Easter {2015}

Yes, it has taken me over a week to post about our Easter.  This week has flown by. Once my kids got into school and activities, I quickly learned that April and May are chock full of end of year commitments with school, sports, violin, church etc.

Also, on Tuesday afternoon my fabulous photographer friend, Shelly did a First Holy Communion photo shoot with Kate.  It was such a fun afternoon.  Kate had never had her hair done at a salon before. Her fine hair is somewhat challenging to put into an up-do (for me) so I knew I wanted someone else to do her hair on the special day.

Some I phone snaps

I have to share a little story about Kate here.  Shelly and I talked about where to do this photo shoot. We wanted a classic, pretty background so we settled on a old historic church downtown.  When I told Kate about going downtown, she said, "Mama, why would we take them at a different church? That doesn't make sense."  As soon as she said it I saw the error of my ways.  See, our church is pretty but it was built in the 1950's and although it is home to us and beautiful in many ways, I did not immediately think of it as the perfect backdrop.  Anyway, I thought about what Kate said and she was SO RIGHT.  We needed to take the photos at our church.  I am so glad God gave me such a wise little girl.  If I ever forget what is really important, she reminds me.

Anyway, the photo shoot was so much fun. Shelly and I snapped away for about 2 hours and Kate was cooperative and joyful and delightful the whole time.  She looked stunning and I got a little glimpse of what she will look like as a bride someday.  I cannot wait to share the five thousand photos we took but I want to wait until after her special day in May.

Back to Easter...  We often attend Mass at Will (and soon Harry's) high school.  It is a Jesuit school and I love how simple and meaningful the Mass is there.  The Jesuits give amazing homilies too.  So, we went to Easter Mass there.  It was a rainy day here but we managed a few photos on the back porch before Mass.

Harry was not ready yet and I wanted to check the light outside and it was already raining a bit.



Kate and I were not really planning on matching for Easter.  We usually do that on Mother's Day.  In fact, I had a totally different dress plan for me for Easter.  But that morning, Kate wanted to wear these and I had not bought her an Easter dress so this worked out.  Our dresses are from Kelly's Kids.

Then Dave took some of me and the kids.




Dave was making us laugh in this one above.  Harry is very funny and uses some interesting expressions and terminology that he picks up at his extremely diverse inner city public school. They are nothing inappropriate but just funny.  YEET! Dave was imitating him and we all cracked up.



After Mass, we came home and relaxed a bit.  Then we did our egg hunt.  It was wet and rainy so we did it inside.  We put $  (dollar coins, bills and two dollar bills) in the eggs now to keep the boys interested.  Each kid got to find 16 eggs.



Will found his eggs really quickly.  He also amassed the most money.  I think he had about $12 which was pretty sweet for about 3 minutes of effort for him!  He loves having doughnut change in his car.

Harry and Kate took a while and were finished about the same time.

I treasure each one of these silly little traditions so much. We just paid the deposit for Will's senior year of high school and included was a graduation fee and cap and gown fee. It just really drove home how much our family will be changing soon.  We fight and bicker and get on each other's nerves.  But we also have fun and really enjoy each other too.







After the egg hunt, we had a fabulous Sunday dinner.  It was a really great day.

P.S. I am not sure if any of you bought this  maxi dress but I did and I LOVE it.  The slits were a tad high for me so I had my seamstress sew them up a little (for like $7) and it is perfect.  I wore it to a fashion show for my Mom's group last week and so many people asked me about it. I got a ton of compliments on it.  Even the boutique owners who were styling our  fashion show wanted to know where it was from.  So, keep your eye out for a discount code or sale. I got mine on a good sale. It is light and comfortable and super forgiving.