A Day Out with Thomas

A couple weeks ago, we took the kids to Greenfield Village because none other than Thomas the Tank Engine was going to be there! They had seen a flier at the library a few weeks earlier and were immediately excited about the prospect of getting to see Thomas. We decided to go for it...attempting to incorporate it into our plan of doing "special" things to celebrate the Easter season. As it turns out, Marie and Joey didn't really care why they were going to get to see Thomas as long as they were going to get to see him. I guess that's to be expected.

We set out from home around 10:00 in the morning, which meant that by the time we got to the Village, we had a little over an hour to check things out before getting lunch. First stop, finding Thomas. We watched as he pulled into the station, the passengers were loaded, and then he chuffed away. They were clearly impressed.


We then proceeded to one of the activity tents where Joey was right at home playing with trains. There is just something better about playing with someone else's trains and tracks. He would've stayed there all day had we let him. Marie played for a while, but then enjoyed doing some coloring and activity sheets.





We headed to find lunch. The food was good, but we admittedly spent way too much on the hot dog and macaroni and cheese. It must have been memorable though because that was toward the top of the list of the things Marie and Joey recalled.


After lunch, it was finally our turn to go for a ride on Thomas. We got our tickets ready, waited in line, and boarded the train! The kids were in heaven! Well, Stevie perhaps wasn't overly impressed, but I'm sure he was glad to be there.




After our train ride, Marie was pumped to ride the 1913 carousel. Unfortunately, we didn't time it very well and we had to wait in line for quite a while. They were both definitely tentative when they climbed on, but they relaxed soon enough. Eventually, they got a big kick out of finding Jon as we spun around and waving at him. The carousel was another of the high points of the day.



We spent a little more time in the activity tent...playing with trains and listening to stories. We were all getting tired, so we decided to wave farewell to Thomas before heading home. It was a tiring day for everyone, but given the opportunity I think we would do it again. If you were to ask Marie or Joey, they would be sure of it.

Easter 2011

Since I'm just now getting around to posting about Easter (almost a month later!), I guess we've been busy...though I'm not sure what we've been busy doing. Maybe I'll have it figured out by the time I'm caught up!

So we stayed in Michigan for Easter again this year. We were joined for the weekend by Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart and Uncle Matt. Between the Easter Triduum services and other necessary Easter traditions, we kept ourselves hopping.

Marie and Joey enjoyed painting Easter sugar cookies. (Thankfully, we didn't have to bake them...they had been in the freezer since St. Patrick's Day when we used the extra dough to make eggs, chicks, and bunnies.) Evidently, in addition to aprons, the necessary attire for decorating eggs includes sunglasses atop the head.



On Holy Saturday morning, we went to a nearby parish to participate in their annual Easter egg hunt. It was not like the Easter egg hunts I recall. There where WAY more eggs than kids. I remember being lucky to get 2 or 3 in the mad dash. Had they been so motivated, Marie and Joey probably could've gathered as many eggs as there bags could hold. Thankfully, they were not so motivated since we're still working on finishing Easter candy.

At one point, Joey must have looked lost or something. Another generous little girl "helped" him by putting an egg in his bag. Being the particular one, Joey promptly removed the egg and threw it, breaking it open. It was either this event or being scared of the clown that was his favorite thing to talk about when he asked about the hunt.





Another, perhaps non-traditional, Holy Saturday activity was the planting of asparagus crowns. Grandpa Meinhart had found a great deal and ordered some for us. I figured I should take advantage of Marie's very recent statement that she actually likes asparagus. Grandpa, Jon, Uncle Matt, and the kids set about digging holes, adding just the right amount of compost and water, and carefully positioning the crowns. Since then, Marie and Joey have taken it upon themselves to keep a close eye on the plants and water then whenever possible. If attention has anything to do with asparagus production, we should have bumper crop in a couple years!


This year, Marie again made Resurrection rolls for Easter lunch. It must have sunk in from last year because she put them together almost all by herself and did a great job of describing the symbolism of each ingredient. They must have tasted pretty well also...they didn't last too long!


It would hardly be Easter without dyeing eggs, would it? It was a somewhat messy endeavor with frequent close calls...cups of colored water teetering close to being overturned. But the eggs were successfully colored and Marie and Joey had fun so the goals were accomplished.

Joey getting an, "Are you sure about that?" look from his godfather.

The finale to the weekend was of course Easter Sunday. We donned our best and headed to Mass. We kept the kids all dressed up long enough to snap a couple of pictures. Perhaps brimming Easter baskets were used as a bribe...perhaps. After a yummy lunch, we had our own mini-Easter egg hunt in the yard, attempting to get the most mileage possible out of those dyed eggs. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and allowed us to do all of this fun stuff as a family. It was nice to see the kids enjoying themselves without losing sight of the reason for our celebration...He is Risen INDEED! (We are still in the Alleluia season after all!!)

Baptism and Birthday

Not long after Stevie's arrival, we started thinking about when we might like to have his baptism. We expected that it might be a little more complicated in the past given the upcoming Easter holiday. We quickly realized that given our parish's schedule and the respective commitments of the godmother and godfather, the baptism would either need to be at the end of March or mid- to late May.

Marie and Joey were both about 6 weeks old when they were baptized thus allowing for some time for recovery, preparations, and also for giving out-of-towners a little time to make their plans. But, rather than wait until Stevie was almost 3 months old, this time we leaned toward having the baptism a week after we confirmed the date. The only real drawback to having it so quickly was the chance that I would be overwhelmed. I knew I would want to get the house in viewing shape at least and have a meal plan for our weekend guests, but I was also still adjusting to having a newborn and really being on my own with the three kids (Jon was back at work and Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart were back in Illinois). It may have been risky, but we decided to go for it anyway and I was determined to make every effort to not get stressed out.

Well, it took A LOT of help from Jon and Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart coming up a day early, but the baptism and the whole weekend went well I thought. Everyone had a place to sleep (thanks to Mark and Sarah for putting up Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart despite having some of the Smith family in town) and if anyone went away hungry, it wasn't because of a lack of food. Marie and Joey loved having cousins (JJ and Gracie) and aunts and uncle here (Jaclyn, Jess, and James) to visit and play. Aunt Jaclyn brought a fun Easter craft for the kids to do. And, Aunt Jess brought little Easter bags, complete with Veggie Tale watches and candy. For some reason, Joey thought he needed to wear his watch as a belt...not sure why. All the kids got a kick out of their bunny Pez dispensers. It's amazing how fast those little candies can disappear!








As we've done in the past, the baptism ceremony was planned for after the 4:30 service on Saturday. This arrangement just makes it easier for our guests that want to drive on Sunday. We are also starting a tradition of bringing up the gifts whenever we are baptizing one of our kids. We were asked prior to both Joey's and Stevie's baptisms. This time around we were a little uncertain that we would make it up the aisle. Marie was very distraught that she couldn't actually carry anything (there is an age policy that we were unaware of). We thought quickly and asked her to perform the very important job of holding Joey's hand while we walked. Unfortunately, Joey would have nothing to do with this. Instead he decided that he wanted Jon to carry him. So as we are supposed to be starting up the aisle, there we are trying to get everyone situated and relatively happy in front of the congregation. It turned out that Jon and I each carried one of our sons in addition to the gifts while Marie slowly walked behind us, trying to fight back tears (bless her heart). The rest of the Mass wasn't much better from her perspective. It was a good thing that Stevie was happy at that point because I spent a good bit of time trying to console Marie.

But, Marie's night would get better. She was able to be up front and right in the midst of what was going on during the baptism. She walked up with Grandma Shibata and peaked onto the podium while Grandma read from the Old Testament. Deacon Larry also asked her to hold his book for him while he read the baptism prayers. She was thrilled to have been given such a big responsibility!



In his homily, Deacon Larry talked about how baptism is really like a second birth, the official entrance into God's family and His Church. He said that he thought it would be good to celebrate your baptism day like a birthday...after all, he would like getting to have cake and ice cream twice a year. To this, Joey perked up and said, "Me too!"



Stevie was awake for pretty much the whole ceremony. He was also relatively happy through most of it. It wasn't until toward going up to the altar and the final prayers that he was really letting us know that he was unhappy. So unfortunately, we didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the family, godparents, and other attendees.


From our overall standpoint the baptism was wonderful. We did not lose power (as with Marie's) and no one had to drive home in a snow storm (as with Joey's). I guess because we've been through it a couple of times, somehow I'm not expecting it to be as moving and emotional...I'm so wrong. I can't explain what exactly it is, but I'm brought to the verge of tears every time...even while holding a screaming baby.


The Monday after the baptism was Uncle Mark's birthday, so Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart stuck around and we all got to celebrate with him and Aunt Sarah. Somehow I think that the adult birthdays are more fun and memorable when the kids are around. Hopefully Mark enjoyed it as well.




Since the baptism, we've been settling into a little more of a routine...if such a thing exists. Marie has been going to Atrium and has recently been talking about her "new" friends. I think that what has happened is that she has finally been able to remember their names when she talks to me about them. Either way it is cute. We've also been hitting story / craft time at the library once a week, which both Marie and Joey love. Marie has been doing much better lately at working independently on her craft. Joey...well, Joey just likes to cut paper. His craft is usually not in one piece and I end up picking up lots of little scraps before we leave. I'm not really surprised since it is really geared toward 3 year olds and up.


Other than that, the kids have been playing pretty well together lately. Marie can be slightly bossy, but that's what big sisters are for, right? :) Joey has been a bit of a challenge at times, but nothing that I wouldn't expect from a two-year old. We've been doing some Lenten activities such as making whole wheat pretzels and a Lenten cross (similar to a Jesse tree). Marie has also really taken off with her reading. Grandma brought some early reading books that I had when I was Marie's age and Marie is going right through them. She has also started picking up things on signs, labels, etc. when we are out and about. As she will continue to tell us, she is SO ready for school.