Easter at home

Our Easter weekend was simple and quiet this year. We had some fun activities for the kids, bought new dresses for the girls, and Garry participated in the annual Easter Cantata (the boys and I attended both nights). I was busy on Sunday with Primary sharing time and accompaniment for a solo in sacrament meeting. Overall, the holiday was very nice.

A couple of weeks ago I planned an Easter egg hunt at the park with lots of the moms in the ward who have preschool kids. Doing this was part of our Easter tradition when Zach and Tyler were little, and I have wanted a similar experience for my little kids, too. On the Friday before Easter, lots of people came to the park, the weather was perfect, and I think everyone had a good time. Success!

The next day, we invited one of Gavin's friends and his mom to join us for our family egg hunt and egg coloring. I filled the plastic eggs and Garry hid them. The kids had a blast tracking down 24 eggs each (they were color-coded).

After that, we decorated hard-boiled eggs with shaving cream and food coloring. That was a fun change from the traditional dye cups. Too bad Garry and Lexi are the only family members who like to eat rubbery eggs. We have lots! We had a very fun morning and were glad to have our friends along to play with us.

On Sunday morning the kids enjoyed their Easter baskets. The Easter Bunny hides baskets at our house, and the hiding places were a little tricky this year, but everyone seemed to enjoy the search, their candy, and the one small gift they received.  That's our Easter in a nutshell...or would that be an egg?

Gone but not forgotten

Here are some updates on our life...they have passed, but I still want to remember them.

1. Tyler's cast is gone!  After six weeks, his arm is free!  He is still wearing a wrist guard at school, but not at home.  He is slowly improving mobility and flexibility.  It's nice for him to have clean hands and to shower unobstructed.

2. My dad visited! In the middle of a business trip to Denver, he ventured down to Colorado Springs to spend some time with us.  He stayed with the kids while Garry and I attended parent/teacher conferences, and then treated the whole family to a yummy dinner at Olive Garden. Then we rounded out his visit with several rousing rounds of Don't Eat Pete, a Granny & Gramps tradition with our kids.  Fun times!  Thanks for coming, Dad!

3. We got several inches of snow this week after Mother Nature teased us with spring weather. I was desperate not to lose my tulips to the cold like I did last year. I covered the three-inch sprouts with blankets several nights in a row and they look hardy and happy! 

4.  We painted our bedroom, four months after buying new bedding.  Good-bye green!  Hello, gray!  Love it.

5.  Spring Break came and went. We (all the kids, plus Garry and me--he had the whole week off) went to the zoo one fine day.  Other highlights: a movie at the dollar theater, playing at Fox Run Park (saw some friends from BYU that we haven't seen in 12 years, which makes us O-L-D), seeing Gavin's art work (the lizard) at the school district office building, Zach dying the milk Easter colors, and lots of playing with friends and relaxing.  It was mostly a good break, but I was more than ready to send everyone back to school.

6. Garry had a birthday. Yay for Daddy!

7. We carried on the tradition of eating crepes for breakfast on the Sunday morning of LDS General Conference.

8. This event is perhaps the most fitting for the post's title. Christa Johnson, a sweet friend from my high school days, passed away this week after a four-year battle with breast cancer. A few years ago, when I was sick with my last pregnancy, Christa and I reconnected through our blogs and chatted online sometimes. We joked about PICC lines and Zofran and living on the couch. I got better...but she didn't. She died at age 35, leaving behind a loving husband and four children.  I am heartsick for that little family.  The tragedy hits close to home.  A couple of years ago I met Christa and some other friends for lunch.  I'm glad for that fun memory for her, even if the picture we took is particularly unflattering of me....

So here's to memories, the good and the bad, that fill my heart today.  Cheers!

Pictured & Not

Welcome to another episode of Pictured & Not Pictured, wherein I share the stories behind the photos of Bartle family life. Here we go.

Pictured: Zach playing YMCA basketball.  He is wearing white shorts.

Not pictured: Zach's 57 rebounds.  His team won 38-17.

Pictured: Gavin and Lexi in their "nests," which were set up in my bedroom.

Not pictured: The birthday party going on next to their bedroom downstairs, which led to the sleeping in my bedroom.

Pictured: Garry sawing umpteen pieces of wood for Cub Scout toolboxes.

Not pictured: The painstakingly slow process of getting said Cub Scouts to assemble the toolboxes.

Pictured: The song I'm writing.

Not pictured: The notebook pages where I scrawled lyrics, and the frustration at discovering timing mistakes and not being able to figure out the Coda.

Pictured: A measure from "How Firm a Foundation." Not pictured: My awesome Facebook friends who helped identify the notes in parentheses, and also how to insert such notes into my score (Sandy, I'm looking at you).

Pictured: The beginnings of bulletin boards I designed for two places at church (isn't wrapping paper awesome?).  Not pictured: Karla getting a break from her calling on her birthday, and the awesome Cricut machine that Mindy loaned me.

Pictured: Gavin next to his name letters, and the "Keep it Clean!" sign he insisted I make so that he and Lexi wouldn't forget to clean their disaster of a bedroom on a daily basis.

Not pictured: The entire calendar year it took to hang those letters, which process took exactly five minutes.

Pictured: Bronco pride.

Not picture: Their horrific performance at the Superbowl.

Pictured: Four kids playing with exercise bands anchored to the wall.

Not pictured: Laughing parents.

Pictured: Our stake center on a cold winter's night (Superbowl night, actually).

Not pictured: Me walking into a stake training meeting that I thought was a fireside.  Haha.

Pictured: A darling little girl in her favorite shirt.

Not pictured: The swimming suit with a tutu that she insists on wearing 90% of the time, and her habit of slipping into it right before we need to go somewhere, as she did about five minutes after this picture was taken.

Also not pictured: The poor way that I handled that situation.

Pictured: Some of the (approximately one million) rubber hair bands that used to be sorted by color in that pill box.

Not pictured: The five times Kate spilled the bands on purpose in about three days, and the plastic cup the elastics now live in, all haphazardly.

Pictured: A girl sleeping in the van.

Not pictured: Newspaper delivery.

Pictured: An icy goatee.

Not pictured: Sub-zero weather.

Oh, wait.  That is pictured.  Notice the -17 degree bit toward the bottom. (That is about 20 degrees above the lowest temperature last week).

Not pictured: Kids who had two snow days and three (ten?) late-starts in two weeks of school.

Also not pictured: One frazzled mama.