Non-Easter Easter

Sunday, Jasmyne slept in until 9. And since we were up until almost 2, so did Lee and I. He went about making 'the weekend big breakfast' and Jasmyne and I snoozed some more watched some DVD or another. Everyone knows you don't cook bacon naked. Everyone except Lee, apparently. A mistake he's sure to never repeat.

Alexa and Taylar came home while we were eating. They'd had bunnies for breakfast and weren't hungry. (Bunnies are the ultimate in Easter Sunday breakfast. You take two canned biscuits per bunny. Cut two ear shapes out of one biscuit, leaving a triangular shape for the head, and assemble them on the cookie sheet kinda like a snowman. Bake and add butter. Nostalgia! Yum!) We ate, then started getting ready to go.

Alexa was taking out the trash. Sometime previously, someone fell asleep and let his ice-cream melt couldn't finish his ice-cream and had thrown it away. The same someone who bought the store-brand trash bags. So we had a trail of vanilla through the dining room and a little into the living room. Lee stayed behind to clean up as I loaded the girls in the 'new cor'. (<=Taylar-ism) It was quite a bit cooler than the previous day, so Lee also changed out of his shorts into jeans. (I noticed hours later.) Good thing it took him so long, though. Taylar was stomping in puddles and caught one with a muddy bottom. We had come prepared, though. I locked the girls in their baby prisons buckled them into their seat-belts and took off the muddy sandal, wiped down the foot and shoe with the ample supply of baby wipes.

We do nothing in small measures around here. Our 'diaper bag' is a huge tote. It carries a full box of wipes wherever we go. None of this sissy 'travel box' stuff. In fact, Lee brought out with him a bowl full of cantaloupe. Not the small bowl. The one that held the whole cut-up melon with room to spare. Know what? It wasn't even conspicuous in the bag. Nevermind the 10 diapers and dozen fruit bowls/miscellaneous snacks that were in there. And the jackets: 2 hoodies.

So we were late again, by the time Lee got out there. We pulled up to the theater a minute or two after the show was supposed to start. Lee let me and Jasmyne out to go buy tickets, while he parked with the other two. There was no line, because who in their right mind goes to the movies at noon on Easter Sunday. Us, that's who. The show: Monsters vs. Aliens 3D. We don't go to the movies very often, so when getting our tickets, I just told her the ages and let her figure out what tickets to sell us.

Jasmyne and I had a minute to try and reach the water in the mall fountain as the rest of the fam came in. As we were walking in the door to the theater, I casually mentioned to Lee over my shoulder that it was nearly $50 for the tickets. FOR A MATINEE??? He took my credit card receipt and went back to ask the girl at the counter. Yep, $9.50 for each of the 3 kids, and $10.00 for each of us. I told you we should have gone to the Movie Tavern, it's at least $2 per ticket cheaper, but you didn't listen... (More, since they weren't showing 3D.) He pouted through the whole movie. Refused to wear his glasses. Oh, well. Shoulda done the homework yourself if you had such strong opinions. Jasmyne also refused to wear her glasses. Shock! She slept through half of the movie.

After we got home, he told me he didn't want to see 3-D in the first place. He said he told me that, but I still contend he had that conversation in his head. I put Taylar down for a nap while he picked up McDonald's. We ate while he got ready for work. He left for his evening shift. We thought about going outside, but somebody woke up cranky. I suppose that should have been a bigger push for getting some fresh air and exercise, but we ended up just being bums.

After Lee got home from work, we watched Twilight. Kind of as a peace offering on my part. I really didn't want to watch a vampire movie after dark, but it wasn't bad. (Thanks a lot Stephen King! We could have watched it the night before if not for your Salem's Lot.) He'd brought home Olive Garden for himself. Since I can't stand don't like Olive Garden very much, he got Taco Bell for me. Not much open after 10 on Easter... He stayed awake for about 10 minutes after he ate. I watched the whole movie. Alone. Again.

Saturday-In-Between

Saturday was a great day. (For me.) Had some interesting fun during naptime. (Serioulsy, it was about 11-12 times for me. It'd been a while since it was that good.) Bought a new dress in under 5 minutes. And then went to my mom's for Easter Dinner. (No sister in sight.) Ahhh, Nirvana.

While Alexa and I were power-shopping, Lee was not getting the girls ready. I didn't fuss at him once, so blissed out from the naptime fun, was I. (I'm usually flipping out, in tears due to anger, etc. by now.) We hurried to get the babies ready. I got ready. All that was left was for Lee to get ready. We left him to throw his clothes on. No big deal. I called my mom from the car, left her a message that I realized we should have been there 10 minutes ago, but we were leaving soon, honest. As soon as Lee came outside.

Dinner was all ready when we got there, except for putting the potatoes under the broiler for 5 minutes and we were going to eat first. But maybe the kids were going to want to snack on their goodies when they were done hunting. Wouldn't it be better if they were already full? Ok, we'll go now.

We took a few pictures before starting out. Jasmyne wasn't happy at all. She's still afraid of Grandma and Grandpa. Lee took the camera that takes good video and I took the one that takes good pictures. Jasmyne was trying to hide in my skirt, but quickly realized this was the fun game from yesterday and got into it. She even let Grandpa show her where some eggs were.

Taylar was running back and forth having a great time! I didn't see much going on with Alexa. She was kinda helping Taylar. She's good like that.

More pictures, and we went in to eat. Mom had the cutest tea-light holders out on the table. I took a picture, of course. We ate. And ate. The babies were being very vegetarian, much to Lee's dismay. He's very much a carnivore!

After supper, we went in to the living room for fun and games. The eggs were split the long way and had a clear plastic band around them. Mom said they were all over the house after last week's mayhem, so I removed them from Taylar's eggs as she opened hers. She took all her candy and put it in the cello bag my mom was holding. Jasmyne didn't open any of hers. She just played in the mess after a basket got dumped. Alexa got a 3-D globe puzzle. She started working on it in the middle of the chaos. Apparently she wasn't in to the movie. (Lee brought Indiana Jones 4, something step-dad would like.)

I took lots and lots of pictures. Together, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we took 113 pictures and 22 videos. My kids will never have to ask me for stories of their childhood – there'll be picture storybooks out the wazoo!

We left Alexa and Taylar to spend the night and to go to church in the morning. Jasmyne fell asleep on the way home. More fun ensued and we made chili dogs as we watched Quantum of Solace. Well, I watched about 95% of it. Lee watched 30-40% before he passed out.

Super-Good Friday

Good Friday was the egg hunt at daycare. I left work at noon and rushed home to get the Jello-beans I'd made the night before. And then rushed to the drugstore to pick up a couple of boxes of Capri-Sun Only to get there and realize that naps start at 12:30. I was 2 hours early. (WTF, memory?)

Ok, so I went to Wal-Mart instead. Traffic between Wal-Mart and Target and the mall was almost like Christmas shopping season. My favorite. But I went anyway. Stopped at the bank for quarters on the way, thus starting my camera-phone dialog with Lee. I snapped a pic of the rolls of quarters and hit send. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well this one was technically worth less than a thousand: went to the bank and purchased 2 rolls of quarters, like I always do. Although my actual text would have read: got quarters. (You know what word's starting to sound weird to me? Quarters. Even though I don't say it aloud as I type, I hear it in my head. - Does anyone else do that?)

On to Wal-Mart. Pre-packaged Easter baskets for Sunday morning (pic dialog x 3 – I only bought baskets for the babies, but switched one out for something better)? Check. Overly-large stuffed animals? Check. Easter baskets to use for the egg hunts because one cute milk-carton crocheted basket and one purple trick-or-treat bag just aren't good enough? Check. Milk, which we're out of and need desperately and I told Lee not to get any the night before when he was out because I was going to get some at Wal-Mart tomorrow? Nope. Forgot that one. Oops.

Next, to Jack in the Box drive-thru for some lunch. (Pic dialog re: sliders) Then home to put all the loot in the closet and get my laptop. I would eat my chicken fajita pita on the way there and should have enough time to at least start an intro blog before time for the kiddies to wake up. The timing was perfect.

I took both cameras, because I've discovered the new one takes horrible videos. Bad sound, bad picture quality. And I haven't figured out how to make it snap a picture when I'm ready. I always have to wait until it's ready. *sigh* How many pictures have I missed because the girls just don't understand “Don't move”?

Jasmyne saw me much earlier than I had intended. Since she'd just woken up from her nap, she was clingy and whiny. I love that part of naps. Anyway, the next bit of afternoon was spent lugging her around. wishing her legs were long enough to touch the ground. I'm really not one to spoil her like that around the house. She cries at least 10 minutes every night while I'm cooking supper. I'll pick her up only long enough to put her in her highchair where she can see me and test gravity with play with her toys. (Point, where are you?) We were sort-of in public, so I spared my ears a little and schlepped her to and fro carried her, as requested ever so politely. They were on minimal staff, so I got the enjoyable task of keeping an eye on Taylar's class while the director got the eggs together to hide. Yippee!

It was snack-time before hunt-time, which was a great idea. Some of the parents sent plastic candy-filled eggs instead of boiled ones as instructed. We didn't need the kids snacking on those! Jasmyne's class got Fritos for their first “course”. I was glad I came to monitor my kids' sugar intake. I don't let Jasmyne have corn chips. She really doesn't have enough teeth for them. Luckily, she was still on my hip, far away from the offending chips! Taylar's class got big spiral Cheetos, an M&M cookie, a couple of Jello-beans, some Wavy Lays, some mini-marshmallows in spring colors and a butter cookie with strawberry filling. I declined the second cookie for both girls. Taylar wanted more chips, so she used Jasmyne's unattended napkin as her own personal buffet. I took the liberty of throwing out some of their snacks when they weren't looking nutritionally enriching their baby diets. They were none the wiser.

Finally, time to hunt eggs. Jasmyne's class went first. Three kids, 5 or 6 dozen eggs on a sloping 3' swath of grass between the chain-link fence and the sidewalk. I only took one camera out with me for some reason. It was her first-ever Easter egg hunt. *sigh* I took lots of pictures and a few videos. Just not good videos. I also convinced the teacher to bring the kids in early and leave about half of the eggs outside. Jasmyne had filled her basket about half-full. She was having fun shaking the eggs! (She still doesn’t know there was anything inside worth taking out.) I only had to show her once that she was supposed to pick up the egg and put it in her basket. After that, it was a game to see if she could throw each one in a little harder than the one before. (Seriously, what does a 1.5-year-old know about eggs+delicate=be gentle??? For that matter, what does a 3-year-old know about that? The same nothing, that’s what!)

We waited while the next older class did their hunting. Then I carried Jasmyne on my hip and we took pictures and videos of Taylar’s hunt. She’s the youngest in her class – just moved up in fact. So she was slow to get to the eggs. (Either that, or her classmates really resembled the way vampires scale walls in the movies.) She only ended up with 7 eggs, but she didn’t know her classmates had out-hunted her. Besides, their class only had boiled eggs to hunt. One girl in that class decided to pick a yellow dandelion and skip the eggs. To each her own, I guess. Taylar had a great time, as did Jasmyne. As soon as we got back in from the hunt, we packed up and high-tailed it outta there left quietly.

Lee was home when we got there, so I made him come out and help carry stuff in. The girls got to sit in the living room with their favorite baby-sitter while Lee and I had a ‘discussion’ in the other room before he went back to work for the second shift. Alexa came home and interrupted our conference, needing the deadbolt opened. Like it woulda killed her to wait outside 30-45 minutes. It was a nice day out. She had some room-cleaning to do, however, so she was out of earshot for the remainder of the discussion.

We girls were left on our own for the rest of the evening. I caught up on some blog-reading. And we ate what we wanted for supper. Whatever that was.