Just the boys

Claudia left us on Thursday morning, April 8, not to return until Sunday, April 11, for a long scrapbooking retreat with nine other women. This meant it would be just the boys for the long weekend.

I couldn't take Thursday off work so Ethan went to school as usual and then stayed in the after school daycare program until I could pick him up after five. Christian stayed with one of our friends, Tracy, and his best buddy, Jackson. I picked him up around 6:00 pm and got dinner with the boys and went home for the night. Pretty uneventful Thursday.

Friday, I was off work so we decided to meet up with one of the other dads who's wife was with mine and go to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Our older boys were at school so it was just Christian with me and his two daughters with him. They had never been there before and we have a membership so we all got in free. The kids had a lot of fun playing with all of the activities there. There were several schools on field trip there so there were lots of other kids playing as well.

We couldn't stay long due to kids naps and picking up the older boys at school but Paul and his daughters had so much fun that he bought a membership so they could go back some more.

The boys and I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at home and they raced trucks around the living room for a few hours while I watched a little TV and made us dinner. It was a pretty good evening since the boys were not hurting each other.

Saturday, we had a relaxing morning with some cinnamon roles for breakfast and some more TV. Ethan had a baseball game at 1:00 so we got dressed and ready for that and grabbed lunch on the way. After the game, we went over to David's house for some play time. Ethan has been bugging Claudia and me to hang out with David for a while. Since David is on his baseball team and lives close to the park, we were able to go over to his house to play.

We left a little early so I could stop at the store to buy a birthday present for another of Ethan's friends whose birthday party was on Sunday. Then we went home and got ready for bed.

Sunday, we got up and went to mass. I put Christian in the nursery for the first time so Ethan and I could go to mass without having to sit in the Angel Room (cry room). It was a good mass and Christian did really well in the nursery.

After church we grabbed lunch before going to Juliana's birthday party at The Little Gym (Christian's birthday party will be there next weekend). The boys had a lot of fun jumping and playing although Christian was a little intimidated by all of the bigger kids so he mostly played by himself. We got him to join in with the others a few times, though. Most of Ethan's kindergarten class was there so he got to hang out with all of his friends. I even ran into a person I graduated high school with and we chatted for a while.

After the party, we went home and Mommy showed up about an hour later. I was very happy to see her. Not just because she could take the boys back but because I missed her and I love her. She got to take a break from the kids and have lots of fun with the girls.

P. S. Later that evening, we went to dinner with Claudia's family because Monday was Daniel's 16th birthday and he wanted a lobster. Happy Birthday Daniel.

Easter 2010

Our Easter activities this year consisted of three Easter egg hunts, lectoring during mass, and a circus. Allow me to elaborate.

The first egg hunt was actually the weekend prior to Easter on March 27. The local Knights of Columbus chapter at our parish hosts a twilight Easter egg hunt every year and since this is our first year at this parish, we attended. They take about 3000 plastic eggs and fill them with candy and then wrap a small piece of reflective tape around each one. They start at about 5:30 PM with a cook out and social time until the sun goes down. Then during twilight the children are set loose with flashlights so they can see the reflective strips on the eggs to collect them.

It was quite windy that evening and the wind was chilly so everyone was anxious to collect eggs and get inside. Christian got a little sick standing out in the cold so I took him to the car while Ethan colected lots of eggs. They had a lot of fun that night.

The second egg hunt was two days later on Monday, March 29. This was the playgroup Easter egg hunt. All of the older kids were in school so only Christian participated in this one with his friends. It was a beautiful day and Claudia said that all of the kids had a good time at the park.

The third egg hunt was for Ethan's kindergarten class at school on Holy Thursday. Claudia got a friend to watch Christian and she went to the school to help setup the hunt and take lots of pictures of the kids. It was another beautiful day and all of the parents and kids had fun.

Finally on Easter Sunday, Claudia served as a lector for the second time at our semi-new parish. We joined SMG just before Ethan started school there and we really like the parish. We checked off several activities that we would like to be involved in on the registration form but we were not contacted about any of them. So we decided to be proactive and Claudia attended a lector training class and started reading in March. She was lucky enough to get to read on Easter Sunday and she read beautifully.

After mass, we stopped for lunch on our way to meet Mimi and Daniel in Dallas for the Shine Circus. Mimi wanted to treat us all to an afternoon at the circus and it was really fun. The show was great and during intermission we got to go down on the floor and do things like take pictures with a giant snake and ride elephants.

We all had a wonderful time on Easter Day.

Baseball Buddies

Here are a few photos of Ethan with two of his schoolmates and now baseball buddies (Jacob and David) after one of their games. They have lots of fun together.

Jacob's sisters and Christian were sharing in the after game snacks in this last one.