Easter itself seems to involve enough stuff to do but no weekend is uneventful around here and the day before Easter, Erin and Kate volunteered to be in a local Easter parade with some of the other Highland dancers.
They first posed for some pictures with a local pipe and drum band that they would be following in the parade, and then they were off.
It was a really short parade route of about a half mile and they stopped at about mid-way to perform a dance for the crowd.
Then they came around the block and back to the beginning and did the route a second time. John and Allison passed out candies on one side of the street to kids along the parade route, and I passed out candy on the other side. And Erin and Kate got to practice their "parade wave" while walking down the street in between dances.
Later than afternoon the twins had a softball game and they had a great time. Kate made another out while playing first base again. Allison had a couple of great hits and here are some of the better pictures I managed this time:
On friday the girls colored a ton of eggs and this morning a finding they baskets they headed out to the backyard to find all kinds of plastic eggs filled with different candies. I got started turning those colored eggs into deviled eggs while they were hunting, Later, with two desserts and the eggs finished, we headed up to Grandma's where "EB" had a whole scavenger hunt set up. Each of the girls got a decoder chart: And after a location was revealed by the code the girls raced off to that place and there each of them had another clue to solved. Extra goodies were hidden away along with the new clues and some more colored eggs. I think they visited 5 locations at Grandma's house in all, and by the end they had a truly impressive haul.
Jeff's dog enjoyed the easter hunt also. He found a couple of eggs before the girls did he and decided they were delicious.
And we finally got to sit down and enjoy the true meaning of easter--ham.
We had a truly remarkable easter miracle on this fine easter sunday! Here's the back story: Late last summer I stocked up on extra summer clothes for the girls: bathing suits and cover ups and swim shirts and sandals. All these things were purchased (on clearance!) in preparation for our december trip to Hawaii, at which time finding good kids' beach clothes would be a lot tougher. The girls always wanted flip-flop sandals but I always preferred getting them a pair that doesn't slide off and has a better sole, so that they could wear them to school on hot days and to amusement parks and such where a lot of walking is involved.
But I happened to see some flip-flops which looked better-made than most and on sale very cheap. I bought them and asked the girls to only wear them to their swim lessons so that they would still be in decent enough shape by the time december came around. It turns out that they wore them a little more than just to swim lessons--they often liked wearing them around the house for some reason.
One day about two weeks before our Hawaii trip I saw one of Erin's flip-flops on her floor and I asked her to put her shoes and some other things away. After a couple of minutes she told me she couldn't find the other sandal so I told her to look under her bed and under her dresser and in her closet, but still nothing. So I began looking with her all over her room and I couldn't find the missing sandal either.
For the next two weeks I looked everywhere, and I mean, really, everywhere around the house for that sandal. I was tremendously frustrated and I wasn't going buy another pair. The other shoe was at home, certainly, somewhere. Erin thought the other sandal could be in the backyard, which I thought seemed strange since one was in her room, but we looked there too. And John looked.
So our Hawaii trip came and went and Erin wore her other sandals while we were there, and we still saw no sign of the missing sandal when we returned. I figured we'd never see it again until we packed up to move.
Then today while the kids hunted for easter eggs in the backyard, Erin found the missing sandal:
And now I know what exactly to do if we ever lose something at home again. Note to self: It's much easier to spread out some candy-filled eggs and have the kids find what you are looking for rather than spend two weeks turning the house upside down.
For the past two weeks we've had tons of rain so the twins' first two softball games were cancelled, but finally we had a sunny saturday and the girls would finally get to play. Unfortunately for me, Erin had an activity scheduled in another town at about the same time so John and I had to split up and I didn't get to see their first game. I wouldn't get to take any pictures of their first game either, and that is equally upsetting. Instead, I gave a camera to John and since I have a friend on the opposing team who is much more skilled at taking sports photos than I am, I did end up with some really great photos. The girls have had several practices with their team and they were raring to go.
Things are a bit different in this league. The softball fields for the 6 year-old division is smaller and they don't keep track of "outs", or even make a runner who is tagged out leave the field.
According to John, the twins played pretty well. They each did okay at hitting and fielding, and Allison in particular ran the bases just as hard and fast as she could. Here is Allison batting:
And here is Kate playing first base, and successfully making an out at first.
It sounds like the game was tons of fun and I'm sorry I missed it, but there is always next week, if it doesn't rain anyway. Meanwhile, Erin wanted to dance in a small local Scottish fair along with a few others from the dance school. I recently ordered Erin her own official Highland dance competition outfit (used...wow those things are expensive) and here she is before the performance along with her teacher, who would also be dancing. This was a small fair and a small stage compared to the huge Highland games we have taken the kids to each year, but it was good for Erin to have some extra performance practice because next month is her first real competition. A local pipe band provided the music for the dancers. And there were 6 dancers altogether, including two of the three instructors at the school. Erin was by far the youngest, and the only beginner. She danced one number on her own. And after the others danced individually or in pairs they did a final dance together. Afterwards the dancers posed together for some pictures and they also posed with the band since one of the drummers is the father of one of the dancers. I know there are another couple of games that Erin and I will likely miss because of upcoming dancing events, and I guess for now I should just be glad that between John and I we can manage to get everyone where they want to be. Don't ask me what we're going to do when the day comes when all three of them have different activities at the same time.
