{pretty, happy, funny, real} Easter Sunday Edition

{pretty, happy, funny, real} is hosted every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty}

This was the sight that greeted Maria and Louisa after a lovely Easter Mass in Gif.

Not a great picture, but it shows Maria's Easter outfit!

The girls had a big Easter haul.  There was all kinds of fun---markers, stickers, notebooks and chocolates sent by Meme and Grandpa and Great Nana and Popop.  I went a bit crazy with the Easter gifts.  Lately, I've been learning about Montessori (and loving it), so I tried to buy gifts that were real-life tools.  Louisa received a little ceramic espresso cup--a perfectly sized mug for her.  Maria received two small spread knives--they're the right size for her hand and they actually cut--the ones that come in the children's cutlery sets can't slice cut butter unless it's been sitting out all day.  There was also a small hair brush.  For both girls, I bought a little wooden vanity.  This was a "toy" and labeled as something for "imaginative play," but I really wanted a little child-friendly mirror that they could have at their height, and use as they learn to wipe their noses and comb their hair, etc. Then there were bubbles and sprinkles for f cup cakes, and a couple of books.  I ended up holding back the vanity and the books until the middle of the week, because the girls were already quite over the moon about the markers and chocolate.

Our Infant of Prague illustration with golden vestments.

Our Easter decorations.  This French adventure has taught me that a lot can be done with construction paper and a glue stick. 

That last paper ornament is a cutout of a winged bell.  The French don't have the Easter Bunny---there are chocolate rabbits for sale, but they rank the same as the chocolate chicks and hens as emblems of Spring.  Instead,  Easter chocolate is brought by the bells. On Holy Thursday, the bells depart on pilgrimage to Rome, thus explaining their silence through Good Friday and Saturday.  They return to proclaim the Resurrection on Easter morning, and on their way,  drop sweets into the gardens.  I love that this merry fiction ties in with the liturgical celebration. 


{happy}
Our neighbors arranged a lovely Easter hunt in the garden behind our building.  The kids collected the chocolate and at the end it was pooled and divided equitably. Maria had a great time---though she stopped every once and a while to draw with her new markers on a small scrap of paper.  Chocolate is lovely, but it mustn't distract from art!  Poor Loulou was a bit too tired and snotty to get into the action.

{funny}

My lovely in-laws were with us last Easter, and they brought some plastic eggs.  We held onto them, and I filled them and gave them to our neighbor for this year's hunt.  I wish I had a picture of our little neighbor is when she found the first of the plastic eggs. 

Picture a five year old wrinkling her nose in disdain, and saying in French accented English, "But what eez dis?  It eez plastique!  It eez not chocolate!"

Typically, the quarry of French Easter eggs hunts are foil-wrapped hollow chocolate eggs, so B was justified in her surprise.  She was quickly won over when shown that the egg opened to reveal...chocolate of course!

{real}

We spent Easter Sunday joyfully, but in no small degree of suspense. We were expecting news from the CS department at the University of Connecticut regarding Donnie's candidacy for an assistant professorship.   The department had offered the position to someone else, but Donnie was their runner-up.  We had hoped for definitive news on Good Friday.  It didn't come, and so we spent the weekend on pins and needles.


We did, at last, get news on Tuesday....I  hope to tell you more about it soon, but there are a few things that needs to be finalized before we make things public on Ye Grande Internete.