Happy Easter!

We serve a risen savior! Christ the Lord is risen today-- Alleluia!

May you be blessed in your celebrations!

Love, Dave, Jen, Ella and Delia

Jelly Bean O-Rama This Easter

I was getting my oven-cleaning clothes on this morning when Dave said, "Hey! Let's go to the Jelly Belly Factory!" Admitting that sounded like a whole lot more fun than the day of house and yard work I had planned, I quickly agreed. We liked the timing of taking their tour and loading up on jelly beans this Easter weekend. The girls had a Willy Wonka moment when we walked into the candy heaven. Jelly bean decorations overwhelm the place and a giant store tempts every sweet tooth that strolls through it. Lots of people had the same idea as we did today, so first up was getting in the line for the free tour.

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The tour has been much improved since the last time we took it (5 years ago, with Dad and Kyle). Now each stop through the factory is enhanced with video explanations of what you're seeing on the factory floor and samples of the jelly beans in each stage of production (jelly center, sugar coated, etc.). The best stop on the tour was the packaging robots doing a synchronized dance to the song "Sugar Sugar". I got to hear my favorite sound in the world: my girls genuinely cracking up over something.

The tour ends with a free bag of jelly beans. After learning all about their production, we were anxious to dive right in!

In the store, we picked up a discounted bag of "Belly Flops" (beans that are funky in shape) to fill our plastic eggs with for tomorrow's epic VM Egg Hunt. Delia, our candy girl, is giving this 2 pound bag some LOVE!
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Another fun part of the Jelly Belly factory is the Sample Bar. Here you can try as many different flavors as you like. We sampled honey (their newest-- Dave's and my favorite!), kiwi, popcorn, cantaloupe, strawberry ice cream and marshmallow to name a few. Ella thought the "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor" line was hilarious (puke, skunk, pencil shavings, dog food...). She begged to try the booger one. Watch her face go from "Look at me, I'm so silly!" to "Get this thing out of my mouth right now!"
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Signs of Spring

Seems appropriate-- some firsts to accompany our first of April.

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First rose to open!

First strawberries from the stand!

Easter Activities

Ella loooves the Easter story and fully understands the meaning of it and each detail connected with it. Last night at dinner, she even gave us a little lesson on the Passover dinner Jesus ate with his disciples with her roll and milk! Delia doesn't seem to have the story down as well, though, so I've been trying to do more hands-on stuff so she can see, feel and finally understand how Jesus took our punishment when he died on the cross and why his empty tomb is so exciting.

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We've been doing these Resurrection Eggs every day. Inside each of the 12 eggs is a little item associated with the Easter story (a donkey, wine glass, praying hands, crown of thorns, stone, etc...). I read the account in small pieces and the kids take turns opening a corresponding egg. It's very tactile and experiential and it has made the story really stick with Delia. Not surprising, Ella has gotten so she can be the story teller.

Yesterday we did these Resurrection Rolls. The idea here is to take Jesus' "body" (a marshmallow) put "spices" on it (cinnamon and sugar), wrap it in a "cloth" (a crescent roll) and put it into the "tomb" (the oven) for 3 days (12 minutes). When you open the tomb, you'll find Jesus' body is no longer present in the clothes. The empty crescent is like a little empty tomb itself. A great lesson that tastes like cinnamon rolls! We loved it! I'll leave the instructions at the end of this post if you want to try it yourself.

Not so related to the actual Easter story, but fun nonetheless, today we dyed our Easter eggs at Jetta's house. The kids all had a good time turning their eggs different colors then decorating them with stickers...



...But more time was actually spent on the awesome task that is peeling a hard boiled egg and eating it with a little salt! Oh, the concentration!
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Resurrection Rolls:
Ingredients:
1 tube crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
cube of melted butter
Mixture of cinnamon and sugar
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Give child a triangle of crescent roll dough (this represents the cloth Jesus was wrapped in.) Have child dip marshmallow in butter and then roll in cinnamon and sugar mix (this represents the oil and spice Jesus was anointed with). Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in a crescent roll, bringing up sides and sealing. Bake for 10-12 minutes (the oven represents the tomb). Talk about how Jesus was in the tomb for 3 days. When the rolls have cooled slightly, the child can open them and eat them. The marshmallow will disappear symbolizing Jesus was no longer in the tomb. He is risen!!

The Fairy Sleeps

For a while now, Ella has been having afternoon "Quiet Time" while Delia takes her nap in their bedroom. The rules are that Ella must find something quiet and independent to do and once she picks what room she'll do it in, she needs to stay in that room. About one day a week, though, she still needs the sleep. On the day she needs the nap, I find her sleeping in all sorts of strange places wearing all sorts of strange attire!

Tulips, Take Two

Yes, we were already here with Heather, but word that our friend was closing down his tulip farm on Saturday prompted one more trip after some morning errands today. It's warm and sunny and wandering around the fields of flowers seemed like the perfect thing to do. Unfortunately, Delia, who was wearing a little sundress, crouched down a bit too close to the coop and was pecked right in the booty by a chicken! This left her feeling not so smiley or appreciative of flowers. And Ella could hardly be dragged away from the donkeys, who were eating out of her hands and licking her face! But I have enough pictures of my girls already, right? :)

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My Running Family

For lent, Dave gave up "not running" or "sedentariness", as a friend put it. Dave knew he'd want a little motivation and reward to keep him getting up early and running for all 40 days of the season. Today's race served that purpose. It was a 5K with the Kids Fun Run for Ella. Both Dave and Ella loved the race and did great.

. Anyone who knows me, knows that running and early mornings are tops on my list of things I hate. As we watched the sun rise while we drove to the race, I had to question what my family was doing to me?! Oh well, I love them and I NEVER see sunrises-- it was beautiful. :)

The race was around a pretty lake and sponsored by a mega-church. The runners were prayed over and given free Godsome T-shirts. Dave loved the course because it was scenic the whole time and we could cheer with a pretty good view of him all 3+ miles. His goal of finishing in the top 40 was easily met when he came in 28th overall.

The best part of the morning was the crazy quarter mile race for the kids. Ella had a little trouble staying on course and had to be herded back onto the race track, but she ran easily the whole time. She was so cute meeting friends and continuing her stretches at the start line.

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Some recovery from the early morning is in order for the rest of the day. Keep your fingers crossed for some excellent naps today!

On an ABC Hunt

A few days ago, Dorina invited me to an ABC party at her house to celebrate a year of preschool home-learning for Meilani. We are not able to make it to the party, but the invitation and Dorina's request for ideas reminded me that I too can be more intentional about letter learning in our own home. We loaded up on ABC books from the library and pulled some favorites off our shelves. The following activity was inspired by the books Alphabet City and Butterfly Alphabet, both of which demonstrate letters hiding in unusual places.


We read the books, found each hiding letter in their fantastic pictures then went on our own letter hunt around the house. When we found the letters, we took pictures of them. Here are some of Ella's findings:


E

G

M

O

P

Q (she found it in my dirty soup bowl from lunch. I recreated it for the picture)

V

The Difference

Today we took care of Jonathan and Grace for Amy. Grace spent the whole time snoozing in the pack 'n play, but Jonathan kept plenty busy. I found some quiet time to just watch the kids and what I noticed made me smile. Jonathan always loves pulling out the train tracks when he comes to our house. They get more play with him than with my own kids, I think! He means business when it's track engineering time. He makes plans and considers each piece carefully. This was his third design and he called it "The Butterfly." He was actually teaching me how to connect the tracks in ways I never even knew they could!
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Meanwhile, Ella and Delia have owned this toy for a few years now and they still can't assemble a simple loop, I have to build it for them. Once the track was set, though, they got busy turning it into a city and filling it with people and buildings and double-decker bridges. What's happening here is a parade (see the vehicles lined up with the people watching?) And you can be certain there was dialog among the characters and a long story to go with this parade!

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Jonathan and Ella are the same age, yet have so many differences. Maybe it's just because one is a boy and one is a girl, but it's always fun to see the way they each approach things!

The Magic Number

We've been waiting for this digit. After the late rain and cold, we began to wonder if it was ever coming. It's the most anticipated number of the year. I'm talking, of course, about heavenly SEVENTY! On Sunday night Dave gleefully waved the newspaper around showing off the 7 straight days of predicted temps in the 70s! And oh how we've been enjoying the heck out of this magic number: bike rides, park trips, yard work, llama feedings, grilled dinners eaten outside and after dinner walks to get ice cream. Today was the glorious grand finale to a week spent outdoors as much as possible-- a little trip to Indian Grinding Rock State Park and Daffodil Hill.

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Indian Grinding Rock SP is another one we've never been too. It was perfect for what we wanted to do today, which was have a picnic and run around in the sunshine. Its namesake feature is this huge grinding rock that has about 1,185 mortar pits, remnant from the days of the Miwoks living there. Various structures, like bark houses and a roundhouse, have been recreated to give the feeling of being a member of their village. The girls loved running in and out of the houses and playing "neighbor."

This bridge over the grinding rock gave great views of the aged holes and all the sunbathing lizards. The girls pretended it was a ship.

In the museum, we got to try our own grinding with a mortar and made a hole in some wood with a twisty hand drill. This was Ella's first exposure to Native American History. She ate it up.

After lunch, we climbed some trees and took a little hike down the Flora Trail.

Then, since we were just a few miles away from it, we had to stop in at Daffodil Hill. We discovered this amazing place with Kyle last year. Pictures do not do it justice. The hills were just exploding with yellow and the air was thick with the fragrance of flowers.


We are in awe of you, spring! Please be here to stay, 70s!!