Happy Easter!

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Nana, Pappy, Tante Ginny, and Uncle Ryan came to New Orleans to celebrate Easter together, and here we all are (missing Uncle Pete!) having Easter Sunday's lunch in our backyard: roast lamb, potatoes, carrots, and green beans. I jump straight to this shot because it's the only one we snapped of all of us. We didn't manage to take a picture of us all together at Jack's first Easter Mass because it was late in the evening and there came an unexpected rain to boot. I can attest to how lovely we all looked ;)

Now let's back up and run through the rest of Holy Week! We attended the Last Supper Mass with Mom & Dad on Thursday night and then had a really nice Good Friday; we started with a walk through Couturie Forest in City Park, Dylan and I made the veneration of the Cross sans kids during naptime, and then we had the last Fish Fry Friday before the Stations of the Cross. Saturday, then, we had a crawfish boil and, later on, the Easter Vigil. While it was a little odd not to go to Mass on Sunday, and Easter Sunday at that, it was really great to partake in all the "bells and smells" of the Vigil and then get going on the roast first thing in the morning - Ginny & Ryan had to get back to Houston midday, anyway.

The kids' baskets + the Bunny's treats:

Here's where I have to include that Paul, at 5yo, asked about the Easter Bunny. He leaned over at the dinner table before Easter Sunday, and he said, "Is the Easter Bunny real?" I answered, "What do you think?" He said, "I mean, he doesn't know stuff, like Santa, so is he real?" And I gave him a tight-lipped, eyebrow-raised smile. He was happy to leave it at that.

And now just some before-Easter-shenanigans!

 Music Under the Oaks series in Audubon Park

Jack-in-a-box

 Working hard on chores + Jack ... helping

And the adults around here: one of us, in Activewear, activewear was going to Costco in [her] activewear and the other of us is digging out all the bricks that had been buried under years of grass to re-lay a historic brick sidewalk with plans to break up the concrete and reclaim some grass.
Won't tell you who's who.

Most of Lent

Let's sum up the last (almost) 40 days or so, now. With Holy Week next week already - wow - I'll move on to Easter after that. So. Here goes mostly a photo chronology from the beginning of March with only a few captions...

Jack's print after Saturday morning's pancakes

"We went on down to the Audubon Zoo... the monkeys asked, the alligators asked"

but the boring old sloth didn't ask ;)

getting to spend some of their birthday/Valentine's gift money

"Friendship Day" on Algiers Point ... I spy an Ada and a Paul on the giant levee slide!

Off to Texas for a week & got to celebrate Pappy's big 7-0!

Ada got a hair trim & instructed Jack in proper use of the kitchen ;)

Holding and feeding neighborhood turtles

Rodeo!

Firepit & S'mores

St. Joseph's altar

Tea party for Tt-week

We went to Biloxi for a weekend! Just because! And since we left straight from Dylan's work on a Friday, we stopped in at a small-town church's fish fry! Pretty awesome to travel during Lent and know there'll be good, inexpensive, hospitable!, and kid-friendly dinner. The kids went bonkers over our, admittedly, pretty sweet hotel room at the Hyatt Place, and we had loads of fun between the beach and the pool. All just 90miles away. And Paul throws a mean frisbee now!

My Lenten companion has daily suggested penances, which are usually really beautiful, practical ways to implement good into my life; this day's was laughable...

Garden helpers

Paul's all about "Let's stop and take a picture!" And Ada's all about her babies. This one is Baby B. We also have Baby Booboo, whom you've seen her babywearing, Baby Boat, and Baby Grape. Ada's an interesting namer of things; I love it!

Paul had a productive coloring day, drawing Nana's gigantic strawberries & a beach house for Pappy - even writing everything. Big boy.

Baby B. got to come to storytime and the playground once pushed by Ada in the stroller, who was wearing a tutu ... and running shoes.