Making Easter Bonnets 2010

Ah, the chaos that is our floor when the girls and I make our Easter bonnets! : ) This year I had the girls make a "plan" before we started (see the final picture). A few things of note: because of Annie's love of her bunny ears this year, we included a pair ON her Easter bonnet for that reason, . . . and the pattern, number, and colors of the eggs on the front of her hat were VERY specific: "pink, yellow, blue." In regards to Leia Rose, she wanted a "nest" of eggs on the top of her hat, with green Easter grass in the middle as well as VERY specific straight lines on the side of her hat made of shells. : ) Leia's had to have ribbons hanging down the back and her name on the front. It was really neat to see her imagination run wild as she took charge of the planning this year! And, of course, after the festivities they will join the ranks as our Easter decorations for years to come. : )

Resurrection Eggs & Other Easter Prep

Absolutely no post about "Easter Prep" would be complete without paying homage to "Resurrection Eggs," the absolute BEST Easter preparation tool I have ever seen! Both Leia Rose and Annie (but especially Annie while Leia was at school) would play this "game" with me every single day, multiple times a day. We began the year with the original twelve eggs all telling the story of Jesus' passion in a novel way (with a little item inside each egg). The girls would hide them, then find them in order and open them to reveal the all-important story. We did it inside and, as you can see here, we did it outside, too. By mid-March, the girls knew it all by heart, so Mamma changed it up by adding six more eggs to make things more interesting. But, of course, the girls and I dyed a few eggs ourselves, too. We even had a little visitor in one of our Easter baskets (mostly because he enjoyed a good chew). : )

Annie's Bunny Ears

Oh, it matters not what Annie was doing this pre-Easter season because, no matter what she was doing, she was wearing these bunny ears. : ) They became a permanent fixture whether she was trying out a new hairstyle with her sister, picking snowdrops for Oma to put in her yard, snuggling with her real bunny Peri, saying prayers at dinner ("For, thank you God for all the pets."), playing with the lite-brite, buying "hen and chicks" for the garden, making a snowcake, saying the Rosary, going to library storytime, or simply "playing bunny," . . . Annie ALWAYS had these ears on. Most of the time, in fact, she would say to anyone who would listen. "I am a bunny." "I am pretending to be a bunny." "No, Mamma, I'm a BUNNY!" "I am not a KITTY, I am a BUNNY." She wanted to READ about bunnies. She wanted to PLAY bunnies. She wanted to play WITH bunnies. She wanted to hop LIKE a bunny. And if she made a wish on either a wishbone or a dandelion puff, she would always wish for the same thing: a baby bunny. : )

My Sweet Leia

Mamma worked very hard this spring planting over sixty juniper plants on the back slope, . . . just try to get it to be "green." Today, as I was huffing and puffing yet again planting that garden (that you can see in the background), Leia Rose wanted to do something special for me, so she picked some wild flowers and put them in cups for me to enjoy when I was done. What a sweetheart! Where Annie's behavior has suddenly become whiney and difficult, Leia Rose's behavior has done the opposite. Leia: always helpful, always a big sister, always obeying her Mamma, never complaining. I am amazed! : )

Smokies & Cherokee

On the ride back, it became evident that it truly WAS only March. It was quite cold when we took this picture with the Great Smokey Mountains as a backdrop. So we got back in the car and drove through Gatlinburg and finally, Cherokee. Cherokee was incredibly sad to us, . . . everything was run-down. Even the elementary school had a huge hole in the side due to its demolition. The Cherokee Indians, all dressed up on the side of the road, were desperately trying to get the few tourists to come and listen to their stories. Meanwhile, paint was peeling, buildings were vacant and the only thing open and beautiful, . . . was the casino. Cherokee: a perfect example of what we have done to the Native Americans of this country. It was very sad. That being said, the casino restaurant was very nice. And it was there that we realized that we truly had small-town children when they got excited riding the escalator (and wanted to ride on it multiple times)!

Dinner at The Old Mill

Okay, we have now found our absolute favorite country-style restaurant in the Pigeon Forge area! This place was so wonderful with it's bread and homemade maple butter and family style potatoes, . . . and the best shrimp and grits I have ever had! Even the vanilla ice cream was homemade! We did NOT leave hungry! : )

Fun at Wyndam Hotel in Pigeon Forge

The amazing thing was that, even in mid-March, it was warm enough to go swimming OUTSIDE with the Great Smokies as a backdrop! It was an absolute DREAM! : ) . . . That is until poor Alexis fell by the pool and, through no fault of her own, got a huge gash in her chin big enough to get stitches at the emergency room. : ( Poor little Alexis! Meanwhile, we took care of Aubrey and the girls wrapped up in little towel cocoons to keep warm in the sunshine. In the picture below you can see Aubrie, Alexis, David, Maureen, Aurelia, Leia, Daddy, and Annie. Another fun thing they do at this particular hotel is create a scavenger hunt for the kids. This ran us all around the activity center looking for things and writing down answers. At the end of the hunt, the girls got a prize bag including little jumping frogs. As you can see, Annie created her own "froggy face." : ) Back in the room, the girls watched The Princess and the Frog together before, you guessed it, a sleepover!!! : )

Knoxville Zoo

In honor of little Aubrie Retzbach's birthday, her family invited all of us for a weekend in the Smokey Mountains! Our first stop was the Knoxville Zoo. We saw a really close up view of a Black Bear (and his cave) as well as an elephant giving himself a REAL mudbath. Of course there were zebras as well, but the photo of the day was taken when Annie began snuggling with a prairie dog through the glass! : ) And, of course, we had to get one of those pressed pennies. I still maintain that those are the BEST and CHEAPEST souvenirs one can buy from everywhere from zoos to disney. : ) Aubrie was intrigued, so we gathered together at the exit of the zoo and sang "Happy Birthday" as she turned the crank to spit out her penny, . . . her first birthday gift from us. : )