Easter Festivities 2018

Happy Easter from the Ferstle family! 

I'm stuffed to the max right now after a weekend of great food and drinks!  We really enjoyed our Lenten season this year, enjoying a slower paced month before our crazy spring starts with soccer and baseball.  We focused on spending time with family, enjoying the season with egg hunts and other Easter activities, and plenty of good food!

Our church did an Easter egg hunt the weekend of Palm Sunday.  We took the boys before their swim class last Saturday and we were pleasantly surprised with all the cute crafts they had, the Easter bunny to take pictures with, and snacks.  The boys had a great time and the egg hunt yielded some really sweet Jesus figurines, Jesus puzzles, and other different little fillers.  It was a nice change of pace from candy and chocolate!

We had to leave pretty quickly after the egg hunt to get the boys to swim, but I'm glad we made the time to go.  Swim has been going well for both boys, speaking of.  They're both getting stronger each time they go and it's crazy to see Sean doing laps back and forth with different strokes.  We took the boys over to Nana and Pops' house after swim for a visit.  We were unable to get together much over the winter with them traveling a lot and going up north, so it was nice to hang out without it being a holiday or someone's birthday.  Ping pong was a big hit at their house, as always!  Dinner at CK Diggs was a nice way to end our day in Troy before heading home.  And of course, Palm Sunday mass last weekend meant making crosses out of palms.  We're trying to pass on memories from our childhood!

Spring break finally arrived this Thursday after school!  Whew - it felt like it was never going to come!  And as excited as I am to be off work for 10 days, I'm so disappointed with the weather.  It certainly doesn't feel like spring.  We dyed eggs after dinner on Thursday to kick off our break and Easter celebrations.  The boys picked an Emoji kit this year, which was pretty simple.  The stickers were added the next day. 

Scott and I made a last minute decision, after the game was postponed on Thursday to Friday, that we would go to Opening Day.  Luckily, Scott's parents were able to take the boys so we spend all Friday in Detroit tailgating and enjoying the game.  They kept the boys overnight since they were coming to our house Saturday morning for an egg hunt and Easter lunch.  It was a nice day date in the D!

Saturday was a chilly morning!  We met up with Scott's family and the boys at the egg hunt in Plymouth.  The boys were separated in different age groups for the hunt so I stuck with Sean, while Scott went with Evan.  It was a blast!  The boys got so many eggs filled with candy and they both won prizes (Evan won two small prizes and Sean won a large prize...Legos!!). 

Scott's family came over for a BBQ lunch.  We were able to get the grilling in before the rain started and once again the Tiger's game on TV got postponed.  Boo!  Lunch was great and it was nice hanging out with Scott's family!

My neighbor texted me in the morning to ask if I was able to take their daughter, Avery, to the Sound of Music at the Fox that evening.  They bought 3 tickets, but she was too sick to go.  I asked my friend Sarah to join me and Avery and we made an evening out of it.  Free tickets?  Yes, please!  I took Avery to Los Tres Amigos before picking up Sarah.  It was such a nice out, despite how tired I was after Opening Day the day before and hosting Scott's family over. 

And finally, it was Easter morning!  The boys were up at...5:30am!!!  Considering I went to bed at midnight after being at the theater, it was a brutal start to my day.  But, I got the french toast bake in the oven and put on my smiling face...kind of.  Scott did an amazing job hiding the baskets this year.  The boys had a hard time finding them!  I mean...the bunny did an amazing job.  :)

We ate breakfast, did some food prep for later in the day, and got ready for church.  Church was freaking packed!  We were lucky to get some of the last seats, but still, it was very distracting with the people coming in late trying to find seats and being crammed in.  We made due and then it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to come over mid-afternoon for Easter dinner.  We hadn't seen them since mid-February when we flew down to Tucson, so it was exciting.  More Easter goodies for the boys and we sat down for a yummy dinner!  We played an fun game of Life after dinner and Evan was the big winner!

I'm exhausted from hosting two days in a row.  Our fridge is full of leftovers.  We are super behind in our laundry and cleaning (our cleaning lady is in Guatemala...hurry back!).  But, break unofficially starts tomorrow for me.  We're going to make the most out of this crappy weather and try to do some fun things with the boys like the Impressions 5 Museum in Lansing, a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's, and an overnight in Kalamazoo so we can see The Lion King at Miller Auditorium.  It might not feel like spring break, but we're going to enjoy our days off!  First up tomorrow?  Laundry, cleaning, packing away the Easter decorations, and re-organizing Sean's Legos....good Lord those are a mess!