A chilly Easter Sunday.

Our busy Sunday started with Easter baskets at the breakfast table:

Then it was off to church for two wonderful services:

After worship, I tortured my family by making them pose for pictures:

When we got home, it was time for the kitties to say CHEESE:

Then we headed to Nana and Papa's for a delicious Easter dinner:

FINALLY, it was time for the big egg hunt:
The kids found tons of eggs, but after a long search, the legendary prize egg was still out there...somewhere. Nana gave a few hints, and then Ryan found it, amid much celebration. Here's his recreation of how he happened to discover Nana's tricky hiding spot:

Everyone was so excited for Ryan, especially Katie, who found the egg and won the $5 last year. It was so cool to see her spontaneously hug her brother!

Even on this chilly Easter Sunday, we had plenty of reasons for our hearts to be warm.

T-shirt Tuesday.

T-shirt Tribute #4

In 16 years of teaching, I've amassed quite a collection of L.D. Bell T-shirts. Some I can't part with for sentimental reasons; others I still wear on pep rally days. But shirts like this one get a fond "sayonara" and off they go.

Camp Bell was a summer honors camp for seventh and eighth graders in Bell's feeder schools. We did a variety of enrichment activities with the kids, all intended to foster their interest in academics. When our grant money ran out, the camp was over. In its place the district now sponsors a district-wide summer scholars academy for junior high students. In fact, this summer I'll be a part of that academy. In addition to teaching an SAT prep course for high school students, I'll also be teaching a four-hour SAT prep overview for the younger kids. It'll be my first time teaching test prep with junior high kids since those Camp Bell days seven years ago!

Live and let dye.

Yippee for our annual eggstravaganza! Memaw came over today to help us decorate Easter egg cakes and dye eggs.

Brett remains the master egg dyer. His specialty: stripes.

Ryan made the most of his Star Wars egg kit. Our Grade A large eggs weren't quite large enough for the egg wrappers, but he still made them look cool:
(He also had to eat one of the hardboiled eggs before we were finished!)

Katie started off decorating an Easter egg cake:

Then she moved on to her fancy eggs:
She also made some hollowed-out eggs, and they turned out to be so pretty!

I stuck to my favorite things:
And then there's my (almost) favorite part of the whole process: the mix of colors left behind!

It's Saturday, but SUNDAY'S COMING! May you and yours have a joy-filled Easter Sunday!

LTC.

This weekend was the big Leadership Training for Christ convention. Katie participated in art, Bible reading and chorus. Finally, after weeks of preparation, LTC had arrived!

Katie and some fellow Bible readers before the competition.

Katie in her room ready to go.

Katie and some more fellow readers after the competition. (Notice the relieved smiles!)

The Heritage chorus with Tami and Tammie, our two leaders.

Of course, they sang beautifully! (And Jamba recorded it on his camera!)

Afterwards, we stopped by the Texas shop at the hotel. Katie bought a jawlipop, a massive jawbreaker and lollipop. (This was taken before the blue took over her face!)

Everybody worked so hard. The kids put in lots of hours, but their adult leaders did SO MUCH to help our kids learn and enjoy the whole LTC experience. So a big THANK YOU goes to Laura, Camille, Jason, Mark and Kristi, Tami and Tammie, Sharon and Clark, and of course, Matt and Karen, for their dedication to our kids!

And they call it kitty love.

What?! It's been more than a week since I've posted kitty pictures?

This is little C.J. She's named Coal Jr. after Kelly's puppy, who is also jet black.

She was the last of the three kitten surprises we discovered. She was so dark, we couldn't see her in the bushes! She is such a sweetheart, and we figured she needed equal time on the ol' blog! Isn't she sweet with her Mama?

Fun in the Sun!

We had a fantastic time at Heritage's Family Carnival/Chili Cook-Off last Saturday!



Matt, Karen and a gazillion volunteers made it a huge success. We had more than 1,200 people attend! From the chili (Jim's was our favorite) to the petting zoo (gotta love the lemurs and kangaroo), we all had a blast. It was an awesome way to get people on our campus and in our building. The cook-off, bake sale and raffle also raised money for our new children's wing.

And a big ol' "Yea, GOD!" for the gorgeous weather! I was a little worried when it was so stormy Friday, but the sunshine was a welcome sight on Saturday!

T-shirt Tuesday.

T-shirt tribute #3:

In the spring of 2002, my mom's health forced her to retire from teaching kindergarten. Because of crazy Social Security rules, she would not be able to draw her own retirement benefits and her spousal Social Security benefits unless she retired from a SS school district. Because of that, she (and hundreds of other teachers that summer) resigned from her home school system and worked two days for Coleman ISD so she could retire from that district.

That whole injustice deserves its own post, but I mention it only because on our way to Coleman, my mom, the kids and I stopped in Dublin to tour the Dr Pepper plant there. Of course, true Dr Pepper aficionados know that Dublin Dr Pepper is still made with sugar cane, so it has a special sweetness (and gives its drinkers a real energy buzz!). While we waited for the tour to begin, the kids and I shared a bottle of the stuff. Were we surprised when we got ANOTHER bottle at the end of the tour! Wow, was that SWEET!

My sweet Mom bought me the T-shirt, and I've hardly worn it for a couple of reasons.

For one, the drink's traditional 10-2-4 logo is supposed to represent 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. (the times when blood sugar levels are at their lowest). So why aren't they closer to the positions they'd be in on a clock? It's not 10-4-2! (I know, I know. I'm weird that way.)

For another, while we were at the plant, we saw a friend's husband there with a female companion, and it was horribly awkward. Every time I look at the shirt, I remember that chance encounter and shudder (right after I "tsk-tsk" about the 10-2-4 thing).