Just another (manic) Palm Sunday!

Palm Sunday was a doozy of a day! 

• Miriam played a special musical number in the Johns Creek ward
• Miriam played prelude, postlude, and congregational hymns in our ward
• Miriam, Benjamin, Zoë, Alexander, and I sang two choir songs in our ward
• Miriam played a special musical number in the Magnolia ward...as well as the prelude, postlude, and congregational hymns, and also filled in for a sick pianist (getting a 12-page score the afternoon before and practicing until she felt confident enough to accompany a soloist)
• Miriam played a special musical number in Grandpa and Darla's ward
• Grandpa and Darla gave their "farewell" talks before leaving on their mission and they served a lovely little lunch at their house after, which was good because we were all hungry
• Miriam played an organ piano duet for the stake Palm Sunday event, as well as the prelude, postlude, and congregational hymns
• Miriam and Benjamin participated in the youth choir for the Palm Sunday event
• Zoë, Alexander, and Phoebe participated in the children's choir for the Palm Sunday event

It was...a lot...but it was mostly wonderful! I especially loved getting to sing congregational hymns with big congregations (our own little ward is so tiny).

Perhaps I will elaborate on some things later, but mostly I want to write down a few quotes from the day that we need to remember.

• Alexander asked whether today was the day he was supposed to wear "neon" to church. I had to stare at him for a moment to process his question before responding, "Do you mean...pastels?" Because, yes, the children's choir was asked to wear pastels. Alexander wore the pants from his "The Little Prince" costume—everybody loved them. He looked dashing.

• Phoebe insisted on wearing her Christmas dress because Easter and Christmas are similar holidays. Was I surprised when she walked into the church wearing a Christmas dress when I know perfectly well that her closet has many cute, frilly spring-y dresses? A little. But Andrew was left on his own to get her ready for church (the rest of us had gone to church early to either perform or practice music) and Phoebe can be...persuasive. She looked fine, if a little off-season. Daddy even did her hair! But they also brought hair stuff to church with them so I could re-do her hair because, as Phoebe told Andrew, "You know nothing about hair and Mom knows everything."
• Phoebe did well during our church meeting and was overjoyed that there was no class afterwards. She's pretty good about going to her own class now, but it's still her least favourite part of church. She likes singing time and she doesn't mind sacrament meeting (I'm in both of those places with her—coincidence?) but she really doesn't like class...so she was pretty happy to learn there was no second hour.
• She tolerated Grandpa and Darla's sacrament meeting. She was bummed she couldn't go up to sing with the primary kids (we told her she could—because who would stop her?—but she was too chicken). Andrew thought it would be a good idea to sit on the folding chairs in the back because she had already had to sit through one meeting...but those chairs are metal and she rather enjoyed banging her shoes on them...so it turned out to not be our brightest idea.
• When we pulled up at yet another chapel for the Palm Sunday event, she moaned dramatically, "WHY DO YOU KEEP TAKING US TO CHURCH AFTER CHURCH AND NEVER LET US PLAY?!?!!" She...had a point. We did a lot of churching today. But I also think she had a good time. She hardly wanted to leave afterward—she gorged herself on cookies and had fun playing on the stage with all the kids afterwards.
  

Here she is looking happier than she did in the parking lot picture:

We didn't quite nail the "pastel" request, but the kids sure are bright together! My mom said these were the primary colours—red, yellow, and blue! But, uh, we know this is the shade of green/blue that really throws me off. Like, Alexander's pants are definitely bluer than his tie (which is greener than his pants) but...I'm not sure that I can honestly call those pants blue. 

My brain considers them to be on the green side of things. I know it's not logical.

It doesn't need to be. Brains are unique!

• The closing hymn at Grandpa and Darla's ward was He is Risen! The choir sang the first two verses and the congregation joined in. The tune starts low for "He is risen! He is risen! He hath opened..." and then jumps high for "heaven's gate!" Like, you're up on E-E-D for those notes. And then you're supposed to drop all the way down (more than an octave!) to Middle C for "We are free from..." Well, Alexander isn't terribly familiar with Easter songs (we don't sing them all that often...though we sure sang a lot of them today) and figured that since we'd jumped up high we were going to stay up high for a while. So he belted out a "WE!" up at that D above Middle C and then (somewhat sheepishly) slid down the scale to land on Middle C with everyone else. "WEEEEEeeeee...." It was pretty funny!

Here are some pictures our family grabbing and scarfing down some lunch:

Miriam and Benjamin only had a few minutes to eat before they had to head off to the stake center for rehearsal. The rest of us were able to hang out for a bit longer and it was lovely to get to visit with Darla and Marion and some of Darla's girls and grandkids. 

Today was also Grandpa and Darla's second anniversary—Zoë wore the same dress she wore to their wedding and when we compared her to the wedding picture up in the front room you could tell Zoë had grown quite a few inches the past couple of years. 

Benjamin would also like to note that he is wearing his wedding tie. That is the only thing from the wedding that still fits him—he's outgrown absolutely everything else.