It's crazy what excites you when you have small kids.) I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a new coffee maker, since ours broke a week or more before and that was the first chance I had to buy a new one. And I got an absorbent dish-drying pad. Try to contain the excitement. :0)

Thursday, the girls and I skipped Maundy Thursday dinner and worship because it was gymnastics night. And Friday, Nala and Popi arrived in town just in time to go to Open Gym and play around with Kate before grabbing some BBQ and going to Good Friday worship, a tenebrae ("darkness") service.

Saturday, we had some nice family time with breakfast out, a little shopping, seed-planting, and egg-dyeing. Kate received a cute apron, spade, and seeds for her birthday in January, so it was finally time to plant them, and Nala and Popi were happy to faciliate!

Since the Easter Bunny comes to PKs early, the girls got their Easter baskets Saturday afternoon too. They got some hairbows and headbands, The Lion King DVD, a new paci strap, and stickers.

Then Kate and I dyed eggs together. Kate used the white crayon to draw on the eggs, and suggested we write each grandparent's name on an egg, too.

Easter Sunday began with a waffle breakfast and "not-so-sunrise service" at church, followed by our main worship service, a great celebration of Christ's resurrection and the victory of life over death. We had the grandparents and our friends Tracy and Thomasjohn over for Easter dinner afterwards for good food and playtime. The men fell asleep watching the Masters golf tournament while the women hung in the playroom with the girls.

Granna made an adorable lamb cake...

 And naturally, I had great fun decorating my table.

I made carrot place cards/napkin holders.

As well as a shabby chic spring wreath for the front door (repurposed from a falling-apart fall wreath by whitewashing the twigs and painting the apples pink).

Kate was thrilled to learn that Mommy's friend was named Ms. Tracy because it rhymes with Ms. Stacy and Ms. Casey (her gymnastics teachers). She proceeded to make an abstract Duplo masterpiece and name it "Tracy."

We also had a nice photo shoot before church, of course, in which Nala and Popi finally got a nice pic of them with both girls.

And so did we!!

 Happy Easter to my sweet girls in their matchies, and to all of you!