Happy Easter

This morning we woke up to cold weather and snow flurries, so we did our pictures inside. Isabelle still wore her sleeveless dress. We took her sandals to church so she could wear them inside. (It's usually about 80 inside church.)
We had lunch here after church, and the kids decided it was too cold to play outside. We are going to our neighbor's Korean church this afternoon. They have a church that meets in their apartment. Today they are using one of the bigger classrooms in the school and having a Korean/French service. They invited all of the neighbors.
I hope everyone is having a nice relaxing Easter Sunday.

Snow Pictures

These pictures are from the week after spring break. It was about one month ago. Most of the snow is gone now. However, we had some snow the past four days.

Hershey's Factory and Civil War Museum

My birthday (March 3)

My birthday was over Spring Break. The day before, we had a pizza and movie night with the friends we were visiting. Then they had a surprise birthday cake for me.

The next day we went to the house of Bill and Lois (Stephen's aunt and uncle.) They also had a cake for me. And the day after that we went to the Civil War Museum and the Hershey Factory. It was a fun birthday spread out over three days.

Hot Cross Buns and other Easter traditions

As a child, I looked forward Easter each year. When we were young, my two sisters and I would have matching dresses, hats, and white gloves. As we got older, we didn't want to match anymore, but we had a new dress each Easter.
Another highlight of Easter was always our Easter basket, with dyed eggs and of course, lots of candy.
I want to make some special memories for our kids with Easter, too. Here are some of the things we have done.
1. We always have Easter baskets, but I gave them away before we moved. I didn't want to buy anymore, because I know we will just get rid of them when we move again this summer. I'm not sure if I will maybe do a temporary type of basket. I haven't really had time to think about it yet.
2. We like to have an Easter Egg hunt. Last year we did ours indoors. I'm hoping the weather will cooperate for an outdoor hunt this year.
3. We always read the Easter Story from a children's bible or book. We want to make sure the kids know the true meaning of Easter. This year we have been reading the events leading up to Easter at family devotions.
4. Last year I made Hot Cross Buns for the first time. I like the symbolism of the cross for Good FridayThere are pictures of kids enjoying their Hot Cross Buns here. This year I think I am going to make some to share with neighbors. We are out of class tomorrow, the kids are out of school and I think they will enjoy doing this as a project.

Check here for more ideas for Easter Dessert ideas. There are some yummy looking recipes, but I don't know that I will have time for much cooking this year.

Update

Wow... it has been over a month since I last posted. I didn't realize how much time had gone by. We have all been doing well, but just busy. Since spring break, we have had lots of test, projects, etc. Our biggest challenge was a presentation in chapel this past Wednesday. It was 20 minutes... in French. We breathed a big sigh of relief once that was over!

Now we have another small presentation for class (5-10 minutes), the usual homework, and tests. I will be posting more and catching up on pictures. I just need to upload the pictures from the camera first...

Right now in class we are studying reflexive verbs. There is a lot of new vocabulary as well as a lot of rules (and of course exceptions to all of the rules, then some exceptions to the exceptions.) They can be very important to get right. If you read Stephen's post about smelling bad instead of feeling bad, you will understand.

Spring Break

We wanted to have a family picture to give to people in Baltimore. This was our best one. The map is in our "office" at our apartment.
We are in Baltimore (in the snow) on our spring break. We had a great time reconnecting with friends, and making new friends. The kids have been glad to be out of school (and the parents too!)