He is Risen!

On the Friday before Palm Sunday, Grace and Rachel flew from Chicago to Wilkes Barre unattended. Rachel had flown by herself once last summer, but this was a first for Rachel. Because Nadia had a sleepover birthday party that began that afternoon, she wasn't with us when the boys and I picked the girls up at the airport. After we picked them up, I took them to a trampoline park for an hour. After that we had dinner at Denny's and then drove home. On Saturday morning I took Oliver, Ian, Grace, and Rachel (two nine-year-olds and two twelve-year-olds) to two Easter egg hunts. It was in the 40's, but thankfully it didn't rain during the egg hunts. The kids came home with a lot of chocolate and quite a bit of trading ensued between the kids. At the second egg hunt the church also served everyone in attendance hot dogs, bottled water, cookies, and chips. After we finished eating, we drove to Jill's house to pick up Nadia. In the early afternoon we went to a third egg hunt. Nadia brought Milo along. She is too old to participate in any egg hunts this year, but the other kids did share some of their candy with her. The kids weren't very thrilled about the third egg hunt because they only picked up hardboiled eggs and didn't happen to find any prize eggs. They would

have preferred to receive more candy, but the hard-boiled eggs have been eaten over the past week. Some were eaten as is, and Wendy, Oliver, and I also ate some egg salad sandwiches. I was tempted to make creamed egg on toast in memory of my mom, but I'm the only one in our family who likes to eat it. I would have been very content to stay home the rest of the day on Saturday, but Nadia and Rachel wanted to see the final performance of the musical Shrek, Jr. at our local middle school on Saturday night. Paul stayed home from work on Saturday so he could take Ian on a date to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 at the movie theatre. I gave him a coupon for one free ticket, one free popcorn, and one free soda. They shared the soda and popcorn, so the cost of their date was $5.50 (the cost of one ticket). Ian was thrilled to be able to see the movie the day after it was released!

On Sunday morning we went to both services at church and then stayed home the rest of the day; after the youngest two went to bed, Rachel directed a ballet challenge between Ian and Nadia where she gave them various challenges related to balance, grace, and flexibility. On Monday morning I made blueberry muffins for breakfast and then all five kids played glow-in-the-dark dodgeball at our church's homeschool gym class from 10:30-12:00. Wendy drove from Chicago to our home on Monday. Nadia and Rachel had a sleepover on Monday night. They had a very detailed schedule

that they followed from 8:30pm to 3:00am that included things like playing Twister, a ballet challenge between Ian, Nadia, Grace, and Oliver, playing Racko, watching the movie Tooth Fairy, etc. The younger kids were jealous the next morning, so we let Ian, Grace, and Oliver stay up until 10:00 pm on Tuesday night. The only thing on my schedule on Tuesday was to take Nadia to her drama class. Rachel came along with us. On Wednesday morning we played Codenames. After lunch we headed to Williamsport to help pack hygiene kits for Christian Aid Ministries who will be giving them to Ukrainian refugees. The kids played on a playground a little, and then Wendy treated us all to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in honor of my birthday. After dinner we dropped Nadia, Ian, and Rachel off at our church for youth group. Wendy and the girls left our home early on Thursday morning. The kids had a great time with their cousins. When Nadia wasn't around, Ian and Rachel played together while Oliver and Grace played together. Once Nadia came back from the sleepover party, Nadia and Rachel were pretty much inseparable. Most of the time Oliver, Ian, and Grace played together. One of their

projects was creating a stop motion movie featuring Grace's LOL dolls and Ian's pirate ships. The kids would love it if they lived a LOT closer to either set of cousins, but we are thankful that COVID is no longer making it impossible for our paths to cross. 

Originally, I had planned for our spring break to be from April 14-18, but once we knew that cousins were coming to spend time with us, we changed our spring break to being from April 9-13. We had school on Thursday and Friday whereas the kids in our area had off those two days. Flexibility is one of the perks of homeschooling! I didn't want to extend the spring break because I still wanted May 5 to be our last day of school because Nadia has theatre rehearsals all day from May 9-13, and we leave for vacation on May 16. Not counting field trip days, we only have 13 days left of school! On Thursday we stayed at home all day. I mowed half of the lawn. It was my first time mowing in more than seven months. Usually, I mow the whole lawn at one time. Due to my ankle I opted to mow half of the lawn on Thursday and the other half on Friday. We attended a Good Friday service on Friday evening. 

Yesterday I took the boys to two egg hunts. This is Ian's last year to participate since the egg hunts are for ages 1-12, and it's the first year that Nadia has been too old to participate. At the first egg hunt, they separated the kids into groups by two-year increments, and there were very few 11-12 year old children who attended. Ian took a VERY big basket, and it wasn't big enough to hold everything! The third hunt I planned to take them to yesterday was postponed until April 30 because there was rain in the forecast. Thankfully it didn't rain during either of the egg hunts. Nadia wants me to take Milo to a bone hunt for dogs that is being held next Saturday. I usually try to stick to ones that are within 8 minutes of our home and that one is 15 minutes away so I haven't decided if we will go or not. The last thing on our schedule on Saturday was attending Micah's 11th birthday party at the roller-skating rink. When we got home from the party, we watched a DVD from Redbox. I had been waiting four months to see the new Spider-Man movie. 

This morning Pop Pop met us at our church. It had been more than two years since he attended our church. He also spent time at our house afterward. I served Jell-O, homemade dinner rolls, ham, potatoes au gratin, deviled eggs, cherry dump cake, green beans, and peach kuchen. The weather had been in the high 70's a few days ago, but today it was snowing as we were driving home from church.