4 Miles

We are starting to do some Easter activites with Will to help him learn more about Easter. He learned about it last week in preschool and is on spring break this week. We have been reading various parts of the Easter story during the evening Bible reading time.

I read on a friend's site about making Empty Tomb Treats. Basiclly you take a cresent roll triangle, flatten it, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it and then place  marshmallow in the middle. Wrap up the marshmallow and bake them according to the package directions. When they have cooled off a bit, you allow your child to eat one and they realize the middle is empty! Then you can talk about how they are empty like the tomb was. We did this yesterday.  It was a fun activity, but we had a few problems with this. One, we didn't wrap the marshmallows up too well, so they oozed out everywhere (as you can see in this picture). As you can see, we had a LOT of marshmallow left over. I think next time I'll go with the suggestion to use 1/2 of one.  But that was good for this time because Will really liked them and I think he would have been really upset if I got them out and they were all gone.  Which really would have taken away from the point. We did have a good time reading a different version of the Holy Week while they were cooking.  I was just glad he didn't equate Jesus with a marshmallow (and then say "Mommy, Jesus is oozing out!").

Today we colored eggs. This was Will's first time to do this and he had a great time. As you can see, his hands got a bit colored by the dye. And it didn't wash off too easily.  The blue bowl got knocked over and our carpet now has blue stains to add to the other ones. (We're going to steam clean it when the deck is done and less mud will be coming in.)  In the end, Will and I were happy with what we had to show for our effort. He ate half of one egg.  Alex didn't even try his egg. I guess James is going to get to eat the rest. 

James asked me to update everyone on the status of the deck. That is why it is now Thursday and nothing has been posted on it–I've been a bit busy. Here we go!

Friday night and Saturday were spent putting the top on the deck. That got completed and the boys had great fun runing around/stomping on the deck.

Sunday afternoon, James spent most of his time compairing prices and buying the wood and spindles for the railing. He did get part of it started, as you can see with these pictures taken at the end of the day.

Monday evening he borrowed some flood lights from the office (I have no idea why his office has flood lights but they do) and worked on getting all the posts sawed and posted. (Hee hee! Probably not the right term, but that's what happens when I write the recap.) Tuesday it rained all evening and we've had very cold, blustry weather since then.  So, the deck sits as you see in the last picture "taunting" James (or so he says). We did get to enjoy it on Monday, though Alex lost his fear of the edge and fell off twice. I'll be happy when the railings are done and it is warm enough to enjoy it with our patio fruniture!