Easter Sunday

We had to be at church early last Sunday to rehearse for the Easter program, which went well. The primary children sang, and then the young women sang a piece Miriam selected and which they learned all on their own, and then the ward choir sang a few pieces as well. 

Miriam stayed to play the organ for the Spanish ward. Rachel stayed to drive her.

Then when she got home we had to leave for Grandpa and Darla's for Easter dinner, which was lovely. But we didn't get home until it was nearing bedtime. And the Easter Bunny had not stopped by yet.

Our children were incredibly patient about this. They hardly asked when or whether the Easter Bunny was going to come. Benjamin and Zoë did drop some hints about their expectations, like, "Gee...if we took the little kids down to the basement to play for an hour do you think the Easter Bunny might how up thing?" But they were very mature when I turned down their "offer," reminding them that their older sisters weren't at home and the Easter Bunny probably wouldn't drop by when it thought it might get caught by children coming home. 

Anyway, Rachel was in charge of dessert for Easter dinner and she needed to put some frosting on the carrot cake after she got home from church (which took her forever...wink, wink), but the kids were already getting anxious to leave for Grandpa and Darla's, so we told them to each grab a book and head out to get buckled in the van. They did. And then they waited while Rachel first iced one cake, which Andrew brought out to the van, grumbling about how long Rachel was taking in the kitchen. And then Rachel got the other cake ready (she'd also made a lemon-glazed vanilla dessert). And then we finally, finally got in the car to head to Grandpa and Darla's. 

We ate, we visited, we played some catching games in the backyard...and then we headed home and...the kids were so surprised to find that the Easter Bunny had come! Phoebe thought it was magical while Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander were perplexed about how we managed to pull off a surprise like this. 

I am not a very surprising person, it seems, so this was a smashing success.

Miriam and I had watched an episode of Call the Midwife the night before (the last episode of season 7—a real tear-jerker...even though I'd already watched it and knew exactly what was going to happen), and we kept our hands busy being little Easter Bunny elves...so the kids had plenty of candy-filled eggs to hunt for.

Here are the kids enjoying some of their spoils:

My mom sent a bunch of rubber ducks home with Andrew (when he went out to Utah a couple of weeks ago). Phoebe knows Naanii sent them and she loves them all—especially the Christmas trees.

Rachel and Miriam each got a skirt:

Here are Alexander (and then Benjamin) trying to pop open some eggs:

Hunting around for more eggs in the TV room:

Here's Zoë with an abundance of eggs:

Here's Rachel helping Phoebe get inside an egg:

Here's Alexander asking how the Easter Bunny managed to hide the eggs so high up:

Here's Zoë with four baskets filled with Easter eggs:

And here's Benjamin reading a book about map making that Auntie Josie sent. He's excited to start a new map (I don't know if I ever posted about the kids' previous map-making attempts):

My irises were in bloom for the day, which was lovely. Rachel and I (and perhaps Miriam as well) spent hours planting irises last year. These ones are a dark purple. They've all since begun to expire.

Now (a week later) my light purple ones are coming on. 

There are yellow ones and peach ones and white ones speckled around our neighbourhood. Perhaps one day I will ask if I can take a few to diversify the colours in my yard...

You know, I planted a billion gladiolus corms as well, but they just haven't done very well, unfortunately. And although I appreciate gladioli because they remind me of my grandmother, I'm a not-picky and rather-lazy gardener...so I'm going to appreciate what grows without me putting a ton of effort into them.

There's a saying to bloom where you're planted, and that's a lovely saying.

But sometimes you also just need to plant what will bloom, right? 

Like, working hard is neat and all (I believe in hard work), but there's also something to be said about the path of least resistance. I work hard at a lot of things. My dream garden is self-tending. 

I know a self-tending garden isn't really a thing. 

But...that's the stage of gardening that I'm in right now. 

If the plants live, they live. If they can't hack it, well...that's too bad. I can't be coddling plants!

The peach trees I planted last year got decimated by the deer this winter. One of them is sending up little baby sprouts from the base so I hope it might resurrect. They other one is hopeless. 

Our fig tree is growing. Our pomegranate tree is growing. They're tiny...but they're doing it!

A neighbour gave me some Rose-of-Sharon volunteers from her yard last fall. At least two of them seem to have appreciated where I put them. The other ones...seem to be dead. Oh, well. 

Anyway...

Here are the kids admiring their friend Evelyn's ginormous chocolate bunny (which she was graciously sharing with all the neighbourhood kids):

I love the progression of these little vultures moving in close and closer and closer:

Why does Evelyn have this ginormous chocolate bunny?

Well, the kids were having a nerf gun battle over spring break. Their teams were uneven so they asked Zoey G's mom if she would join in their game. And she said yes. 

They were explaining the rules of the game to her. Rules like...although everyone had weapons, no one was actually supposed to shoot anyone else. The weapons are just for, like, guarding the prison, not for, like, discharging. 

So they finish explaining how this nerf gun battle is kind of more like a cold war than anything and hand Zoey G's mom a weapon and when they do...she accidentally pulled the trigger mechanism and shot Evelyn point blank in the face, just under her eye. 

She felt awful about it. 

The bunny was a conciliatory gift (and I think it worked because there doesn't seem to be any hard feelings at this point).