Lent & Easter

Let's back it up all the way to Fat Tuesday, when I made crawfish etouffee and king cake. 

And then Ash Wednesday, when I made lentil soup and soft pretzels. 

We also celebrated the Annunciation with waffles for dinner. (I added more whipped cream after taking this picture, ha!)

The first half of March was dominated by Claire's birthday and the second half of March was taken over by a peg doll painting project. A group of friends from church got together to make a last supper scene, along with the three Marys who found Jesus' empty tomb. 

I was assigned St. Andrew and St. Mary Magdalene. I got an HBO subscription to watch Big Little Lies and The Young Pope while I spent many evening hours painting these guys.

 

The finished product! When we got together on Palm Sunday afternoon for the exchange party, I told Adam I would be back in like two hours, around 3:00 pm....and I actually got home at 6:15. He knows by now to add a couple hours to whatever time I give him when I'm going out with friends!

The first week of April, Claire was off from preschool and catechesis on spring break. The highlight of the week was going to see the famed cherry trees at the University of Washington. We went on a whim on a rare sunny afternoon and I am still so surprised that the whole outing went so well. Visitor parking was very far away from the quad, I didn't bring the double stroller, and I didn't know exactly how to get to the quad. The quad was much more crowded that I was expecting, so it was challenging to keep an eye on all three girls running around while pushing an empty stroller and trying to snap pictures. I kept thinking that at some point things were going to go south (would I remember where we parked? would Claire be able to walk up the big hill to the parking lot?) but strangely they never did. It was a great afternoon, except for the nagging worry that things were going to go terribly wrong at any minute...



On Holy Thursday, Claire and Maggie had their last little dance and gymnastics class of the year. They just did the two middle sessions, from mid-November to mid-April. I know they will miss going, but I will not miss having a late afternoon activity that requires me to have dinner ready to go beforehand. Parents watched the gymnastics portion from a second story viewing area above the gym - Betsy wanted to climb down the stairs so very, very much and it was quite challenging to prevent her from doing so. Claire liked the gymnastics portion better, while Maggie preferred dance. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in the future! Next school year, I'm hoping to put them in more formal swimming lessons - they enjoy the summer lessons at the local pool, but I think they'll need something more structured to really be able to swim independently anytime soon.

I made hot cross buns for breakfast on Good Friday. We dyed eggs when my parents arrived that afternoon. We had movie night that evening, enjoying pizza and The Miracle Maker.





We finished our traditional confetti eggs on Saturday morning, except we fill them with Fruity Pebbles instead.



And then we spent a sunny afternoon at the zoo, along with the rest of Seattle.







Easter baskets all set up! The girls each got an Easter book, a stuffed animal, and something from the Janod (a French toy company) sale on Amazon - pull along ducks for Betsy and circus and farm story boxes for Claire and Maggie.



We were thrilled to have made it through Easter Sunday Mass in one piece, with a very active 14-month-old and Adam helping out the children's choir.



The girls' dresses are from Janie & Jack and mine is from Kohl's. I can't believe we actually got a family picture with everyone looking at the camera!







 

Hunting for eggs back home, getting all the grown-ups with confetti, and enjoying lots of candy.

 



For Easter lunch, I pretty much copied the menu at Mel's Kitchen Cafe - sweet baked ham, cheesy potatoes, roasted asparagus, honey lime fruit salad, and carrot cake. We are still enjoying the leftovers, which is awesome, because after dinner tonight I am going to pick up my sister from the airport!