Crafting for Mothers Day

It's hard to come back to reality, even after a short weekend vacation.  I got the pictures from our trip posted in the Tulip Time 2009 (that's kind of catchy, isn't it?) album, and most of our laundry is done.  For Mothers Day this year I am attending a weekend paper crafters' retreat, thanks to Jon and our wonderful families, who are helping cover Calvin care during the week days.  I look forward to the two days away, immersed in the wares of my hobby, but even more I look forward to coming home on Saturday, in time to swing dance in a cabaret that night, and celebrate Mother's Day with my family on Sunday, when I will receive this wonderful bouquet of crafted flowers from my favorite son.

Easter is eggciting

I had to do it - it's the obligatory cliche.  The pictures from our Easter weekend are now up in the April 2009 album.  It truly was a wonderful weekend.  Friday was our Easter bunny day, and after visiting Creep E. Bunny (he's the one in yellow) at the local resale shop Calvin begged to go visit the bunny at the mall as well.  Of course it didn't take much begging (ha, where do you think he got the idea in the first place?) since Creep E. Bunny didn't make for really great pictures, but on our way out the door a nice lady told Calvin the Easter Bunny would be coming to our house that weekend, at which point he walked back to Creep E. with a very expectant look on his face and I had to explain that it was all just a figure of speech.  Keeping no secrets we'd already told him the bunnies would just be people wearing costumes, so I'm sure he expected the guy to actually show up for drinks and hors d'oeuvres or something.  I actually had far less difficulty getting him out of the mall display where, while the bunny was much more inviting, the guy doing the jig behind the camera to make kids smile for their photo op was a little iffy.  Calvin refused to take his eyes off that guy and I'm sure he was thinking something along the lines of "what institution did they just let him out of?" or at least that is what I was thinking.  I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't do these crazy things if I wasn't a scrapbooker, but Calvin had fun just the same.

Having gotten the bunny visits out of the way, then, we spent the latter hours of Saturday decorating eggs.  I say the latter part because the earlier hours were spent pretending it was fall.  Who tailgates in the spring?  Well, actually, tens of thousands of people this year, that's who.  We've attended a handful of Michigan Spring Football games in the past, most of which amounted to a sprinkling of giddy tailgaters in the Chrysler lot, but this year was a whole different animal; an animal that wrapped itself all the way around the stadium in what had to be a three hour line just to get into the locker room for a quick tour.  We opted out of that one, visited the inside of the ever-changing stadium (Calvin's first visit to that part of town!) and then retreated to our usual fall tailgating spot to enjoy the usual tailgating treats.  Ahhh we love our tailgating crowd!  But that brings us back to the Easter eggs, which was a resounding success.  Who knew an almost three year old could color and dye eggs without making a mess?  The whole hard boiled bit helps a lot I am sure (doubly so when you hear about the egg hunting situation), but the dyes and crayons stayed exactly where they ought as well.  I was incredibly impressed, but I still would not have ventured such an activity while in our church clothes on Sunday.  Instead we spent our dressed up Sunday afternoon going for a (muddy) walk on our (muddy) path to take some family pictures (which you already saw) before the extended family arrived for an Easter party.  We then followed up said walk with a (slightly muddy) egg hunt in the back yard.  You know how I mentioned the hard boiled-ness of the eggs?  Calvin did a great job finding the eggs, and really seemed to get a kick out of finding each one, after which he dropped, and I really mean dropped, if not half threw, each one into the basket.  Out of a dozen eggs I think three survived un-cracked.  Did I mention that we will be eating potato salad for every meal this week? 

Ahhh Easter.  We hope yours was as beautiful as ours.  With love, from the Ophoffs.

Happy Easter to all, and to all a blessed day!

Spring

It's all about baby animals, isn't it? The mall near us took this second day of spring as an opportunity to introduce the Easter Bunny (with only three weeks to go before Easter I'm surprised they didn't do this last month), and they did so with a toddler style gala event. What exactly does that entail, one might ask. Well, in this case it meant craft table (as in crayons and coloring sheets), the big bunny himself, and the all important baby animals of which I earlier spoke. We weren't entirely sure what to expect when we got there, but were brightly greeted by ducklings, lambs, bunnies, and kids (as in baby goats). It was enjoyed by all, ourselves included. And Calvin even managed a nice high five with Mr. giant long ears, who, for all we know, could be related to the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog (why do we let our children sit on that beast's lap?).  No worries, he already knows how to count.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Did you wear your green today, or orange?  Or maybe you wore blue?  Saint Patrick's Day is really a church holiday and was actually associated with the Saint's color blue, but in more recent history the American Irish happily turned it into a general holiday celebrating their Irish roots. Why green? Wikipedia blames it on the green shamrock that St. Pat apparently used to explain the Trinity to the unsuspecting Celts those umpteen years ago (try fifth century), but whatever the original reason green has become increasingly associated, by us not so Irish people anyhow, with being Irish, so on St. Patrick's Day, when everyone is Irish, the tradition has been to wear green. For those who more thoroughly understand Irish history, however (myself not really included), the color green is linked not simply with Ireland, but more specifically with loyalty to the Irish Catholic Church, while the Irish Protestants often identify more specifically with the color orange (see the flag, with its Catholic green, Protestant orange, and peace seeking white). Sadly, Ireland has a very rocky religious and political history, and for those who can claim Irish roots 365 days of the year identifying with their piece of that history, be it Catholic or Protestant, can be important; for many it's not a light matter.  So before you go pinching anybody on St. Pat's day, take a closer look at their colors.  I, for one, wore green today.  Am I Catholic?  No, but neither am I Irish Protestant; I am simply an American citizen enjoyng my one day to claim Irish heritage (remember, on St. Patrick's Day everyone is Irish), so I'm sticking to the commercialized, non-religious, Irish culture embracing version of the holiday, wearing my green and enjoying my Irish boiled dinner to the tunes of River Dance.

Calvin and I stumbled upon this lovely corner of flowering happiness this morning after music class and thought it extra appropriate to share due to its excellent green hue, with a touch of orange (okay, that's yellow, but just try to imagine them orange - they are a pretty promise of spring).