Our Easter Celebration

Dying Easter eggs is a tradition that all the kids love!

It took 4 dozen eggs this year!

We all went to the Easter Sunrise service at Beachmont.

It was sooooo cold!

Easter morning before the sun came up...

Easter morning after the sunrise!

Hallelujah, He is risen!

The start of our annual easter egg hunt.

Road Trip Part 2

Our weekend adventure continued Sunday morning with an unexpected trip to K-Mart. I was feeling really on top of things and was getting all the girls ready to go ever and get breakfast before heading to the park when uh....my pants ripped.

You gotta understand something about my pants. They are really old. I have this problem with buying clothes for myself. I buy them for everyone else in the family, but for some reason I always put off buying them for myself. Just last weekend I told Dave that I needed to pick up some new jeans for myself before I got in an embarrassing situation with my old ones wearing out to the point that they just start falling apart. I really did intend to get some when I went to Walmart, but they only had the low rise kind in my size and I refuse to wear those stupid things! Why anyone would want to wear a pair of jeans that sits that low is beyond me. They feel like you always need to pull them up because your rear end is hanging out! Anyway...I ended up not getting the jeans and sure enough, I found myself in an embarrassing situation! I sat down on the bed to change Alyssa, and the jeans ripped from seam to seam right across the back of my thigh. UGH! Now I HAD to by myself some new jeans.

So, off to the local K-Mart I went (with my jacket tied around my waist to cover up the lovely gaping hole in my pants leg) and wouldn't you know, they just happened to be having a 25% off sale on their jeans! I bought 2 pairs for myself and headed back to the hotel to pick up the gang and head to the park.

Once we got there we met my parents and then headed out to hit the rides and enjoy the park. We had a great time hanging out with my mom and dad and enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun.

Jim had the unique privilege of working alongside of Italy's master sculptor Antonio Accietto. This man's flowers are amazing, and he invited Jim (who loves art of any kind but especially modeling/sculpting) to try and duplicate one of his flowers. He gave him a lump of porcelain clay and showed him what to do and then when Jim was all done Mr. Accietto let him keep his creation. It looked pretty good, too! Maybe Jim has a future in flower sculpting?

We ate lunch in Germany's Oktoberfest while watching their Festhaus show and then took the kids to the section of the park just for little guys. Each of our older kids took a younger kid and we set them loose for about half an hour while Dave and I got to sit and chat with my parents. Ahhh...I love having older kids!

After having them spend time in "Land of the Dragons" with the little guys riding ladybugs and little dragons with loud irritating noises, we knew it was time for some real rides! So after riding the bumper cars and the big swings, Dave and the 3 older kids headed to the roller coaster "Alpengeist" while I took everyone else on the carousel. Then we switched and everyone rode the train back to the entrance while I got to take the older 3 on the "Griffon" - the park's newest roller coaster. This thing hangs you at a 90 degree angle above the park for what seems like forever and then sends you plummeting towards the ground only to pull you right back up into twists and turns before another 90 degree drop! It is so much fun!

After saying goodbye to my folks and slapping together some sandwiches for supper, we headed out of the park and back on the road to MD! Most of the kids fell asleep on the way home, so it was a pretty uneventful trip.

What a refreshing weekend! Now I am ready to get back to schooling and get on with Spring! We have some great field trips coming up and before you know it school will be over and it will be time for summer vacation!

Road Trip!!

Every year Busch Gardens in VA hosts a "passport holders only" day sometime in March. This year it fell on Palm Sunday and we decided that we would make a weekend of it with the family. We thought it would be fun to surprise the kids and just take off and go Saturday after breakfast. We packed the car the night before and tried to act as laid back as possible Saturday morning letting the kids sleep in and letting them hang out in their pj's for awhile before sending them out to play. The two older kids figured out what was going on awhile ago, but they had fun keeping our secret safe!
We ate lunch and drove down through Washington. Dave took us right by the front of the capitol building, the Washington Monument, tons of museums and right by the Pentagon. He often works in D.C. so he is pretty familiar with all of the "important" places.
Once we got through Washington I put on a movie for the kids and we actually got all the way to Williamsburg before the kids figured out what was going on! It was great watching their faces when we pulled into the hotel and told them that we were going to the park the next day. They were very excited!
Since our family exceeds the fire hazard limit for a hotel room, we had to split up for the night. The girls in one room and the guys in the room next door. I couldn't tell you what went on in the guys' room - I'm not sure I would want to know - but the conversation in the girls room was pretty amusing! I'll leave out who said what, but if you picture our room with me (the mom), a teenager, a 10 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old, you can probably figure it out. :o)

"Can we watch Disney Channel?"
"Sure."
"Alyssa, get out of the fridge."
"Hey, move your head. I can't see."
"Alyssa, close the fridge."
"I'm hungry."
"Have some chex mix."
"Alyssa, don't jump off the bed!"
"Move your head, please."
"Move over. You are in my personal space."
"Mom, Alyssa is in the fridge again."
"I don't really care if she opens the fridge."
"Mandie, lay down."
"Alyssa, want to snuggle?"
"Hey! My personal space just got cut in half!"
"Can I have a juice box?"
"Your head is in my way again."
"Alyssa, don't put that in the fridge."
"You are taking all my covers!"
"No, I wasn't. I was just rolling over."
"Alyssa! Get out of the fridge!"
"Alyssa, come get in bed."
"When are we going to Busch Gardens?"
"Can you please roll over? You are in my personal space again."
"Well, you have all the covers!"
"Did you all brush your teeth?"
"No, Alyssa, don't eat the ice out of the freezer."
"Is anyone tired yet?"
"I don't want to sleep."
"Can we get a cot?"
"Alyssa, come away from the fridge."
"What time is it? 9? Okay. Turn off the TV. We are going to sleep."
"Alyssa, out of the fridge and into the bed right now."
"Move over away from my space."
"Can you all PLEASE be quiet?"

Well, it went something like that! We prayed and eventually everyone fell asleep. It's not something I would want to do every night, but I would definitely do it again if it meant spending time with my girls!