Good Friday to All of You, RMT’ers – and a Very Happy Passover!

Today is an important day to a lot of Christians and Jewish folks the world over… it happens to be both Good Friday and the first night of Passover (along with being Shabbat for Jews, too). While I don’t really celebrate either of these holidays with deep devotion, I do know enough about today to know that it’s a pretty darn special and very holy day to many of you. So however you are celebrating or reflecting today and this evening, I send out blessings to all of you!

Hmm... wonder who's been hopping around here lately?!

Of course, it also goes without saying that we have a VERY big day hopping up come Sunday. Whether you are religious or not, I think it’s fairly safe to say that if you have a kid in your house and you’re a parent who’s celebrated Easter at one time or another that you’re quite busy passing down the traditions of egg hunts, coloring eggs, and all candies shaped like eggs, bunnies, and chicks. I know that I’ve – er, I mean the Easter Bunny has – been really busy around here this week, and he’s probably been preparing feverishly around your houses, too.

T and his schoolmates enjoy an outdoor viewing of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked last Friday night.

Oh what a night! It was a lovely (even if a tad chilly) Spring evening for an outdoor movie. C and I were thankful for nature's own movie in the skies above.

School has even gotten into the Spring spirit lately with a few great family events, too! Last Friday evening, the school hosted a movie-on-the-lawn event, where families could bring in picnics, spread out, and enjoy a special al fresco screening of “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.” This is the third in the series of the recent Chipmunk franchise of films, and while they tend to grate on my last nerve, these are some of T’s favorite flicks, so he was pretty excited about it (and the endless free popcorn, too). Thankfully, C and I had a beautiful sky to watch from comfy lawn chairs as the kiddos enjoyed their cheerful chipmunk chatter.

What or who are all those kids looking for anyway?

It's the Easter Bunny!

Waaay back there you can see the Easter Bunny hard at work restocking the schoolyard with eggs between class hunts. What a great idea to keep things from getting TOO chaotic anyway.

And... GO! The kids are off and egg-hunting at T's school Spring party.

T snatches up a few eggs during his school Spring party. Don't forget to check the play equipment, T!

And earlier this week, T’s school hosted a Spring party with a hip-hoppity special guest (guess who!). The hop-tastic guest “hid” eggs with treasures all over the schoolyard as the kids eagerly watched from their classrooms. Kids were then dismissed one class at a time to participate in the hunt. While the kids were very worried that the other classes were taking all of the eggs, thanks to the forethought of egg replenishment between hunts, there were plenty of goodies to go around (whew!). After the egg hunt, each class had a special snack before the party-time ended.

T's teacher set a very special snack table for the Spring party snack time.

The kids enjoyed their special Spring party snack time. JELLO and pudding are not normally offered at T's school, so the kids really enjoyed it! The fruit looked good, too, but it sadly could not compete on this special occasion.

T at home with his egg haul from the school Spring party. Most of the treats were little trinket-style toys, stickers, and stamps. No candy permitted, and that's fine with T and us parents! No, really, T's not that into candy... yet anyway.

The school kept the celebration short and simple, and quite honestly it was about all the excitement the kids could handle without exploding. Though a few parents including myself provided minor assistance with crowd control and party service, I said it earlier this week and I’ll say it again: God bless teachers. I just do not know how they do their jobs day in and day out… and thus, why I am not a part of the teaching profession.

T looks forward to baking cookies and sprinkling them with Easter goodness this weekend! The top left box of cutters are some I got from Home Goods a few years ago, and the other sprinkles and other couple of cutters I got at Target over the last few weeks here and there.

Hey, look what I found in the Easter decoration box! It's an unopened PAAS egg-coloring kit! I picked up a small bottle of vinegar at Target this season, and viola, easy egg coloring to come for T and me! I just hope the kit is still good.

On our family’s weekend to-do list, we have a little egg-dyeing – oh, sorry, I mean coloring, I said dyeing once and T freaked out thinking I mean “dying” as in egg killing, whoops! – and Passover and Easter dessert making. I am intrigued by a few Passover-friendly desserts (this matzo-based chocolate caramel confection, maybe add a little coconut instead of nuts for a few of them, and maybe even these meringues), but I admit I’m a bit nervous. Yes, of course it’s because of the lack of flour and the abundance of delicate ingredients such as caramel, nuts, meringue, and coconut (read: easy-to-burn), but I’ll give it a try and see what happens! T and I will just stick with some simple sugar cut-out cookies with my favorite icing for Easter.