Easter

We had a great Easter.  The DeMartinis gathered on Saturday afternoon for dinner and an egg hunt.  With everyone in school, we don't see cousins enough these days, so being together was a treat.  We had a yummy meal, we talked and laughed, and then we hunted, ran around outside, and ate a whole lot of candy.  Kent and I both pilfered chocolate eggs from the kids baskets.

Waiting impatiently to get into the backyard and hunt.

The hunt.

None of my pictures of all the kids turned out very well.

It wasn't me.

It was them.

I tried and tried. 

They didn't.

Donovan is missing.  He was in St. George with his parents. 

We had an amazing Easter Sunday.  The Primary children sang in sacrament meeting, and they sounded really good.  Brandt and Blythe sang our two songs during the morning and Kent reported they both sang out.  We then had a combined special sharing/singing time.  My second counselor, Fran, wrote a terrific script about the Atonement.  We had ward members represent Peter, James, John, Mary the mother of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, two tomb guards, and Mary Magdalene.  Kent was James.  The children moved from station to station representing the Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane, the trail, the cross, and the garden tomb.  At each spot, the children were told about what happened there, always focused on the Savior.  The dialog and the music combined to create a beautiful spirit.  Both Kent and I were moved to tears, and Brandt said, "This was the best Primary ever!"  I think it was significant to make the Atonement the center of our Easter Primary.

We hosted the Barri on Sunday evening.  Craig and Monica, Lee, Cammie, and Aaron, Michelle, Joel, and Ian all came along with David Davies and our friend Richard Ledford.  Dinner was delicious and the company was delightful.  It was a nice end to a lovely day.

A Small Visitor

Donovan was here again this evening.  It was so beautiful we spent as much time outside as possible.  Blythe drove Donovan around the cul-de-sac in the green vehicle. He LOVED it.  He was danger boy and stood up as she drove around, but he isn't really big enough to sit comfortably, so it isn't really surprising.  Blythe isn't a very safe driver, but the driving ended without anyone bleeding, so I suppose it was a success.

Blythe is trying to drive into me.

She is such a teaser.

 

I'm not sure what to say about Brandt.  

Does it make the picture any better knowing that the gun isn't real?

Probably not.

I think he was sore that Blythe was driving and not him.

The Play's The Thing

Saturday, after Blythe's whining and whining, she said she wanted to play with a friend Abbie.  Fortunately, Abbie was available and came to play.  Together, Blythe and Abbie dressed up and imagined a play.  They tried to enlist Brandt to participate as the bad guy, but he didn't want to play.  They next tried Kent who also refused.  So they came to me and begged and begged and begged me to be the bad guy.

Eventually I gave in and because I was going to participate, Brandt agreed to play too.  He was the guard and I was the bad guy.  We had to have a rehearsal.  The girls told us what they were doing and what we were to do, stopping us and giving direction, making us stop whatever they didn't like.  It was all fairly incomprehensible and silly, and after our rehearsal, we had to perform the whole thing, "because now you know what to do," with Kent as our audience.

Here is the play in pictures with brief description of the action.

Brandt is the guard.

At the beginning of the play, he is sleeping.

The princesses are sleeping too.

 As the bad guy, I try to sneak into the castle to kidnap the princesses.

The guard wakes and we fight. 

I flee but return when the guard returns to sleep.

I kidnap the princesses and take them to a tower (my bedroom).

Beautiful princesses in the tower.

The guard comes and fights me, trying to free the princesses.

I am able to chase him off.

(In reality, Brandt was totally into the fighting and didn't want to stop.

He is wicked fierce with that Samurai sword!) 

After I chase him off, I carry the princesses into the dungeon (the bathtub) and kill them.

The guard bursts in and kills me.

Curtain call.

As I write this, I realize that Brandt is the only one who comes out of this play alive.

It's a tragedy of epic proportions.

The above pictures were taken by me during the rehearsal.

The following pictures were taken by Kent during the actual performance.

Guard and Bad Guy fighting.

Brave and bold defense of the castle.

The princesses in the castle.

More defense.

The Bad Guy, costumed in black hat (of course) and armed with plastic bat sword.

Fighting

Check out that sword play! 

The girls coming down from the tower.

Princesses "sleeping" and awaiting the kidnapping.

Guard sleeping on the job.

Bad Guy sneaking in for the kidnapping.

Princesses in the tower.

The guard trying to rescue the princesses.

Putting the princesses in the dungeon.

Fighting in the dungeon.  

The Bed Guy is fatally stabbed by the Guard,

but not before the princesses are stabbed and killed.

The curtain call.

Whine-y Butt

Blythe is, at this very moment, lying on the floor whining.  She wants to play on the computer and go swimming and who knows what else.  She's in a mood where nothing will make her happy.  I have tried to reason with her, but she continues to lie there being sort of irritating.  Not even sort of.


Brandt just said, "Let me talk to her.  I speak whine."
Fortunately someone does.

Assistance

While preparing dinner tonight, Brandt said, "Hey! Can I help make dinner?"  What mother in her right mind would not jump at an offer like that?  I had Brandt come help me make stir fry green beans.  He got a stool from the bathroom so he could stand more safely at the stove, and he whipped up our dinner veg.  He stirred garlic and onions, blanched the beans and added them to the pan, then added sauce and bacon and stirred and stirred.  The last time I made the beans Brandt would not try them, but because he made them, the tried them tonight.  And what do you know, he liked them!

A Boy

Brandt came in early this evening as I was making dinner and asked if he could turn on the water.

"Oh," I said, "it is too cold to turn on the water.  I don't want you to get wet."

In a hopeful voice, Brandt replied, "I don't want to get wet.  I just need . . . mud."

He was digging in the dirt in the front yard.  He's such a boy.

St. Patrick's Day

We did nothing for St. Patrick's Day.  I did make sure we all had a bit of green on when we went to church, just so we wouldn't be pinched, but that was the extent of it.

Brandt, however, woke with St. Patty's spirit moving him to go hunting leprechauns.  He got a flashlight, a gun (not real!), and a stick, all of which he put in his backpack, and then went next door to invite Cruz to come hunting with him.  Cruz's grandma, Julie, reported to me that Brandt knocked at 7:30am and said, when she opened the door, "I'm hunting for leprechauns!  I've got a gold piece to lure them out and I am sure I will find one.  I haven't found on yet, but I want Cruz to come help me hunt for them.  Can he come out?"

Isn't that wonderful?  I know Brandt had been talking about St. Patrick's Day in school, and obviously he has been paying attention.

Normally I would be somewhat concerned that Brandt was knocking on neighbor's doors at 7:30 on a Sunday morning, but Cruz regularly appears at our house well before breakfast and will join us for Cheerios at the kitchen counter, so I suppose turnabout is fair play.

The Blessed Sun

Friday afternoon.

Shirts not required, it was so warm.

Saturday Evening

We have had beautiful spring weather the past week.  I have been unable to keep the children in the house for any length of time between the end of school and pretty much bedtime.  They have dragged themselves into the house at dinnertime, protesting that they have to eat inside, swallow three mouthfuls of whatever is nearest at hand, then escape out the sliding glass door into the fresh air.

I can't say that I blame them.  I have hardly been inside either.  I have been reading in the sun, raking in the sun, planting in the sun, sitting in the sun.  Just being in the sun has been divine.

We had a baby shower for Mikayla at my house this morning, and with my sisters (Mik, Tysen, and Sharae), we planned an early evening picnic at the park, just so we could be in the sun some more.  We met at the Scera park with take-out and ate, talked, and played.  We froze too.  Although the sun was out and the ambient temperature was mild, the wind kicked up about the time we left the house, and we huddled together at the picnic table to eat before jumping up to run around and try and stay warm.

Blythe, my child with no body fat, after playing a bit and eating, decided she had had enough, said she had to go to the bathroom, and insisted on being taken home.  Although I told her she would have to pee behind a tree or hold it, Kent took her home.  Brandt and I stayed on.  I'm fairly confident he was unaware of being cold until we actually got in the car to come home.  He played football with Guy, Crew, Griffin, and Luke, while being chased around by Kila.  It was nice to be together, to play and talk, and to do it all outside.  In an exciting football moment, Christopher got kicked in the hand by Crew who broke his finger, adding a certain unforeseen sense of drama and angst.  We vowed to do it all again soon--when it was warmer.

Lyla found my purse, slung it onto her arm, then waved goodbye to me as she strolled off into the park.

I headed her off and took her picture.

Then I took my purse.

This picture is without Makenna and Collin who were playing on the equipment, 

Sharae who was watching Collin,

Me who was taking the picture,

and Kent and Blythe, who had gone home.

Still there were Ava, Lyla, Tysen, Christopher, Mikayla, Guy, Kila

Crew, Brandt, Luke, and Griffin

Saturday Morning

Two weeks ago, Brandt discovered The Lone Ranger.  It shows on one of our cable stations on Saturday mornings.  So this morning, here is what I found on the couch when I came downstairs.

It's the Dad and the Lad.

They are watching this:

I'm not entirely sure it was the Lone Ranger, but it was riveting enough that neither of them so much as flinched when I took their picture.  I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid, but our boy is far more interested in the gun slinging activities of the cowboys on channel 111.

Ladies Who Lunch

Today was Blythe's friend Ellen's birthday.  Blythe goes to Ellen's on Thursdays when I go volunteer in Brandt's class, and then Ellen comes to play at our house, so since it was her birthday, I suggested we go to lunch.  Blythe's other neighborhood/pre-school friend Shaylee came too. I took the girls to Brick Oven.  They each ordered chocolate milk, bowtie and angel hair pasta with cheese, and watermelon suckers.  What was good for one was good for all.  It was fun to be ladies who lunch.

Ellen, the birthday girl.