Easter 2011

When did this kid get so tall and skinny?

It was a cold, rainy Easter weekend in Northwest Arkansas, but we celebrated our risen Christ just as though the sun had been shining.  I love the renewal of Easter and the pageantry of everyone getting dressed up for the celebration of the day.  Of course, Easter is not all about dresses and new shoes and eggs, but the “fanciness” of the day makes it stand out all that much more.  It makes us take notice.  It makes it not just another Sunday…because it is so far from being mundane. 

Our church has a community Easter egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter.  This year, it was held inside because the eggs (and the kids) would’ve floated if we had taken them outside.  Even though we celebrate the sacred parts of Easter most, the church still has an Easter Bunny available for pictures.  We don’t really do the whole Easter Bunny story at our house (or Santa either, for that matter), but I don’t have a problem at all with the kids having their picture taken with him.  I wasn’t sure how Nola would do, but she was fully intrigued by him. 

After we had our turn to take a picture, she kept going back over and just standing in front of him.  Sometimes she would get tickled about it and just laugh out loud. 

The kids ate cupcakes and cookies and all sorts of sweet stuff, then they separated them into age groups and let them pick up eggs in the hallways.  That worked out great for the kids because they didn’t have to worry about the little ones and big ones getting in each others’ way. But – it caused a bit of a problem for this mom who had one in one hallway and another in a whole different hallway!  I ended up going with Nola, since it was her first egg “hunt”.  My friend Sheila took pictures of Caleb, but I don’t have them yet to share.  Here’s Nola’s adventure:

When it was over, we took our baskets and headed home…

When we got home, Caleb and I dyed some eggs and made our bunny cake that turned out really ugly, but it tasted really good.

Sunday morning, we got the kids dressed in their Easter clothes and went to church.  We had a nice service and then went to lunch.  I tried so hard to get a good picture of them, but it was quite difficult.  Here’s the best I could do…

After lunch we came home to rest and then gave the kids their Easter baskets.  We scaled down the baskets this year.  Each of them got a movie and a snack, some bubbles and the candy that had been given to them by their grandparents.  Caleb’s favorite thing was his Super Mario fruit snacks.  Nola liked the bubbles best.  I filled the extra space in the baskets with Easter stuffed animals from years past.

 

T-Ball

We gave Caleb the choice of playing either t-ball or soccer this year.  Much to my appreciation, he chose t-ball.  I signed him up to play in the Bentonville league, because I’ve heard from reputable sources that they have a better program than Rogers.  Because we live in Bentonville School District, we were able to choose. 

Caleb was assigned to the Cubs, which nearly killed Rudy and I since we are life-long Cardinals fans.  But, I have to admit, he looks pretty stinking cute in his uniform, even if it is blue instead of red. 
The first practice was on April 5th.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but felt okay about it since we already knew 2 of the kids on his team from daycare.  Caleb loved it from the very first minute.   Rudy has been working with him in the backyard and that practice paid off, because Caleb threw and ran and hit the ball like a t-ball pro!  Of course, the kids have no idea how to actually play the game, but they are pretty cute while they are learning.  Here are a few pictures of the first practice:

And, of course, after the first practice comes the first game.  Caleb’s first game was April 9th.  I could’ve just keeled over when I saw him in his uniform for the first time.
 

He loved the game.  They all get to bat and nobody gets out and nobody takes score.  It’s just about learning the fundamentals and how to actually play without everyone swarming the ball all over the field.

 

Aunt Kathy came out to see Caleb’s big debut.

And, of course, his Mama and Daddy were proud of him!

Ready, Set, Walk!

On the afternoon of Friday, April 1st, we were sitting in the living room, trying to decide where to go for dinner.  Nola was playing in the floor.  I didn’t think too much about it when she crawled over and pulled herself up to standing by holding onto the coffee table.  She’s been doing that for months.  I did take notice, though, when she decided to let go.  She stood there for a few seconds before she put her hand back on the table.  Rudy was closest to her, so I suggested that he see if she would walk to him.  He did and – lo and behold - if she didn’t let go of that table and take a couple of steps!  We spent the next half-hour having her walk back and forth between us, laughing and enjoying the moment.  Here’s some video of her first afternoon of walking:

Nola right after taking her first steps on 4/1/11

Stuff We Did in April

April 1 ~ Nola suddenly started walking!  Of course, that deserves its own post.  More on that later.

April 4 ~ The daycare called me because Caleb had a suspicious rash that they thought was chicken pox.  I picked him up, took him straight to the doctor, got a diagnosis of post-viral rash and took him straight back to daycare.  While I was there, they told me that Nola had been having diarrhea.  I chalked it up to the antibiotic that she was on for her ears.  Later that night, I booked a trip for just Rudy and I in Florida this summer!  Yeah!!!

April 5 ~ Nola got sent home from daycare with fever and more diarrhea.  Turns out she had rotavirus.  Yuck.  My mom came to the rescue and drove up to stay with us since Nola couldn’t go to daycare.

That night was also Caleb’s first t-ball practice.  That also deserves its own post.  Again…more on that later.

April 7 ~ Mom left after packing and taking 365 pieces of Nola’s outgrown clothes to consignment. 

April 8 ~ My friend Sheila and I took our preschoolers (Caleb and Ansley) to see Seussical the Musical at Bentonville High School.  It was so cute and the kids loved it – even though they were totally exhausted by the time it was over.

April 9 ~ Caleb’s 1st t-ball game.  Awesome.

April 11th ~ Ugh.  Benchmark testing week.  Ugh.

April 12th ~ Crazy Hair Day for Caleb at daycare.

April 15th ~ Stacy and I drove to Frisco, TX after school for our girls’ weekend.

April 16th ~ We started our day with a trip to Sam Moon and Cheesecake Factory and ended it with a 7 hour concert at Cowboys Stadium.  We saw Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington, Zac Brown Band and Kenny Chesney.

April 19th ~ Caleb’s kindergarten screening at Reagan.

April 22nd ~ Tornado sirens sent us to the laundry room wearing bike helmets.  The tornado passed just a few miles from our house.  While we were in there (trying to keep the mood light to keep the kids from being scared), Caleb asked if we could pray about it…so we did.

That was the beginning of a very long week of nothing but rain, rain, rain. 

April 23rd ~ We went to the church Easter egg hunt.  Caleb and I dyed eggs and made our Easter cake.  It wasn’t pretty, but it tasted pretty good.

April 24th ~ Easter Sunday – a rainy day, but we celebrated anyway!  A separate Easter post to come…
April 25th ~ Nola ran a fever at school, so Rudy left to take her home.  The rain caused lots of roads in Northwest Arkansas to flood.  It was a difficult drive home from school for Caleb and me.  By the time we went to bed, Caleb was running a fever too. 

April 26th ~ Rudy stayed home with both kids.  We watched the TV closely again for tornado warnings.  It was a horrible week with lots of severe weather.

April 27th ~ Mom came up to take care of the kids again so that Rudy could go back to work.  Caleb had been on the couch with fever for a day and a half.  When she got here, he perked up like magic.  He told me that night that LaLa made him feel better.  I agree.

April 28th ~ Mom and I took the kids to Gravette for a photo session with Kim Durham of KD Photography.  I’m still waiting for the final result, but the sneak preview that I got looks wonderful!

Stuff We Did in March

Holy Moly – It’s worse than I thought.  I haven’t updated what we’ve been doing since the first of March.  Here goes nothing (thanks to backtracking through my Facebook posts)…

March 13th ~ Caleb went to LaLa & Pops’ house for the week because we had so much on our evening calendars that it seemed like a good time for him to go for a visit. 

March 15th ~ Nola started running a fever at daycare and I had to go get her.  She ended up having a respiratory infection and an ear infection.  I took her to the ENT to get her ears suctioned…again.

March 16th ~ Caleb’s fish, Ronnie died.  We went through the classic 80’s sitcom dilemma of whether or not to replace him with a look-alike and decided against it.  When I told him, he was fine.  After a day or two, though, it because a major issue.  He wouldn’t sleep in his bed because he missed Ronnie.  He sobbed one night because he didn’t get to say goodbye to Ronnie.  He told me that he had prayed that Ronnie would come back to life and he didn’t understand why it didn’t happen.  Ronnie was soon replaced with a goldfish named Swimmy.  All is well in the tank again.

March 17th ~ Caleb and my parents went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Hot Springs.  These showed up on my phone via text: 

 

March 19th ~ I met my parents to bring Caleb home.  We sang Justin Bieber’s song “Baby” about 25 times between Waldron and Rogers. 

March 19th ~ Rudy and I cringed when we found out that Caleb was playing on the Cubs t-ball team.  I nearly killed our Cardinals fan hearts.

March 20-27 ~ SPRING BREAK!!!

March 20 ~ I spent hours sorting through the kids’ outgrown stuff to sell/consign/give away.  We have a lot of outgrown stuff!  We spent some time in the afternoon walking the trail at Compton Gardens.

March 21 ~ I spent the day in Branson with my friend Stacy.  We shopped ‘til we dropped and then some. 

March 22 ~ One of Caleb’s friends came over for the day.  I decided for absolutely sure that 2 kids is plenty for me.

March 23 ~ We all packed up and went to Hot Springs for the rest of the week.  Yay!!!

March 24 ~ Rudy and I had a date day while the kids stayed with my mom.  We went to Oaklawn & out for a fabulous dinner.

March 25 ~ Rudy went to deer camp to help out with some work & stayed for the rest of the weekend.

March 26 ~ Aunt Harolyn had us all over for a family dinner.  It was fun to see the Caleb and Maddox playing together & we enjoyed catching up with our whole family!

March 27 ~ Came home to get ready to go back to school.  The end of spring break is always sad. 

March 29 ~ Caleb:  “Thunder is good.  It scares away the lightning.”  I love the logic of a 4 year old.

March 31 ~ Caleb at bedtime:  “My heart beats happy.”  I admit that I got a little choked up at that one.

Case In Point

Seconds after I posted about it being 56 days since I last blogged, the phone rang.  Rudy was calling to tell me that Nola’s diagnosis from the walk-in clinic is pink eye and a yeast infection.  I put aside the idea of blogging and started trying to figure out what in the world we’re going to do tomorrow since I have 2 conferences and Rudy has a concert this week to prepare for.  It’s always something.

56 Days

That's how long it's been since I posted.  56 days.  I haven't felt much like writing, nor have I had the time.  Lots of things have happened that I meant to post about, but didn't.  Recently, I've found myself thinking about how much I miss it, though.  So, here I sit on Mother's Day with the keyboard and my thoughts.  But, gracious...where do I start?  I could start with now, say that the last month and a half have been busy and not even try to update, but I don't want to miss documenting the events of the last 56 days.  I'll be as concise as I can, but it's been a busy spring.  The next few posts will tell why.