We headed down to Maryland on Good Friday, in order to spend Easter weekend with Phil's side of the family and also to celebrate my niece who had her Bridal Shower on Holy Saturday. How are we old enough to have nieces and nephews that are getting married?? Time is wild. This is the only photo I have from the shower ~ Maggie holding her littlest cousin:
JP and Andrew stayed on campus at Franciscan to celebrate at the awesome Easter Vigil and late night Resurrection Party that occurs after. We did get photos sent to us (without even having to ask! An Easter Miracle!):
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| Andrew, Smiles and Pep - all very excited that Exodus 90 is over! |
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| Grace and JP |
The rest of us went to Mass on Easter morning at Deacon Gramps' parish :) My eyes most certainly leaked for the first 20 minutes of Mass due to the beautiful music (and finally getting to say Alleluia!):
We drove from church to Phil's Aunt and Uncle's house for Easter dinner and played Pass the Baby, Quit Hogging the Baby, my favorite game:
Aunt Beth poured each kid a little wine, as is the Italian tradition, and our kids' reactions did not disappoint - ha! Let's just say there was a lot of wasted wine...alcohol abuse ;)
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| Slainte! Salut! |
I was trying to get my 4 year old niece to eat her broccoli trees before dessert. Once a mother, always a mother :)
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| Sacrilicious :) |
It was a lovely meal, and then it was time for the egg hunt. It was such a beautiful sunny warm day in Maryland, in the high sixties!
We went back to the Martin homestead and hung out with more siblings and cousins for the rest of the night, and it was a very sp-eggs-tacular Easter indeed! We woke up at 4am on Monday morning and drove back home to MA, arriving just before noon. We had a great (and handsome) driver and a smooth trip both ways, thanks be to God. The Easter Bunny left the family laundry basket for us to find when we got back home:
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, and don't forget that it's a season of 50 days, so we're just getting started!!!
Happy Easter! Looks like a blessed one for sure!
ReplyDeleteYou too Madeline!
DeleteHe is risen, indeed.
ReplyDeleteThis all looks so fun and wonderful. I WANT A BABY TO HOLD. Why are all my friends done having babies? I need someone with a baby so I can bask in the joy that is only having children old enough to brush their own teeth and wipe their own bum while still luxuriating in the incomparable joy that is holding and loving a wee one.
I HATE (HATE) the taste of wine. Ugh. It would have been wasted on me, too.
My ovaries were aching around little Clayre, too cute! My parents don't drink at all, so we never grew up with alcohol in the house, and I was very surprised to see wine poured for my kiddos! They did not like it either!
DeleteI will admit that the first thing I thought was, "But does Colleen get a *new* laundry basket out of this, or is it just an old laundry basket?" Getting a new laundry basket is so dreamy...wow, that sounded pathetic. But I love stuff like that!
ReplyDeleteOh there are years when I use the Easter basket excuse to get a new laundry basket, so I get it! But this year it was just one we had on hand - womp womp.
DeleteThis looks like such a great family weekend. Love the time with cousins. Most of our cousins on both sides are pretty close in age with our gang, with the exception of Tank. There's a little gap there, on my side. Coach's youngest brother is 8 years younger than he is. He has 9 kids and they live in SC. We don't see them very often, but when we do my kids go cray cray over their littles. Mini is so anxious for a cousin wedding, on either side. She's not picky. She's never been to a wedding reception and she is all about it. Great pictures of your beautiful family. It's cold and rainy and I think it'll be snowing here tomorrow. Boo.
ReplyDeleteWe have the youngest grandchild on my side of the family, but Phil's side of the family has a lot of wee ones and it's so fun! Gosh family weddings are the best, I hope Mini gets to go to one soon!
DeleteHappy Easter! Looks like a wonderful weekend and that baby is SUPER cute!! Your aunt gave pretty generous pours of wine for a "taste"... I have a German friend who serves her kids diluted wine (like maybe 2 TBSP in a cup of water) and they drink it. I do like wine myself but prefer a mimosa for Easter ;)
ReplyDeleteI was shocked at how much was poured!! It was a really sweet low percentage wine, but still. I don't quite understand the whole thing about letting kids taste it (I was raised in a house of no alcohol), but my husband was raised that way and seems to have a very healthy relationship with alcohol, so maybe it works!?
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