EASTER HAPPENED

We woke up from our sickness and it was time to start, like, painting ceramic eggs.

When they dried, we covered them in these jewelly stickers from my mom, and frankly I think they look amazing.

I found this foam egg decorating kit at the dollar store, and Geneva lasted for maybe two eggs (I BET YOU CAN GUESS WHICH ONES) but Eleanor got on a roll.

And then we strung them up and they actually look pretty good, too.

What else. This vinyl bunny that Eleanor drew like five faces onto, and then stuck the actual face stickers onto on top of the faces she drew, and then colored over the sticker faces.

Put bunny ears on my kids' toys, obviously.

Made our windows super festive.

WENT TO SEE THE EASTER BUNNY AND IT WAS GREAT.

And the 4H had their baby animals there, as per usual, and Geneva WOULD NOT HOLD A CHICK oh man that would have been adorable, nor would she pet the baby horse, but Eleanor did all the things, couldn't have stopped her holding a baby chick if you tried.

We went to an Easter egg hunt at the farmer's market, and you went to the lady and she gave you an egg and there was a clue in it and you figured out the clue, and our clue was 'donuts!' so we went to the donut lady and she gave us a donut for our prize.

SUPER GOOD PRIZE, the hunt was over super fast, we went to the park.

Stop insisting on that hat, Geneva, it is too big for you.

Joel worked a lot Easter weekend, so even with all the activities, we had a lot of time to kill. I cut some enormous eggs out of white posterboard and let the girls paint them.

Sunday was our, like, Day of Stuff day. Making some paska sponge!

Remember last year when Geneva was so lame and weepy and couldn't get her shit together well doo de doo just dissolving some sugar in milk, it's cool.

Then we dyed some eggs.

'Neeva do it!

I always want to buy, like, ten dying kits a year because they all look SO FUN but I reined myself in to just this 24k egg one, and you know it's not going to look like the picture, in no small part because your staff has like a combined age of five.

BUT LOOK AT THEM! From far away they actually look SHINY AND EXPENSIVE.

Dis one cracked.

It was semi-warm and very sunny so we went outside for like an HOUR.

Then we had eggs for lunch, added some things to our paska sponge, and then I hid eggs while the girls napped. One day when we live somewhere warmer, I might do the egg hunt outside but PROBS NOT because I really love hiding eggs in my kids' toys.

Anyway. Egg hunt. Eleanor was the finder and basket-holder, Geneva was the picker-upper and basket-putter-inner.

And then they cracked them all and I tell you this, anything you might think is a cool thing from the dollar store to put in your kid's Easter eggs, every body else including your kid's teacher and the prize people at 4H also thought was a cool thing to put in some Easter eggs. But whatever, like my kids mind having more of the exact same princess stickers.

Geneva doesn't totally understand chocolate.

Then we punched our paska down

and rolled it into balls

and let the balls rise and I ALWAYS FORGET how much time is involved in this part, and then baked them and glazed them and sprinkled them and had them for supper.

The end, happy Easter. I hope you had as much fun as Geneva had putting egg halves onto her foot and laughing about it because apparently that joke is a developmental milestone.

Snow forever, and forever snow.

This is the time of year when people start posting pictures of their kids in rompers, or of their daffodils, and we're over here just like

I bought some daffodils for the windowsill, as is my first-day-of-spring custom, and I told Eleanor today that in BC, people have daffodils growing IN THEIR YARDS right now and her jaw dropped. (She is a very dramatic person.) But anyway. The day my mom left, it was sunny and warm and most of the snow had melted and we played golf in the yard.

And then the next day it snowed and it's been snowing off and on ever since. This morning, it BLIZZARDED for the like 20 minutes it took me to get the girls in the car and drive Eleanor to school, and then let up once Geneva and I were at the grocery store. Driving in snow is fine but driving while it is actively snowing is the pits, and it was so foggy that I couldn't see two cars ahead of me. Eleanor's in the back all OH THE SNOW IS SO PRETTY LOOK MY WINDOW IS ALL SNOWY and I'm like...Mine too, I hope we don't die. But I bought myself a parka this winter! How have I waited so long. I am warm always. We went to the park yesterday after supper because it was SO SUNNY and I wore my parka and a t-shirt even though it was freezing because my parka is so warm. Also I bought myself some leather gloves for driving, which is where I was going with this, and it feels MASSIVELY SAFER than driving in wool mittens, and also I can load the girls into their carseats without taking my gloves off and I never realized how cold your hands could get in like two exposed minutes, and then I moved here. So.

Josie and I were texting about the weather back when the weather was amazing, and then I screenshotted her the next week's forecast and it was just like SNOWFOREVER and she was like, March is a cold-hearted bitch. Everyone you talk to is like HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GO BACK TO -10 WHEN WE'VE TASTED 12 DEGREES. It's so lame. But, like, sometimes your teeny playhouse gets teeny play icicles?

So that's something.

Regularly-scheduled program.

We are back in the saddle and OH HEY ALSO THERE WAS AN EXPO ON TODAY. Joel was working and it was across town and I was like HNNNNGGHGGHGHG do I really want to drag my kids out and around a huge convention center by myself?

WORTH IT.

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were there, too, but they were painting nails.

Eleanor was, as usual, completely speechless in the face of the princesses until they warmed her up a bit (there's a reason they pay these girls some dollars, and it's not just because they can fit into a dress, but they can carry on a conversation with a totally starstruck four-year-old for much longer than you would think possible) but Geneva has zero reservations and is just like, 'NOWE WHITE! DRESS! 'NEEVA DRESS.

But to back up a bit. First we went and got our faces painted, and everyone was so impressed by how still Geneva sat but it's because she's been watching Eleanor so closely.

Look at her, she's a professional sitter.

We also met a dog dressed like Snow White?

And the scrapyard, which I was literally just at, had set up their crazy scrap metal robots.

And then like bouncy castles and things.

GENEVA STOP PRETENDING TO SLEEP IN THE BOUNCY CASTLE YOU ARE GOING TO GET BOUNCED ON.

Is this a hat? This is not a hat. 

Both my kids are still some colors. That face paint is built to last.

And then in the evening, we brought noodle bowls to Joel at the hospital

and stayed to eat them with him, and to play at the hospital play place.

And today involved so many things that I hate. Driving to Prairieland Park, which involves going down that one like four-block stretch of Idylwyld that I have a weird hang-up about! Driving during rush hour! Making several stops with both my kids in tow! Parking at the hospital and then finding my car later! But I was really bummed these last few weeks by my inability to Mom Up, and I know that MOMS HAVE BAD DAYS AND SOMETIMES WEEKS and that we all just suck at our jobs for periods of time and it's fine, and you have to cut yourself slack. But all day today I was like, Yesssssss I am doing this, I am being a grown-up adult person who does things. And it was all just completely great.

Body, you are LETTING ME DOWN.

So, I'm still dying over here. But dying less? Dying to a lesser degree? And for the last five days, I've been dying quietly in my bed, with a book, while my children run amok in the living room with my mother and all I can hear are cheerful little voices saying, Let's go to the dark cave! Don't forget all your gear!

So my mom came to look after us and to pick up the spoons that Geneva keeps dropping and to put Eleanor to bed and to tidy my kitchen. Looking after children is SO MUCH BODYWORK and you don't realize it until your body is a hopeless pile of aches and night sweats.

I thought for sure we'd be better by the time she got here, but then we WEREN'T and when we picked her up from the airport, I cried because I was so relieved and so tired. I have been yelling at my kids. I yelled at Eleanor one night because she was having a coughing fit at like 2am and I had the chills and just wanted to creep back into my bed but she WOULDN'T TAKE A SIP OF WATER and I could hear Geneva waking up in the next room and I was so mad. So that was pretty fun, I guess, to see how lousy my parenting could get.

And then we dropped my mom off at the airport today, and we weren't ready but she had to leave sometime and really, are we ever ready. The weather is amazing, it's been in the double digits and we've been MISSING IT and it's supposed to snow tonight and then continue snowing forever, world without end.

But we planted a thing in some marbles in a jar, and it's sprouting, so that's something.