Easter Preparations

Easter Parade

Casey's school had a spring parade and potluck brunch on Tuesday. The kids made their own hats. This is Casey's. It's pretty tame. One kid had a giant fuzzy ball sticking out the side of his head. It looked like a cross between a tumor and a giant eyeball-- like the character Mike has in the movie Monsters. It just made me smile. One class made bonnets out of paper plates-- the tied them to the tops of the kids' heads with ribbon down around the chin. It was pretty neat looking. I have lots of pictures from the morning, but in the interest of privacy of the kids at Casey's preschool, I'm not posting them. I just don't think it'd be nice of me to do so. . .

After the parade, the kids had an egg hunt put together by the school. Casey had a blast running around finding the eggs. This is the first year he's really understood the whole egg hunt thing, and it was fun to watch him enjoy himself so much. After the hunt, the class took photos. Casey managed to place himself in the middle, in the back row. He had his egg-hunting paper bag with him, which was a big mistake. Because he held the bag over his head, and he covered his own head-- the head of the child sitting beneath him. He giggled. And he waved it. He is definitely going to be a class clown. Exactly the kind of kid that would probably irritate me to no end. . . which is why I don't teach preschool.

Birthday Parties Galore

Casey was invited to a couple birthday parties for Saturday. Grandma took him to one in the morning, and I forgot to send the camera. But I remembered it when we went to the one that afternoon. Marcie was invited to join Casey for the afternoon party, and she really enjoyed herself. She rode around on a little rider, played on a little wooden school bus, and gobbled up cake. In fact, she gobbled up all the snacks put in front of her. At one point, the little boy sitting next to her got up, and while he was gone, she glanced at his plate sideways and then stole all the pretzels off the plate! Then, once cake was served, Marcie put on her best independent mannerisms and fed herself!

Casey had a good time, too. He played with his friends, climbed in the fire truck, slid down the slide, and sang Happy Birthday at the top of his lungs. He even took turns with the toy truck, letting another little boy drive it around the Kidsville play area.

Coloring the Eggs

After the party, we connected up with Casey's cousin Joey and his parents. They came over for dinner, and we let the boys play with the Thomas trains. Then my brother Bryan and I set up the egg coloring kits and let the kids color eggs. The thing about Easter egg coloring is that it lasts all of about 5 minutes. Really, with a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 year old, they don't have the patience to dip it in multiple colors-- so you drop the egg in, let it sit, and pull it out. Not that exciting. But then again, it's good to set up traditions now. And egg coloring will be a family tradition.

I also feel compelled to mention here that we don't use these eggs in the egg hunt. I'm much too worried that one won't be found by the hunting kids, and we'll end up with rotten egg in the front yard-- blech. So these colored eggs are used for deviled eggs as part of the Easter meal.

The Busted Toilet

It wouldn't be a family holiday if something didn't go wrong, now would it?!? We had set aside Saturday for Jason to clean up the back yard-- it still has straw from October!!! But as luck would have it, the toilet busted Saturday morning. The bottom of the tank already needed a new seal, but then the screws holding the top tank onto the seat base rotted and water gushed out whenever someone flushed. I didn't even know there was a top and bottom to the toilet-- I thought it was all one piece!

Now I joke about it being unlucky, but really-- if the toilet is going to break, the best time for that to happen is a day you've set aside to work on house projects anyway. Needless to say our back yard did not get cleaned up. It took Jason and his dad all day to repair and replace the toilet's parts. It wasn't as simple as replacing those screws. Some custom gasket of some kind also blew (and I'm sure even though I'm calling it a gasket, it's not)-- and there were at lest two runs to Home Depot involved. But we got a new toilet seat, and the toilet functions like new. And just a note to those of you out there using those blue tablet things to keep your toilet water clean--- I'm pretty sure they are the culprits for rotting the rubber screws. We won't be using them again!

Ready for Bed

We wrapped up the evening by setting out Easter baskets and reading bed time stories. We even left the Easter Bunny some carrot sticks to snack on as he worked his way through the neighborhood. Casey was worried he'd need some "dippin' sauce" (Ranch dressing), but we convinced him that the Easter Bunny doesn't need anything fancy. . .