Easter pictures of them both

So it was chilly outside.  And on the gloomy side.  The best natural light in the house was in my bedroom.  Is that weird location for taking pictures of your kids in their new church clothes?  Probably.  Oh well.

Inside, outside, up and down.  I love these kids no matter where, no matter what.

Enjoy this week!  May it bouncy and happy and holy.

Easter pictures of the girl

A few months ago I was digging through the toddler pants at Target, looking for something tall and thin and stretchy for my daughter.  I noticed that the spring flower girl dresses had arrived: pink and girly with layers and layers of tulle. "Ha, ha," I thought to myself, "Mary would love a dress like that for Easter.  Too bad I'll never buy one for her: definitely too girly and princess-y and pink and tulled for any daughter of mine!"

And then I panicked.  What was wrong with me??  Hadn't I learned that girls grow out of the pink princess stage?  They move on to aquamarine and rock stars.  My sister-in-law was the first point it out to me.  And my niece was living proof, having exchanged her princesses and tiaras for an iPod and funky nail colors, just as she should.  I also haven't helped but notice that the girls in David's first grade class wouldn't touch a princess with a ten foot pole, and many of them shun the color pink.  They are only two years older than Mary.

In all likelihood Mary is just around the corner from outgrowing her little girl pink phase.  Mary is almost no longer a little girl!  Yes, I panicked.  I realized this may be my LAST CHANCE to dress a daughter in a super floofy Easter dress.  A little princess-loving girly girl is not always going to be a part of our family.  She is most likely going to grow and mature beyond all that.  I felt stupid for all of the time and energy I had wasted on groaning about pink and fretting about tiaras. Why did I spend her years of little girlhood worrying about the hyper-commercialization of gender roles, instead of just going with the flow and enjoying my daughter's interests?  Depending on how Mary's tastes evolve (and depending, of course, on the fertility gods) this really truly could be my last chance to dress a daughter in a darling explosion of pink and tulle. Why had I been so anxious for her to grow up?

I bought the dress then and there.  It was January.  I paid full price.

Mary loves it.

(And you know what?  I do too.)

Oh my.  Don't you love this sweet little face?

 I do! I do!

  (Tulle or no.)

Easter pictures of the boy

It was cold and overcast the morning I took pictures of my kids in their Easter clothes.  No one wanted to step into the chilly wind, myself most of all.  And the room with the best light was my bedroom.  But it still wasn't bright and light and cheerful.  I have a small Canon S90 point and shoot.  It's a good little camera.  But it and my limited knowledge were no match for the clouds and gloomy light. Perhaps my photo editing software could help me out?

So, yes, I often give my pictures a quick crop.  Because, no, I do not want to preserve for posterity the dirty sock on the couch.  (Don't you wish cleaning up your house were as easy as simply cropping the mess out of the picture?)  My photo editing is generally limiting to a little cropping.  And that's that.

But this time--partly because of the weird light in the room--I experimented with some of the other features and effects in my photo software.  Figure I might as well get my money's worth. (Wait, it was free.)  I definitely got a little carried away.  Fourteen steps later and I'd be like, "What have I done?!  Why is my kid neon yellow and upside-down?  Undo, undo, undo!!"  But sometimes I didn't undo.  And I really have no idea if I made improvements or not.  (Am I the only one with this problem?  I suspect I am making it worse by trying to make it better.  Is this the story of my life??)

I'm posting pictures of my firstborn first.  My favorite picture is the one above.  But here are some others that I like.  He's moving out of the cutesy little boy stage and becoming a handsome boy.  Not an ounce of baby.  But still a child.  A boy.

I love my boy.  Want to see some more pictures of him?

Of course you do!  :)

Happy Easter!

Easter eggs

We're going to be in the car on Easter Sunday, so we decided to have some of our Easter fun this weekend.

We dyed eggs.  I love dyeing eggs.  (Which is kind of out of character for me.  But there is something about all the colors and the way the shells absorb them and how even the imperfections and cracks are pretty and the whole process is like magic for the kids and we're celebrating spring and isn't that a wonderful thing.)  I prefer using food coloring to the little alka-seltzer-type pills you buy in those kits.  You have more control over the colors--and you can do a larger variety of them.  Plus, the kids enjoy squeezing out the drops and counting along as we create different colors.  (I think Not Martha's colors are better than the color "recipes" printed on the food dye boxes.)

What did we do with all of those Easter eggs?  Hunt them, of course.

I love Easter.

I do Halloween because everyone else does and it makes my kids happy.  I could do without Valentine's Day, but I grudgingly do the minimum.  I do not acknowledge St. Patrick's Day.

But over the years I have grown to love celebrations of Easter: the dyed eggs, the baskets, the new clothes, the jelly beans and Cadbury chocolates.  It's a celebration of spring and rebirth!  And, behind the more secular traditions, there lies the most important event in the history of the Universe: the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  If that is not worth celebrating, then what is?  Other holidays can feel hollow beneath the decorations and candy.  But not Easter.  The Peeps and stiff new church clothes provide another reason, a special occasion, so that "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ . . . that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." 

What we do for Easter varies from year to year.  Usually there are new clothes and dyed eggs.  Sometimes more.  Sometimes less.  But we always talk of Christ.  We teach of that sacred last week before His death.  And we testify to our children that He lives again.  So that they will know too.

Tomorrow at Family Home Evening Mary would like to teach us about the Resurrection of the Savior.

I love Easter.

Hot Cross Buns and so much more

The Big Spring Concert!

I adored the kindergarten concert last year.  (I think I worship Ms. B, the music teacher.  Yeah, pretty much I do.)  So I was very much looking forward the first grade concert this year.  For several months I have heard the humming of "Hot Cross Buns" coming from David's bedroom while he quietly builds with Legos. (What would elementary school music teachers do without "Hot Cross Buns"?!)

I present to you the First Graders...

Cute as a button, the group.  And sweet too.  Don't you want to gobble them up?

Did you spot David?  Back row, right in the middle, green shirt.

Let's zoom in a little.

Ah, what a sweet boy.  And sweet friends too.

Now, on with the concert!

I have for you ("you" meaning my mom) a few snippets.  (Follow the links to YouTube.  My kids love to see themselves on YouTube. I think it makes them feel like "Justin Beaver.")

A painless seventeen seconds of "Old King Cole" is HERE.

I'll spare you the video, but the concert included a fun song/dance/game called "A la vibora de la mar."  This is a picture of it.

(You can just barely see David's head poking up in the very back.  He was not part of the dance/game.)

"Jack and Jill" was serious business.  David and his classmates prepared their xylophones (and xylophone-type instruments) for the number.  You can see David on the close edge of the group, in the middle of the picture.

Here they go...

The video of "Jack and Jill" is HERE.  It is short.

The "Humpty Dumpty Rap" was not short.  But it was adorable.  You have to love first-graders--they are not so jaded that they would think a Humpty Dumpty Rap is anything but fun and cool.  Please watch a little of it to get an idea of the cuteness.  Then skip to 1:00.  You can tell the kids like the Little Bo-Peep verse the best--and watch David get into shaking his behind.  The rest is just more of the same: cuteness and enthusiasm.  Take a peek!  Go HERE.

Then watch David's class do "The Little Shoemaker" dance.  David was nervous about the clapping part.  But he did a great job!  Watch his face--you can tell he's having a great time.  And so are the other kids.  I love those genuine smiles!  David has such a nice class.  (And small!  Only 12 kids!)  I cherish this little video of them.  Go HERE for "The Little Shoemaker."

HERE is an 8 second snippet of a darling little Spanish song they learned called "Los pollitos dicen."  David has been humming it for a month.

I did eventually remember that I have a zoom on my camera.  So HERE is a better view of David.  He's singing (sort of) "Hey Diddle Diddle."  And it's a short little clip.

Oh, and I did promise you "Hot Cross Buns," didn't I?  Go HERE for the very short grand finale.  (And, again, what is elementary school without "Hot Cross Buns"?)

Take a bow!  (Bonk.)

Hooray for these first graders!

(By the way, there were half a dozen other first grade songs and dances too!  And it did not seem slow or long or painful.  It was zippy and fun.  The kids had a great time.  Oh, and not to mention all of the other grades--whose performances were at different times.  Is not Ms. B your hero now too?)