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| Celebrating Easter on Saturday Night! |
- The kids all slept until 8:15 or after this morning-it was lovely. And then for the most part, they were fairly quiet and played in the toy room some. Then it was breakfast and Robby headed upstairs to run.
- I tried to keep everyone busy so they wouldn't bother him for a bit-they made a few Easter cards, helped fold laundry and played on my phone some. Soon someone remembered that Robby might be upstairs watching Shark Tank and then it was a race to get upstairs. I did make them straighten a few rooms before they could go up and they still made it in time to watch most of that show. Funny because the big 3 will set quietly and watch Shark Tank while probably not understanding most of what is going on.
- Then Robby had a shower and Keaton joined him so he could wash her hair. When he got out, I got in with Keaton still in the shower playing happily with her stacking cups. I then climbed out and we convinced Campbell to join Keaton. They were in the shower for a good 30 minutes while I did a few things upstairs and chatted on the phone. Those girls were both having a big time when I finally did turn the water off.
- Next up was lunch and then egg dyeing time. I remember begging my mom to let us dye lots of eggs and we usually each did get to dye a dozen eggs-but if I did that it would be 72 eggs. That is a bit excessive. So this time, five apiece worked well and Keaton didn't mind sharing for those that were cracked by the others.
- Surprisingly, Reagan was the first one finished. She would really enjoy pinteresting up her eggs but we didn't do that this time. Graham was the most careful and Anderson was the slowest but he was very patient to wait on the colors to get darker. Campbell was by far the messiest and I guess the hungriest. When Anderson started to peel an egg that had been cracked to eat, Campbell just stuck some of her egg in her mouth and proceeded to bite down on it. She had not a clue that the shell is not to be eaten! Keaton was just happy holding an egg.
- The kids played while Robby cleaned and I iced a carrot cake. Seriously, my cake has been doomed from the start. I had a 1 cup measuring cup that was clean and was using it while making the cake yesterday. The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of oil and after adding the first cup, Campbell walked in the room and started talking to me. So I have no idea if I ever added the remaining 1/2 cup or not. Eventually, I decided to just add 1/4 cup more oil-that way I would be only 1/4 cup over or under. This might have played a process in how moist my cake is or maybe I didn't cook it long enough. But this all caused it to not want to come out of the pans and made it a bear to ice. I finally made it look presentable after about an hour of icing it.
- While I was working on this, the kids were playing train with the kitchen bar stools. Robby had vacuumed under the bar and the stools ended up in a line. Keaton was still in her high chair so she was scooted over to board their train. Sometimes it is just odd how well they can play together. They had a conductor, snack lady, ticket tacker and passengers and there was even a big train collision that involved Anderson being slumped over the stool and Graham having to quickly take his place in the conductor seat to avoid another collision.
- The kids eventually moved upstairs and worked on a show for us. When I had finished my cake, Robby and I dutifully went upstairs to watch their music show. Anderson, my little salesman, had set up a booth for us to buy toy cars to take into the show. Only thing was, the boy wanted real money and not the pretend kind that my pockets are full of. Finally, he did accept my invisible cash and I bought the baby a car.
- Campbell and Graham were on the drums, Reagan was playing the guitar and Anderson was part of the lighting crew (meaning he set on top of the bunk and shined flashlights on the others). After awhile of singing, banging, shouting and guitar playing we did convince everyone to go and watch a movie (which means nap for me!). I snoozed off and on-while dealing with Campbell who was laying on top of Anderson and got shoved to the floor and her pajamas pulled off of her in the process, then Graham did something and fell into my nightstand and there was one more incident but by that time Campbell and I were cuddled up sleeping pretty soundly.
- Soon I did stir and Robby and I worked on getting the new baby's car seat in the van. And yes, I know there are still 7 empty seats in the van, we really debated about where to put the new addition. Having one row empty is nice but will Keaton bother the new baby. Where is the easiest to lift the baby's seat into the van and can I still crawl around to get to the back are just some of the questions we discussed. You would have thought we were putting the car seat in the van with super glue and nut just buckling it up.
- Then it was time to get ready for church. The kids donned their Easter clothes and Campbell was thrilled to be going to big church. We are actually going to skip Sunday school tomorrow since all 8 of us should be there next week.
- Now let's discuss Campbell sitting in big church. As it started, she wanted to ask me a question and immediately raised her hand up. That girl enjoyed singing and I am sure that her invitation to join the choir will come any day since I know they could hear her singing. And no, she knew none of the words but was singing her heart out. She was a bit restless but overall, she enjoyed getting go to go the "Mason daddy show."-that is what she called church tonight. (Our preacher is her friend Mason's dad.)
- Back at home, we dished out supper for the kids, finished our Resurrection eggs and then had ice cream truck (yes, I know it isn't Sunday but no one else really knows that-going to church at night on a Saturday has completely thrown them off.) Our plan was to put everyone in bed and then do a bit of cleaning around here but those plans were interrupted when the lights went off.
- This caused immediate pandemonium by most of the kids-Campbell started whining, Anderson started shouting "the power went out, the power" and Graham just stared at me probably trying to decide how I would react. Of course, since it was still dusk out and I could see I went on about my business of emptying the dishwasher. I finally had to light a candle to calm Campbell down. They finished their ice cream while Robby drug out the flashlights.
- Usually, it is a simple process to get the kids into bed but of course with no lights it wasn't-all kinds of questions were being asked "what is an earthquake?" (who knows where that one was from) "what if the power doesn't come on in the morning?" "are we going to sleep in the bonus room?" (as we did for 7 nights after Christmas) and "can you tell us about not having water when you were little?" (we were on a well and without power, we had no water.) I tried to settle everyone down by dragging about bedtime myself while working on hanging up their clothes for next week (yes, they are going to wear their same church clothes next week to church-no one saw them tonight, they had them on for about 2 hours and we will have a 5 day old-don't judge!)
- Robby had been wanting to pull out the generator and just start it up to make sure it was ready to go when needed so now was as good of time as any. And it did start right up and the first things to be plugged up were the kids fan, clock/light and monitor. We then said prayers and I headed out their door and this is when Campbell started screaming "I can't see, I can't see." I had to remind her that the exact same night light was shining that shines every single night. Finally she accepted this and everyone eventually calmed down.
- Next for Robby to plug up was the fridge and freezer in the garage and then our bedroom-lamp, monitor and tv. And then he moved to the alarm which keeps buzzing if it doesn't have power (crazy annoying). Of course, all this time he was convinced that the power would come back on any minute and after about 30 minutes of having everything ready to go, the power did come back on. That was all fine though and the cords didn't take too long to wrap back up.
- The Easter baskets are all filled up and ready to go-the contain a chocolate egg, toothbrush, toothpaste, a cheapo movie from walmart, bubbles, play doh, a package of gummies and breakfast-a bottle of orange juice and a honey bun. That sounds like a pretty big Easter basket though I probably spent less than 5 bucks a basket. We have never really said the baskets were from the Easter bunny and this year we have decided that we will be pretty clear that they are from us if asked.
- The other day, I overheard the kids talking. They had opened the fridge and saw my carrots for my cake. Reagan asked if they were for the Easter bunny and I told her they were for my cake. Anderson quickly told her there was no Easter bunny and she said that Kaleigh and someone else got baskets from the Easter bunny. I continued to silently work while they went on to further discuss this.
- And one more thing, usually Robby and I tuck the kids in together but last night he was outside doing something or another and was coming so I went ahead and tucked them in. As I was giving hugs and kisses, Robby came in and nonchalantly asked if the kids they were playing with yesterday said anything about any bones. The kids said no and didn't think anything about it but as soon as the door to their room was shut, I asked him "bones?" Apparently someone or more likely something drug an old animal carcass under the shed. Robby said it was big enough that he had to do away with it with a shovel and also large enough that when he first saw it, he immediately jumped back. Oh, there are new joys all of the time of living in the country!
