Weekend Recap: Visiting Umi

 Hi everyone! It’s been a pretty awesome weekend. The kids and I woke up very early to drive to the Maryland House rest stop and meet the kids’ grandmother aka Umi there because she had some Easter goodies she wanted to give them. My mom lives about 5.5. hours away and works crazy hours as a nurse. Sometimes it’s hard to catch her to see the kids, so we meet at the rest stop—halfway point for both—so we can catch up. Since the MD House has been renovated, we grab a bite to eat at one of the restaurants, let the kids run around on the green space for a bit, and after a while load back up to go back to our homes before the next actual home visit. I didn’t stay as long as we usually do this time because I had to sing the next day and I also knew I would be seeing her in about two months’ time for a summer visit. The kids, however didn’t mind and had a great time with Umi.

The next morning we got up pretty early to attend church services. I was able to find a nice little ensemble that fit my baby belly and didn’t make me look too frumpy lol. This Sunday was Palm Sunday and I always enjoy the blessing of the palms, the significance of the story of the Triumphant Entry, and the realization that Christ knew that it would not be long before he gave His life for everyone. Church service was beautiful although my daughter was a bit antsy and with no nursey services, I had to turn to her a couple of times to remind her of expected behavior. I realized toward the end that she wasn’t misbehaving, just fighting sleep as her schedule had been pushed back when we went to visit with Umi. I encouraged her to try and nap, but to little avail. In addition to Palm Sunday, it was also Youth Sunday, which meant our son was singing. It also meant the blessing of babies. One of our favorite couples were blessing their recently born daughter. It is always such a beautiful sight to see babies blessed and prayer for.

After church was over, we went to the baby’s home for a Christening celebration. Since the game was on, the men were more than excited to participate. S. usually loves these events, but was feeling poorly and missed out. You know he is sick when he misses food. He actually stripped from church clothes to chill clothes and was in the bed in five minutes after walking through the door. He insisted I go with the kids since the hosts were expecting me (and I suspect he needed the quiet to recuperate).

The kids really enjoyed themselves racing in the yard, playing with their cousins, and having a great time. Their cousins are already on Spring break, so our son was a bit disappointed when we left while the sun was shining. I explained that he had school and I had work the next day. His cousins didn’t and could stay and play all evening.

All of this fellowship just opens up to the activities coming for the next few weeks. There are two Easter egg hunts, Easter services, family and love. One hunt is the Annual Hunt sponsored by our church with a golden Resurrection Egg. I volunteered to help hide eggs for some of the older groups. That way when my son and daughter hunt, there will be no conflict of interest in finding eggs.

I’m most excited about the person egg hunt I’m throwing at the house. I plan on doing it once we get home from church. I will hide the eggs, take a few pictures of the before, make sure the kids have changed out of their church clothes, and release them into the yard for Easter Egg hunting.

I’m heading to the Dollar Tree and Five Below this week/weekend for plastic eggs, candy, and also stuffers for their Easter baskets. I’m very excited. How as your weekend?

-K