Easter Madness

I wrote this post on Monday with the intention of posting then, but it turns out that this pregnancy is working backwards and I was mysteriously transported to trimester one in the form of Easter Monday Vom Fest 2016. Thank you all for your well wishes, zofran came to my rescue and all is well now. Luckily the octave is ultra-forgiving and I can still post a legit Easter post because it's still Easter!

This was the first year I felt like I actually had my act together with regards to Easter, and "having my act together" just means I didn't completely fail at the lead-up to Easter AND had adequately assembled a good mix of Easter basket stuffs AND had shoes and tights for the little ladies by the night before Easter, wonder of wonders.

We attended our first Holy Thursday Mass ever as a family and it really deserves a quick sentence because even though Mike and I abide by the strictest in-bed-by-8-and-never-EVER-later policy, the kids were surprisingly very good considering the Mass started at 7:30. It was a really beautiful way to kick off the Triduum, if one can "kick off" the Triduum.

Since having kids, Good Fridays have always felt really, well, UN-penitential. Kids can't fast, and I have been pregnant or nursing a tiny baby every single Good Friday since getting married, so no legit fasting. But! This year I managed to at least force some prayerful things on myself and the kids (stations, decade of the rosary, older kids went to Veneration of the Cross, etc...) And it felt adequately different from other Good Fridays, and from normal life in general. It was good.

Holy Saturday came with egg decorating, and major props to you moms coloring more than a dozen with your brood, I was having heart palpitations by the end of one dozen and I was thrilled that there were no more to color. Uptight is my middle name.

Easter Sunday morning dawned surprisingly beautiful with baskets primarily consisting of cheap dollar store goods and weird religious books and VHS tapes from the thrift store (I told you I had my act together!). We commenced  a 3.5 minute Easter egg hunt in our back yard, which resulted in more candy eating, because everyone surely needed more early-morning sugar. I was surprised that Mass was not a total disaster with all the sugar intake.

After Mass we decided to hit up Notre Dame's big Easter meal because I didn't want to cook and clean on Easter, and because I'm not yet a real grown-up. Also it's super cheap for students and their families. The kids ate their weight and then some in sugar this Easter. Joe's vest was tight to begin with, but it reached full-on Nacho Libre status by the end of this meal.

Honorable mention must be given to the absolutely gorgeous Easter weather we freakishly had in March, in South Bend. I had absolutely no hopes what-so-ever of a nice, sunny, even warm day but God worked a veritable miracle and all of those things happened.

In March. In South Bend. Sorry, I'm still kind of in shock, but it made the day so much more enjoyable and made getting the kids clad for Mass infinity easier. It also meant snapping a quick post Mass and brunch family photo was possible, major thanks to our big garbage can for stepping in as the self-timer photographer, we couldn't have done it without you.

From our over-sugared family to yours, happiest of Easter weeks!