easter fun

Our Easter weekend was filled with all the usual activities:

There was a classroom party ---

They painted eggs, and while Caleb's female classmates flirted with Daniel, Matthew got to pretend he was a kindergartner, too.

We went on an egg hunt ---

It's not a stick.

Excited for his first egg hunt.

This hunt was organized by my friend Whitney for all the kids in the ward, and held at a local playground. It was postponed twice because of late spring snows, but we finally found a nice day, scrambled to change the date at the last minute, and it was awesome.

And they're off! (Pint sized version.)

 And they're off! (Big kid version.)

Turns out that if you plop Daniel on the grass next to a bucket and a few eggs, he knows exactly what to do.

Examining their loot. (Not pictured: whining that they "only got jelly beans." Those jelly beans nearly got confiscated for their totally unacceptable tears. Good grief. Because free candy...hello!)

Daniel would shake his eggs until they popped open, spilling tiny candies all over the grass, then move onto a new egg and do the same thing. It was obviously great fun.

Daniel and Matthew with their little friends, Rudy and Shirley.

We dyed eggs ---

 Nothing fancy. 

 But still fun.

 Daniel picked up the egg...

 ...examined it...

...then chucked it across the kitchen, which is why the carton was moved to just beyond his reach.

We were visited by the Easter Bunny ---

For the first time ever, the boys were absolutely itchy with anticipation for the Easter Bunny to come. This year he brought them summer toys -- squirt guns, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and a chocolate bunny for good measure. They were thrilled.

We watched the house next door slowly get torn down ---

Because isn't that what everyone traditionally does on Easter weekend?

Since it was also the first weekend in April, we watched General Conference ---

Our beloved Sister Dorsky joined us for a few sessions.

The boys strung Buzzword Bracelets as they listened.

In between sessions, we went to the playground ---

After a long winter, it was good to be back.

We donned our Easter duds ---

 Handsome Easter STUDS!

We ate an incredible Easter dinner ---

(I don't have a picture because I was too busy cooking and then eating it, but if I may say so, it was divine. A brown sugared ham cooked in the crock pot, sweet broccoli salad, funeral potatoes (or "see you later taters," depending on who you ask), rolls, and carrot cake for dessert. We'll be drooling over the leftovers for days.)

And we remembered the beautiful reason we celebrate Easter in the first place ---

Happy Easter, everyone!

Or Ester. Whatever.

a blessed baby

Sunday was Daniel's blessing day. We were lucky to have lots of family present to participate -- Blake's parents came from Texas, and the New Jersey Wiests also drove over. Blake gave the blessing, and those who stood in the circle included his father, Gary, my uncle Joel and cousin Zac Wiest, his counselors in the bishopric, Adam Grimshaw and Edwin Yam, and our friend, Evan Jordan.

The blessing he gave was beautiful. Daniel was blessed to always feel and know of Heavenly Father's love for him; to be sensitive to His sweet spirit and to listen to the promptings he receives; to remember the Savior often and to follow His example; to be an example to others; and to live a life of obedience following the pattern of the prophet Daniel and to always remember the names he was blessed with and the heritage they come with. He was also blessed to be patient and kind to others; to be loving to his brothers and to be a peacemaker in the home; to always know of his parents' love for him and to remember the many blessings he's been given; and to be sure to live a life of service.

At a few days shy of three months, Daniel was the oldest of our boys when he was blessed (the others were each blessed between four and six weeks of age). Perhaps because he was bigger, and consequently less colicky, he was an absolute angel baby during the blessing. He didn't cry, squawk, or squeal once, and after it was over and he was back in my arms, he slept soundly for the next two hours.

Afterwards we all gathered at our home for photos and lunch. We were able to all the traditional group shots, including our first decent shot of our growing family of six.

For lunch I served "baby food," as in small things, not purees (I'm not a cruel hostess) -- chicken salad served on tiny slider rolls, baby carrots, mini zucchini muffins, and mini chocolate chip cookies. Aunt Colleen and Jessica also contributed little ham rolls, mini vanilla cupcakes, and diced fresh peaches.

Overall it was a beautiful day, and especially lovely to be surrounded by so much family. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

to the races!

On my last day in Utah, I got a text from Blake: "Our car is very ugly. I need power tools."

After I responded with a very confused, "???," he replied with two photos:

Apparently when the small hand saw he was using didn't work (it turned out he'd purchased one intended to cut plastic, not wood), he took his electric drill to it. Obviously that didn't help.

Ah. The pinewood derby car. After a sigh of relief on my end that he wasn't talking about taking power tools to our actual car, followed quickly by a few good laughs with my mom and sister, I spoke on the phone with my very disheartened husband. A pinewood derby car, it turns out, was a lot harder to construct than he'd been led to believe by his power tool-owning father in his youth.

But there was still time to fix it. With the purchase of a few new tools, and the compromise of a different design than originally intended, he and the boys were able to salvage that block of pine. It wasn't the prettiest thing on four wheels, but it had improved a great deal since its humiliating beginning.

The day before the race, they applied graphite to the wheels and attached them to the car.

 Matthew wasn't a big fan of how loud the drill was.

The finished car. The numbers represent the ages of the boys.

Yesterday was the big race. Partly because we don't have many cub scout-aged boys, and partly because the dads in the ward wanted to relive their childhood glory days, this Pinewood Derby was an activity for the entire ward, with both a rule-abiding regulation division and an "ultimate" anything-goes division. This was the first Pinewood Derby our ward has sponsored in recent memory; we had to borrow the track from a neighboring ward. Everyone was excited, and about 20 cars were entered. Ours, it turned out, was a formidable contender; the only races we lost were to the clear winner.

Photo credit: Adam Grimshaw

Things got a little wild in the "ultimate" division. I don't have any pictures, but the contestants included one with a solar powered propeller, one weighted down with a brick, one with a mouse-trap contraption that prevented competitors from passing, and, my favorite, which was also that division's winner, the Oscar Meyer wiener-mobile.

The whole event was fun -- so much so, perhaps, that Blake may have momentarily forgotten that, with four little boys, he has at least 16 more cars to build looming in his future. But he's already planning next year's design (while simultaneously dreaming of owning a power sander), and he's determined to make each one a little better than the last.

truly the best sunday ever

Garrett the killer "Shampoo" whale and Caleb the dinosaur at last night's ward harvest activity.

Today the Primary children presented their Sacrament Meeting program. Garrett, the old hat, and Caleb, the Sunbeam rookie, both participated. It was as adorable as was to be expected, and both of my children, but especially Caleb, contributed to a few laughs from the congregation.

Caleb gave the very first speaking part, but because he mostly ate the microphone and then giggled because he thought he was being funny, I don't think anyone, myself included, understood what he said. (His line was supposed to be, "I am a child of God. I know He loves me because He gave me a nice family." The underlined portion he wrote himself.)

Garrett, for the first time ever, did not eat the microphone while delivering his part. He had been asked to give a simple recounting of Joseph Smith's first vision, and not only did he write his part himself, but he memorized it as well. (It went a little something like this: "When Joseph Smith was a boy, he went to the Secret [sic] Grove. He sat down and said a prayer and then Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to him and answered his prayer.")

I wept through the whole thing, as I am usually wont to do. Despite their occasional silliness (Caleb also liked to squeeze his eyes shut whenever he caught me watching him sing), they both did a great job filling me with overwhelming amounts of tender pride.

Matthew the railroad conductor, also at last night's ward harvest activity.

The Primary presentation alone would have been enough to make this the best Sunday ever, but then last week Matthew had to go and turn 18 months, so today was also his first day of nursery. I wasn't sure how he'd handle it -- he currently has a personality that could swing wildly either way -- but he, too, did me proud when I brought him into the nursery room. Moments after our arrival, he reached of his own accord to another woman in the room, who was as surprised as I was that he was so willing and eager to leave my arms. We both thought, "Well, okay then!" as she led him to some toys and I backed slowly out of the room. I peeked in a few times during the next two hours (yes, he stayed the entire time!) to see how he was doing, and was pleased to find each time that he was doing just great. Who knows how future weeks will pan out, but we're off to a beautiful start.

relief society quilting bee

During the summer our Relief Society president asked me if I'd teach the sisters in the ward how to sew a quilt. Being an amateur myself, this request was a bit daunting, but I thought that if I kept it simple, I could do it. However, after a few discussions with her, I realized that what she was envisioning was more along the lines of an old-fashioned quilting bee, with ladies sitting in a circle sewing by hand with a pleasant buzz of conversation in the air, rather than the busier buzz from a bunch of sewing machines. So I scaled my already pretty simple ideas on how to go about this down even further.

In the end we decided to do a basic patchwork quilt. While I was in Utah, my quilting sister, Katie, helped me narrow down the color scheme -- blue, with splashes of yellow, green, and white -- and pick out fabric. In addition to what she helped me find, I also added some fabrics from my own stash.

Back in Brooklyn, I cut everything into 5 1/2" squares, and on the designated day, taught the Relief Society how to sew them by hand into strips using the back stitch.

photo credit: Hitomi Yamashita

It took a bit of practice and a fair amount of frustration before everyone got the hang of it. But by the time our time was up, more than one person announced to me that they'd become converted to quilting.

 photo credit: Hitomi Yamashita

There was no way we could finish the entire blanket in one sitting, so a few weeks later, after I'd taken their strips, turned them into a full quilt top (using a sewing machine, thank you very much), and sandwiched it together with the batting and backing, we met once more to tie the quilt and learn how to attach the binding. Fewer people were able to come to this second gathering, in part, no doubt, thanks to the downpour that coincided with our scheduled time to meet. But even with only a few hands we quickly got a lot done, leaving me with only a small part (hand-stitching the back side of the binding -- my favorite part of assembling a quilt) to finish up on my own, which I was able to do on our drive to the apple orchard.

And then it was done. And it turned out beautifully.

The quilt will now be given to a sister in the ward who lost everything last year during Hurricane Sandy, so all of the sisters who helped to put it together not only gained a skill for themselves, they get to share it with someone in need. And isn't sharing a quilt you made with someone else an incredibly fulling part of quilting? I think so.