A Few Easter Photos

Well, now we know first-hand what everyone had told us--Easter really is the busiest season of the year for pastors! We survived holy week, however, and had a lovely time celebrating Easter, though our celebrations were time and space limited, as I'm still not supposed to leave the local area, and Andy was plenty busy with services. Andy's family joined us to help celebrate!

Dying easter eggs on Saturday

Simon was quite fond of the whole process, though as we discovered its actually a rather difficult activity for little kids to participate in directly--short of dipping his hand right in the dye, he couldn't really manipulate the little scoop well enough to retrieve eggs--and his release skills could have used a more nuanced touch as well, as inevitably the egg would hit the bottom of the cup with a crack!

found: one basket!

Sunday morning Andy was preaching the sunrise service, while Simon and I slept in :-). The first order of business was finding his Easter basket and present (when I was growing up, we always got one gift on Easter, and candy and eggs in our basket, both hidden in two different places). Its rather nice having just one child, with no older siblings to tell "how things are" and set up expectations that might be disappointed. His basket was little and had just a few things in it (candy in some plastic eggs), and he thought is was great--he got to pick one egg of candy to eat with each meal for the next day, and was just thrilled.

found: Easter present! (books about Easter)

I bought the simplest and cheapest egg-dying kit I saw, knowing that anything that turned the eggs colors would be satisfying for Simon. It came with stickers to put on the eggs, too, which I also thought he would like--unfortunately, they weren't exactly high-quality stickers, and definitely weren't designed for little hands. They were tiny, difficult to peel from the sheet, and wouldn't stick--at least not to cold eggs. So I was glad when Simon seemed to accept as fact the idea that each egg just needed one sticker--not to be covered in them.

Sunday morning--setting our dyed eggs into little holders for the sticker-ing process

Showing off the completed eggs--this is how Simon "smiles" for the camera these days...shows off his gray front tooth nicely, doesn't it? (A nasty bonk a couple months ago caused that, and prompted his first trip to the dentist!)

goodies from a second Easter basket!

Marilyn, Steve, Peter, & Karlie brought with them all sorts of fun, including more easter baskets. Simon got this beautiful water globe/music box with a little boy holding an umbrella. We all went to the late service together, as Andy had warned that the two earlier services were insanely busy. After church, Andy got to come home, exhausted, and we enjoyed a lovely Easter dinner before getting Simon down for a late nap.

family photo time--the 3-almost-4 Gubbinses

with Peter & Karlie too!

While naptimes are a lovely break in the day, and I hope Simon keeps taking an afternoon nap for YEARS to come, they do make it difficult to plan activities and family get-togethers. Everyone had someplace to be by evening, it seemed, and with Andy at church all morning and a later-than-usual nap, that meant that it was just the three of us there for the Easter egg hunt once Simon woke up. He loved it! We probably could have re-hid the eggs a few times and he would have just kept on going, but it was already dinner time so he just found them once.

egg in the cupholder...

"show me all the eggs you found, Simon!"

We took several video clips during the hunt...this one is my favorite for two reasons: 1) I love the joy of "finding" eggs that fell out of the basket as he ran, and 2) the cute way he kept talking himself through it..."I lookin' for couple more...I lookin' for one more..."

Hunting for Eggs (1 minute):

Happy Easter!

Fun with Visitors

We have had lots of visitors recently--a great help to Jess & Andy, in keeping our household running, and lots of fun for Simon! A few of our recent guests:

Grandpa Steve & Grandma Marilyn have graciously made the drive to/from Red Wing at least a dozen times in the past few weeks on our behalf. One day, Grandpa brought a little project for Simon to help with--making a "bread bear" from a frozen loaf of bread dough. Simon's favorite part was putting raisins on for eyes and buttons...and he rather enjoyed eating it for snack later, too!

Grandma Phyllis came for most of a week to help out as needed--she brought with her dinners and a home-made apple pie....mmmmmm (It was delicious!).

Grandma was kind enough to do some of the non-essential tasks at home that we hadn't gotten to for a while, like cleaning parts of the house other than the table we eat at. Here Simon was very eager to help her sweep the stairs. Thanks Grandma (and see you again soon)!

We had a special visit one morning from Simon's godfather, Aaron. Aaron lives in Hong Kong and comes to the US about twice a year, so we are always very excited when we get to see him again! Esther came along as well, and once he warmed up to them, Simon had a great morning playing :).

Aaron brought with him a sheet of stickers for Simon, which were a big hit. Eventually the sticker peeling-and-sticking turned into a giggly game of chase/tickle with Simon and Aaron...

VIDEO: Get the Sticker! (27 seconds):

Most recently, last weekend Grandpa John drove over from Madison to join Grandma Phyllis. We hadn't seen him since November, so it was a great treat that he could take the time to drive over! Simon surely loves his Grandpas...his Grandmas and others too, of course, but he just loves having playtime with Grandpa Steve or Grandpa John!