Easter Birthday

This year I got to share my birthday with Easter. It has only lined up like that a few times in my life. The first one I can remember was when I was in 4th grade. Woke up on Easter morning AND my birthday with the chicken pocks. Good times! I got a pogo-stick that year for my birthday. Willie had brought home the chicken pocks first, earlier in the week, and then the rest of us woke up with it on Easter. We skipped church but we still went to my Grandma and Grandpa's for Easter egg hunting, food and a birthday party. There may have been another Easter/Birthday but I don't remember it as clearly.

This Birthday/Easter was a weird one. On Saturday Brendan and Wyatt flew to Wichita with my Mom to spend Easter and Jayden's birthday with them! We hadn't done eggs or anything. Brendan and Wyatt have been crazy excited for this trip for about a month and I think it is the longest I have ever spent apart from them! They are having an absolute blast, but it made for a weird holiday for us!

Easter morning I got up early, made cinnamon rolls and colored eggs with Easton and Annabel. Definitely a first for me, waiting until Easter Sunday to color eggs. We went to church just the 4 of us and it was awesome.  When you are in Christ, is there anything better than the party you get to have at church that day? Our church is good at partying and celebrating Jesus.

After, we came home and I cooked some food and then we went to Joanna's for Easter dinner and Easter egg hunting.

Joanna and Jon bought a beautiful mid-century style house in Shelton this winter and it has been a blessing for them to be able to host gatherings! It was just us 4 and them 2 (which was weird) but they made it special with a fancy dinner and toys for the kids and a cake for me!

The weather was predicted to be bad but turned out great. Can't complain when it is Spring in Washington!

I wonder how old I will be when my birthday and Easter intersect again?

This is the face she gives me about 75% of the time I point the camera (or phone) at her!

 

We tried. These are the best we could do.

 

There's that face again!

 

Now I must break out with a little story.

After the Easter Egg hunt I noticed Annabel's bag was significantly lighter than Easton's. I didn't think much of it since he's older and probably gathered a lot more eggs. But then, I was separating the plastic eggs from the hard boiled eggs in their bags and discovered that Annabel had only picked up 1 hard boiled egg (out of 24!!). The rest were plastic, a.k.a. candy eggs. Then I saw these pictures. 

She picks it up. Examines it....

 

 And then puts it back on the grass! "No Thank You. I'm looking for candy."

She's pretty smart.

 

Must have found a candy egg!

 

Don't try and dodge my camera!

 

There it is again! Death glare!!! Hand on hip and everything.

 

What a great sister I have!

7 Years

April 14 marked 7 years since my brother died. This time of year still brings a funk that settles in for a couple weeks even before I realize why. Life has changed so much since then and yet it still feels like someone is missing. I can't wait to see him again. I really can't.

We remembered together this year by grabbing his favorite gut-bomb burger from The Ritz in Shelton and eating lawn style up at the cemetery with friends who feel the loss like we do. We all took a swig of whiskey from his flask. For most of us it is a once a year event to even smell whiskey, but we do it for him! Then we spent the afternoon at Joanna's house and had a family dinner and made margaritas. Its always a little relief to get past the 14th. Another year.

 

Apparently it was wear your teal shirt day!

Baseball::Opening Day 2014

Once again...I have some catch up work to do.
Let's start with baseball, shall we?

Opening day was a week (or so ago) on April 12th. Easton has decided he isn't playing this year (fine with us) and they bumped Wyatt up into the same level as Brendan (Hallelujah!). Wow! Baseball feels so much easier this year with both boys on the same team. They are playing Minors on the Detroit Tigers team (10-11 year olds). They had a great opening day (big win) and another big win their next game that week. Fun times ahead!

 

You can see the Wagner cheering squad out there in the outfield.