He Conquered The Grave

aka: Easter Weekend
Alison and Ellie were up by 6am looking for Easter treats! We heard a little crash downstairs and knew that they had found their surprise...a hamster cage! Let me back up a little...Both of the older girls have birthdays late in the year, close to Christmas. So we have decided, since they have no occasion to get gifts all spring and summer, that Easter will be a little bit bigger deal than it was for either Brian or I growing up. We figure that He rose from the dead! That's something to celebrate as much as His birthday :o) So instead of candy and little toys, we will do a little more...hence the hamster cage. (I took a bunch of pictures of the baskets, the awesome cage that the Easter Bunny brought and the kids. The memory card however, was not in my camera)

Brian made us all a wonderful breakfast of toast, eggs, and bacon, while I ironed dresses. I'm so glad that we are a jeans and t shirt kind of church, because I wouldn't want to iron dresses every week! I got all of us girls ready for church and we were out the door by 8:45.



Right after church we headed to the pet store to let the girls pick out their hamster. Meet Burt. While Brian was getting everything in the cage, Burt was running around on the floor. I put my hand flat on the ground, because the lady said to scoop him rather than pick him up, and he bit me. I picked him up, set him on Alison's very still hands, and he bit her. This time drawing blood. She FREAKED out. Then it walked by Brian's hand, he was just sitting there, and it bit him! Three unprovoked bites in about 10 minutes was not a good sign. I could understand if we were being rough or moving quick. So Brian and I made the parental decision that Burt had to go back. Alison, who never really stopped crying, began bawling again. "You CAN'T take him back! He is part of the family. You cant give back a family member just because he's bad!" I tried to explain that it was no fun to have a pet that we couldn't play with, and that he would be happier with his hamster friends. She wasn't buying it.

Brian broke down the cage and put it back in the box (they didn't seem to notice that the Easter Bunny left the box in our garage), boxed up Burt, and headed back to Petsmart. About a half hour later, they came home with a guinea pig! Meet Wilson. Wilson needed to be left alone for a day, to get used to his new home, so the picture isn't very good.


After we got Wilson settled, I made the girls go in the backyard for some pictures in their Easter dresses. They would not open their eyes towards the sun, so I turned them around, but now there are bad shadows...oh well. you win some, you lose some. I have concluded that a single picture with all three looking in the same direction is impossible!

After pictures, we had lunch then they did a craft with me while Brian worked on the house. We made pictures with embroidery floss. They were so excited to "sew"!

A quick change of clothes...why? Because they felt like it. And Brian and I switched. I went up to paint, while he did a project with them (Brooklynn was sleeping since lunch. A four hour nap!)

On Saturdays Lowes gives away free kids projects. Since we have been to Lowes almost every day for the last two weeks, we had a few for them to build.

Alison built a game box

And Ellie helped make a birdhouse

Dinner was a roast, potatoes, carrots and bread. Then we all had strawberry shortcake for dessert. A fun, drama filled Easter!