Family Easter

We spent Easter morning with Lee's extended family, enjoying brunch at Aunt Margie and Uncle Tom's house.  The girls love visiting with all of their aunts and uncles, as well as their adult cousins (Lee's cousins).  Like last year, they had the added benefit of playing with Josh & Natalia's kids, who are younger but still similar in age.  Per the usual, they were spoiled with gifts from everyone, but they are oh so appreciative.  As we were leaving, Elizabeth said to me "boy, I am going to have a lot of thank you notes to write when we get home!"  Happy Easter to our extended family and thank you, again, for your overwhelming generosity!

Easter goodies from Uncle Chip, Aunt Chris and Jessa. 

 

Emily loved the little piggy bank.   

AGD stuff (and boogie boards, in the background) from Aunt Denise. 

AGD stuff 

An AGD hairdryer - just what we needed! 

A mirror and table(?) 

And a bike (because every AGD needs a bike!) 

Too adorable! 

 

 

Even Lucia gets in on the action with Emily's bitty baby and the bike helmet. 

Driveway paint/chalk from Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Barry. 

Emily, Nolan and Lucia running around. 

New best buddies Lucia and Emily - Emily LOVED being the big kid and adored Lucia.

Easter Morning (Early)

Because we spend Easter morning in New Hampshire, the Easter Bunny always pays an early visit to our house, arriving on Saturday instead of Sunday.  This year, the girls made out like bandits - not only did the Easter Bunny bring candy, but Mom and Dad got them plenty of loot as well, for doing so well with the no-television-during-Lent sacrifice.

When a 4 year old and a 6 year old make it through 46 days without television and without a complaint, they get a lot of stuff.  The Easter Bunny, by comparison, didn't bring much (the small basket of candy).

Emily starts working through the pile of stuff from Mommy and Daddy. 

Elizabeth shows off her Rapunzel nightgown. 

Emily checks out what the Easter Bunny brought. 

Elizabeth loves her new robe! 

Elizabeth got us all presents; she wrapped them all in her room on Thursday afternoon, so we had no idea what we were getting. 

Emily shows off one of the pictures that Elizabeth made for her. 

Daddy loves the photo plant that Elizabeth made. 

Emily and Lambie (he is an Easter lamb, after all - 5 years old this Easter)

Emily thanks Elizabeth for all of the presents.

The Experiment

Yesterday was the last day of our self-imposed disconnect from television. Some of you may be interested in learning about the impact it had on our lives - if any.  My observations are as follows:
1. We read a lot more.  A LOT more.  In fact, during Lent, we read 46 books as a family.  Elizabeth was by far the best reader, at 30 books; I was a distant second; Lee was a very distant third, but to be fair, he spent most of April repainting our bedroom, which was quite the job, considering how much cutting had to be done and how many coats it needed.  Even the book that he did read was a heavy, World Word II historical fiction.
2.  We slept more. Especially Lee.  Oftentimes, we wait until a television show (or game) is over until we go to bed but with nothing to watch, we went to bed when we were tired.  The girls didn't beg to watch "just 10 more minutes" of a show or movie before bed, so they ended up being more well rested as well.  I, however, am a compulsive reader, so it was not unusual for me to stay up until 2 am to finish a book.
3. We snacked less.  At least Lee and I did.  Usually, when we are watching television at night, we pause the television at some point and have a snack - cheese and crackers; ice cream; chips and dip.  But when we were reading at night, we rarely put down our books and got a snack.
4. We were all a bit better behaved, Emily especially.  You might think that the girls would be less behaved without television to entertain them but for the most part, they were better behaved.  First, they never asked to watch television.  They knew, from day one, that the television was off until Easter and they never asked to watch it; they never whined; they never complained.  But even better, I didn't have to deal with Emily's routine temper tantrums, which regularly occur on weeknights when it is time to turn off the television and go to bed.  With no television to turn off, there were no tantrums to be had.  Amazing.

This was a relatively common sight over the last six weeks.

So what will we change, if anything?  Although I don't have Lee's complete buy-in yet, I think that the girls should remain television-free, Monday through Friday.  They don't watch much television during the week anyway, so it wouldn't be that much of a sacrifice, but there would be so much more reading and playing and so much more peace and harmony.  I also think that Lee and I should be television free at least one or two nights a week, so that we can continue to make headway with our reading.  I also think that we should do this again next year during Lent.  And the year after that.  And the year after that.
Now, if you'll excuse me, we have 19.5 hours worth of shows saved on our DVR to watch....

Second Annual Easter Egg Hunt

We had our second annual Easter Egg hunt, with even more participants than last year.  Ten children (plus one newborn!) and their parents filled our yard on the afternoon of Good Friday for an easter egg hunt, food and plenty of conversation and laughs.  It was a chilly afternoon, but we made the best of it; in fact, the kids hardly seemed to notice the temps as they ran and played.  We are blessed to have wonderful and generous friends, who are really like family to us.  Happy Easter to the LoGiudice, Belin, Dudley and Weiss Families!

All of the kids!

Jazzy, on the hunt! 

Lee and I had to think of interesting places to hide all of the eggs... 

Devin spies an egg. 

Emily and Lex 

Tavio - jumping for joy!

Madison sorting through her loot! 

Devin 

Trish helps the kids sort through their eggs. 

Victoria and Elizabeth, eating in the "kids corner."

Apryl's (CB) awesome Easter basket cupcakes!

Easter Week

We know that it's really Holy Week but around here, it's a non-stop Easter party, beginning last Saturday and going straight through this Sunday evening.  This past weekend, we went to an Easter Egg hunt at St. Pius on Saturday and an Easter Bizarre at St. Mary's on Sunday afternoon.  Two egg hunts in less than 24 hours = more candy than Halloween!  Palm Sunday mass was a hit - they loved the palms and Elizabeth actually followed along with the entire reading of the Passion (and asked plenty of questions along the way).  Later this week, we have yet another egg hunt and then, look forward to celebrating over the weekend with our closest friends and our family.

The kids take off!

At the St. Pius Easter Egg hunt. 

Elizabeth and her friend Sharon search for more and more candy. 

Emily temporarily got over her fear of characters for a photo with the Easter Bunny at the St. Mary's Easter Bizarre. 

Elizabeth and the Easter Bunny. 

Emily, on the hunt at St. Mary's.

More loot!

Palm Sunday

One of the things that gets the girls to mass with minimal complaining is dressing up - when it comes to dresses, they are all girl.  In fact, neither of them has worn jeans in more than two years (their choice, not mine - I give all of their hand-me-down jeans to Goodwill).  Here they are, before we headed to mass this morning.

The Beautiful People

When Elizabeth was a little girl, before Emily arrived, she used to go to the grocery store with Lee every week.  They were an unusual couple - Lee in cut offs and t-shirts spattered with paint and spit-up, Elizabeth in beautiful clothes (we received a cache of designer hand-me-downs from one of my co-workers when she was born) and her hair in bows and ribbons.  One night, after their weekly grocery trip, Lee told me that for the last few weeks, Elizabeth had been receiving a dollar from an old man that they saw each week.  He was always there at the same time they were, with other residents from his assisted living facility.  This went on for several months, until Lee switched shopping days.  We always used to remark that it was funny that this old man gave her a dollar each week, simply because she was so adorable.  She must have made his day.
Fast forward four years.  We go to mass every Sunday and most weeks, Elizabeth goes to Sunday school but Emily comes into church with us.  Each week, she sees "the pretty lady," a lovely woman who is always impeccably dressed, in high heels and wonderful jewelry.  Emily always gives her a smile or wave and the woman always smiles back.  This past Sunday, before mass started, she came over to us and gave Emily a small pink box with an adorable bunny inside and a note that said "Happy Easter to the prettiest little girl in church."  Like big sister, like little sister.

Ranked

The new powerlifting rankings, kept by Powerlifting Watch, came out this morning.  Lee is currently ranked 32nd in the country for his weight class (regardless of age) in the bench press.  I think that I was much more excited about this, high-fiving him in the kitchen while we were making breakfast.  Seriously, he is far too modest.  Way to go, Lee - we are so proud of you!!  Additionally, all five members of the The Refuge that received a first place trophy at the last meet - Adam, Nick, Brian, Matt and Lee - are nationally ranked.  Pretty impressive for a small gym with no heat and a leaking roof!

For some reason, this printed very light, but I hi-lighted his name.

Make Your Mark

Each year, we measure the girls by drawing a line on a door jam and noting their name and the date.  When we measured the girls over the weekend, they were thrilled to see how much they had grown.  Emily is about a 1/2 inch shorter than Elizabeth was at her age; we will have to see if the difference in height continues next year, as Elizabeth had a huge growth spurt during her 5th year.

Emily getting measured. 

Elizabeth getting measured. 

The yearly growth lines.

Posing with their new purses - a bonus purchase because they have been so extraordinarily good lately, especially considering the fact that that they haven't watched television since the first week of March!

The Videographer

As most of you have probably figured out, I am the (un)official photographer and video-maker for The Refuge.  But when it comes to competitions, I can't take photos and videos at the same time, so Elizabeth has become our videographer.  She really does a great job (especially considering that she's only 6).  At the first meet, last October, she missed a couple of lifts because she couldn't quite figure out how to work the camera.  At this point, she has perfected her skills and takes pride in her work. The fact that the guys tell her that she's doing a great job (and sometimes want to watch the videos of their lifts during competition, making her feel very important) doesn't hurt either!  Here is a shot of her from last Sunday, filming Lee during the deadlift.