Easter 2014

We celebrated Easter this weekend. It was such a picture perfect weekend here in town. After I got home from church, we got busy with the festivities. Noah is allergic to egg whites, so we have never colored eggs before. But this year, I decided to make a potato salad, so we found use for the eggs and colored for the first time!

Since the weather was so nice, we moved the egg hunt outside.

                                      

The hunt concluded with the Easter basket reveal...

and disappointment by one kid. Poor Nik. I put allot of thought into what he would like in his basket. I put a couple of Lego kits in there, new rope (he loves rope), candy, a stuffed toy, money. Well, he wanted an action figure like Noah. :( I promised that he would get action figures for his birthday in 2 weeks.

We spent the rest of the day having a BBQ, going through the Easter goodies, and watching movies.

What a lovely Easter at home!

Thank God for bacon.

We are people of faith in this house. One of the things that I try to teach the kids is the importance of being optimistic, and being thankful for what we have.  Whether you are a person of faith or not, having a positive attitude, and being thankful are two things that every child should be taught. We do this by setting an example for them. One way I do this is through bedtime prayer.

Being the high schooler that he is, Nik usually tolerates my presence in his bedroom for a couple of minutes at bedtime. So I don't go into too much detail with him before bedtime. We talk about his day, and point out the fun things, and how we are all so glad to be home, safe and sound. By that time, Nik is kicking me out of his room so he can go back to Cartoon Network.  But Noah just loves bedtime routine, so I can spend 30 minutes with him.

It starts the same every night. We read a story together.Then we start our prayer. I will usually start off with things that we should be thankful for. Our house, our food, family, friends. Then I move into things that occurred during the day. Thank you for a fun time at the movies, at school, etc. We talk about how hard we work in school, and how we can do anything if we try hard enough. Then I let Noah take over the prayer. Here are a few things he asked to pray for in the past couple of weeks. And yes, I do have to stifle laughter at times.

Thank you, God, for:

• Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed from The Lion King on Broadway. He thanks God for them alot.
• All of the Disney villains, like Jafar, Maleficent, Scar, Ursula (and he just kept on going. It was a very long prayer that night).
• All of the non Disney villains (again, another long prayer). He loves his villains.
• Ms.Gale's hair (his para).
• His tent.
• His ipad.
• Going to Comic Cons
• Musicals
• Vacations
• His brother.
• Bacon. Yes, he wanted to thank God for Bacon. Amen, Noah. Amen.

What I love about this is that it is another reminder of how truly happy my children are. And how the simple things bring the joy.

"Till then put your trust in tomorrow, my friend. For yesterday's over and done." War Horse

This week, we attended opening night of War Horse. I really thought long and hard before I purchased our tickets. This would be the kids first non musical theatrical performance. And the story was quite serious. I knew there was a chance that this would not go well. But how will we continue to encourage our boys to grow without taking some risk? So away we went.

It was a sold out show, so we arrived about an hour early, to allow plenty of time. There were no lines as we approached the theater.

As we were entering the building, I realized that I had left the kids headphones in the car. Alex ran back to retrieve them, while the kids and I made our way inside. I'm so glad Alex went back for the headphones, because the boys definitely needed them.

We had balcony seats, because orchestra was sold out. So we made our way to the top floor and waited in the lobby. It was early, so the kids had time to pick something from the souvenir stand. They each picked out a shirt, and we also bought a program. Then we just waited around. Our kids like to pace, so we let them do that until the crowd got too thick. Before going in, I took a quick picture. 

We made our way to our seats. Not much leg room, even for all 5 ft of me. Poor Nik and Alex had their legs jammed against the row in front of us. Here are the men waiting patiently. 

We were seated left center balcony, row F. The view was fine, but we do prefer orchestra to be able to see the actors better.

For the first 45 minutes of the show, the kids didn't even need their headphones, but once the gunfire started, they quickly put them on. 

War Horse is the story of a teen boy, Albert, and his horse, Joey. Joey and Albert end up serving separately in WWI. Eventually they find each other and are reunited. It definitely was a very moving story. What makes the show so amazing, is the use of puppets to play the parts of the horses. Here are a couple of pictures from the program. The movements and sounds are so realistic, that I quickly forgot they were puppets. 

I felt a bit of a connection to the story when looking back what we have gone through with Noah and his anxiety. In the beginning of the play, Joey is fearful of the equipment used to plough and plant on the farm. After many hours of support from Albert, Joey eventually overcomes his fear, and amazes people with his strength. Sounds like my Noah.

The show was great. We all really enjoyed it! There were parts where Nik got sad and needed to cling to me or look away (horses were whipped, and horses do die during the war), but he really did love the story. 

What a great night at the theater. Now we are trying to figure out what the next show will be. But that is a good problem to have.