Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Last night was a rough one. Marcie woke up every time we tried to move her from the bed to the pack n play, so we kept putting her back in our bed. Ugh. Poor Jason. She was a major bed hog on his side of the bed. At least we're on the same anti-family bed page. No offense to those of you who are big fans, but this mama just can't do it. I don't get enough sleep. I worry about smushing the kids. My sinuses fill up and keep my head stuffy the whole next day (okay, maybe a cold is causing that last thing).

So this morning started with both kids climbing into our bed:

Then we went to see if the Easter Bunny made it safely to our house:

He did! (Or she did, as the case may be.)

Next, we got all dolled up for church and headed out to mass:

Now I know I wrote about this last week, but this week was much the same conversation with Casey. And he seems to enjoy having it during the homily (which is when the priest gives the sermon). This morning went like this:

Casey: Mommy, where's the baby Jesus?

Me: Remember, Casey? He grew up?

Casey: But where is He?

Me: He died Casey, but He came back to life and lives forever in heaven. If you're a good boy, you can live forever in heaven, too. Would you like that?

Casey: Slight hesitation. He died?

Me: Yes, He died. But it's okay. He came back to life.

Casey: Is He here?

Me: Kind of. His spirit is here. His spirit is everywhere.

Casey: Was he sick when he died?

Me: No, Casey. The people got mad at Him and they killed Him.

Casey: Unsure. They killed Him?

Me: Yes. But He came back to life. That's called the Resurrection. Can you say "Resurrection"?

Casey: Jection?

Me: Pretty good, Casey.

We repeated this conversation two or three times. Then I just shushed him and told him Jesus grew up. I relayed this story to my older brother Bob, who said it reminded him of the movie Taladega Nights. That totally made me laugh-- you know what part he's talking about? The part of the movie where the Will Farrell character Ricky Bobby is saying grace and he insists on praying to the baby Jesus because that's his favorite image of Jesus. . .

You know, if you have any suggestions for how to explain all this to Casey, I'm open to them. I don't want to give him more information than he can comprehend. And I haven't really liked any of the children's books I've read. But, like I said, ideas are welcomed!
Anyway, after church, we returned home, where we were met by Casey's cousin Joey and his friend Lucas, who is about 6 months older than Marcie. The kids all participated in an egg hunt (of plastic eggs filled with stickers, jelly beans, and MnMs):

After the hunting, the kids ate and they all went down for a nap. Well, almost. Joey had trouble falling asleep. But he was quiet enough that we adults still got to sit down and have a nice meal together.

When the kids woke up from their naps, just as we finished our meal, they played for a while and then we had dessert. For dessert, we ate our traditional family bunny cake. And I just realized I forgot to take a picture of it this year! Oh no! This was the first year Casey decorated it, and I completely forgot to take that picture. Darnit. Oh well. You'll just have to trust me-- it was cute.

The kids all played together quite nicely. There was a three-year spread in age, but that didn't seem to slow them down. Lucas knows quite a lot of Spanish and ASL (American Sign Language). He seemed startled when I said a couple things to him in Spanish. But Tram really stole the show for Lucas, who climbed right up on her lap and lounged there for a while. We joked that he liked the lumbar support (from her pregnant belly). Boy, was he enamored!

So that's about how things went around here. The sun never came out, but it was still a cheerful afternoon, filled with laughter and good conversation--

It was a nice Easter Sunday.