Easter and Easter Bunny

So the balancing act continues.

On one hand we want our children to understand that the season of Lent and Holy Week culminating in the Resurrection is the most important time in the life of a Christian.

The foremost concerns of our children are a little different. What days can I have the treat that I gave up for Lent? How many times do we have to go to Church? How many days until the Easter Bunny visits? I want to wear this dress to Church! You mean we have to go to Church again today!?!

Karla and Laura at the CYO Easter Egg Hunt on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Laura planned on wearing this dress days before the actual event. Gabe participated too but he didn’t quite get it.

Somehow we made it home without any palm branches on Palm Sunday so no pictures of palm welding children. This is how it usually goes down.

Egg dyeing thus year was another non-picture event. For the first time ever I hard-boiled some eggs – handed the eggs and egg dye kit to the big girls – and said have fun. Such a liberating event. Of course mom was still on the quick-clean-it-up-before-Gabe-gets-up-from-his-nap duty!

This is as close as we were able to get to a family Easter portrait. We attended the Easter Vigil mass on Saturday night. But I always forget how long it is. When we left at just short of 2 hours later there were no more smiles. Just some very crabby kids. (And possibly some parents as well.) Kids can make it challenging but there is soooo much going on at the Vigil mass! Very worth the effort.

And now for the “real” Easter morning portrait… and yes Karla IS still wearing her dress from the previous night.

And a close up…Gabe was stuffing whole peeps in his mouth. I think he approves of this candy thing.

Hope you had a good Easter!

Tricky Words

Were you ever in the spelling bee as a kid? I was terrible at spelling. There was zero chance I would ever end up representing my school in any kind of spelling contest. Spell check was invented for people like me. However Megan has had the chance to attend the Nemaha County Spelling Bee on January 18th for the second year in a row on behalf of her B&B class.

Megan standing at the podium spelling a word. The one that tripped her up this year was “bequeathed.”

Megan with her participation certificate. We are very proud of the great job she did!

Hold on a moment!

Wait a second! Did we really just jump from Karla’s birthday to Megan’s Birthday without doing anything in the time between?

Of course we did stuff! This is just the household of a 1 year old and a 3 year old. Mixed in with a 5 year old, 10 year old and a teenager. Things don’t get done!

So a little bit of an update is overdue.

The beginning of February saw a snow storm with the corresponding day off of school. This dry cow doesn’t seem to mind the snow so much as the wind. And yes, I was outside taking snow pictures because there were five crazy kids stuck in the house together.

When not grabbing a bite to eat these dry cows sheltered in the shed and wisely refrained from having babies.

Next was the B&B Alumni Reunion weekend to celebrate the legacy of B&B schools. For those who don’t know, B&B jr/sr high school is closing this year. Many events surrounded this weekend festivities. A home basketball game on Friday Feb. 7th kicked everything off. After the game was a speech by Ed Broxterman (our local olympian) a presentation of all the different athletic awards won by the school since its inception, and some of the junior high and high school kids performing “Cups”. In the semi-circle, Megan is the second person closest to the camera in the light blue shirt. They did a great job!

The following day Megan helped model old uniforms at the alumni banquet. I don’t have a picture of that but here She is with a poem she wrote.

Megan and her locker this year.

Next up is the 4-H club days February 15th. Here Malissa is doing a reading. If I remember right it is Green Eggs and Ham.

Megan is reading Biggest Shadow in the Zoo. (Its about an elephant) Megan will get to participate in Regional 4-H Days with her reading.

Also not pictured but during the month of February, Megan participated in Junior High Scholars Bowl. Which she really enjoyed. She is also taking guitar lessons. Which she also enjoyed.

This is the closest we have to a group shot for February.

Plus Malissa.

And that is February in a nutshell. Hope you had a great one too!

Teen In The House

On April 1st it was birthday time in the Deters household once again.

Somehow Megan has morphed into a teenager! I’m pretty sure just yesterday she was a little girl starting Kindergarten. There must be some mistake!

At least she still wanted a fun cake shape.

Of course there is also all the loot. Not pictured is a trip to see the movie Divergent. Completely worth it.

And finally your obligatory cute baby Gabe picture with his favorite dessert.

Karla Turns Three!

What were you doing three years ago today? We were introducing ourselves to a brand new baby girl. Its so hard to believe that three years have slipped past. Just the other day her older sisters brought home from school papers for preschool screening. (Not a chance!)

On that Friday just a short time ago it was cold like it was today only a snow storm was moving in. I believe some sort of comment was made about babies and adverse weather events.

Malissa is responsible for this pretty little creation.  I'm not quite sure why the tropical island. Maybe she was wishing it would warm up.

We are blessed to have Karla as part of our family!

Some Christmas Music

In high school, the vocal music department would sing this song every year for Christmas with the alumni coming up to take part with the students. Obviously we never sounded quite like this group but it brings back fond memories.

 

Chasing after Christmas

 

One thing you can always count on, December will keep you on your toes! There are always so many different things going on that its all you can do just to hang on for the ride.

As it continues to snow outside the odds are looking increasingly good for a white Christmas. Maybe Santa will even have a place to land his sleigh. He came to visit a week ago to much excitement.

 

Not withstanding the kinda freaked out look in this picture, Gabe thinks that Christmas trees are awesome. The legs that you see belong to Laura. Since Karla and Laura were doing the lion share of the decorating we needed to get the ornaments past 3 feet high because Gabe has very long arms.

 

 

What would Christmas be without some cutting out and decorating of sugar cookies. These tasted wonderful and disappeared much faster than the mess they made.

 

If the upload works, Megan has a solo in this Christmas song at the very beginning. She's been working on singing louder but my camera had a little trouble picking her up. Gabe was sitting on my lap and he had behaved beautifully during all the performances until we finally reached the junior high choir, which is last. Then he decided to add a little music of his own. Which is my excuse for taking a wiggly video of the back of a head!

Do you know what happens when I try to fill out Christmas cards? With me standing 5 feet away and trying my best to ignore them, Karla and Gabriel ransack my cabinets. Those of you who receive Christmas cards before Christmas know that you are one of the lucky few. Everyone else...they're coming...I hope!

I hope you enjoy looking at our fun as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you!