Spring has Sprung!

Easter Egg dyage

Some pretty cute Easter cookies, I like to think

Yeah, they'd had a little sugar . . .

Easter dinner
(Theo is absent from this and the egg-dying picture because he has taken to stripping down to a pair of nylon shorts whenever he's home)

I took Theo and Addy out for pictures afterward

I'm not good at it, but I did have good subjects

Didn't I?

Then on to some good times at the park

Did I mention that Regina is a great place to fly kites?

Because it is

Seriously. And how lucky are these kids to have Aaron for their dad?

Even Sera got in on the football action

It was a good day

April Flowers? In April?? Get out.

Just when I was ready to crown Regina the queen of cold and land of wintry desolation, she goes and gives me this April. There was one teensy little snow-shower, a couple of chilly arctic winds blowing through, but mostly lots of gorgeous, sunshiny days! We picnicked in the park, flew kites (because let me tell you, there's not a city anywhere that can compete with Regina for kite-flying), and very nearly had an outdoor egg hunt for Easter. Nearly. Easter dress wearing is a fundamental requirement for egg hunting, and it wasn't that warm.

The weekend before Easter, I finally got it together and put on a Passover dinner (Seder) for our family. I'm sure I got a few things wrong (I can't imagine any Jewish rabbi condoning our meal of pork with apples), but it was fun to dig up all the info on the internet and relive one of my favorite experiences from my time in Jerusalem 13 years ago. It helped us get into the Easter spirit, and to think more about the events leading up to the crucifiction and resurrection than we've done in previous years. I definitely plan to make this a yearly tradition in our family. Of course, it would have been lovely if I'd actually taken some pictures, but then where would my motivation to repeat it be?

During the week, we made Easter sugar cookies and dyed eggs, and then woke up to a gorgeous Easter morning the following Sunday. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and even little blades of green seemed to be pushing up through the ground. Even though it made us late for church, we took a few minutes for photos on the front porch. Good thing, because it was overcast and cold by the time we got back from church (and besides, the hair ribbons had come out by then anyway)! Since I'd forgotten Passover pictures, I made sure to take Easter dinner ones. Nothing like bright green asparagus and brilliant red strawberries. We lobbed a few of the strawberries into a pie crust for a fresh strawberry pie for dessert as well. Mmm.

Aaron's choral concert the next week was breathtaking. Performed in the largest cathedral in town, Knox Metropolitan, with their fantastic organist, Hart Godden, it was a concert I don't think any of us will soon forget. Aaron posted a video of the Sanctus on his website (it's the second one on the playlist) that you should really take a minute to listen to. I can't really say anything about it that would do it justice, so just listen (Aaron's disclaimer: he has no idea why the person who set up the camera centered it on him and didn't include the choir at all). While the Sanctus is stunning on its own, I have to add that it was even better in context, with the gorgeous Kyrie before, and finishing with the In Paradisum that makes me cry every time. One of these days I'll force him to post those as well. It made me think of the wonderful reunion that I know my Grandma Ruthie is waiting for with her husband Dean on the other side.

Pretty much every extra second of the rest of our time was spent putting more finishing touches on our house. And we're not out of the woods yet. This month we've painted baseboards and window frames, painted the living room, bathroom and kitchen, caulked a bunch of stuff, put in new vent covers, started switching out light switches and electrical outlets, reseeded the grass, and Aaron has somehow managed to plow through both US and Canadian tax returns. We had hoped to leave at the beginning of May for Disneyland, with our house on the market and everything, but with more projects still on the backlog (fence in the backyard, junk removal that we meant to have done as soon as we moved in, yard sale, painting downstairs, fixing carpet that came up with a slight water backup in March, and other stuff besides, we're pushing the trip back to the tail end of the month and forging ahead. Meanwhile, all this other work puts me way behind on regular housework like laundry and cleaning the floors. It's almost worse than last month. Maybe I'll get around to taking all the wonderful suggestions I got in the last post (thank you!) after we finish?