Easter is nearly here

Did you know we are only one week away from Easter? Well, actually, if you are like many families out there, you will probably have some special events going on this coming week like we do.

We love Easter around here. We count down to it starting 30 days prior as we read through progressive sections of The Living Christ (which we memorized a couple years back. And we got the idea and the free printables for the easter countdown here). All sorts of Savior-centred music fills our home more every day. We focus our family scripture study on the Saviour, the atonement and the resurrection and what exactly that means for us. We sing more (which Atticus pointed out to me is not such an easy feat as we sing a lot around here). We make bouquets of lillies. We watch video clips of the Saviours ministry. We slow down more. We simplify (at least, we try!).

I love Easter because it is where the feeling of Christmas emanates from. "There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter. The fact that he was resurrected gave credibility to his whole life's mission, and that's the essence of it." (President Gordon B. Hinckley). Easter is where testimonies are fueled, faith reaffirmed, miracles concreted, and a truer realization of eternities realized. My soul seems to yearn for Easter; to revisit the garden, to stand before Christ on the cross, to celebrate that glorious Easter morning and, most importantly, to remember that he did it all for us in an act of unselfish love. 

I feel a deep sense of gratitude to my Saviour for what he did for us so that we could live with our Father in Heaven again. Yet even with my gratitude, my service, and my testimony I know that it will never be enough to repay the sacrifice he made for me to become my Redeemer. Though, even with that in mind I will continue to thank him and do my best to live my life in a way that is representational of my gratitude (and there are certainly some days where I need a merciful hand extended to me from my Saviour more than I would like..). 

As Jason and I try our best to create a home (and experiences) that will plant seeds of testimony into the fertile soil of our children's hearts I pray that those seeds will take root, and that wonderful memories will be made; not memories of the crafts we did or the food we ate but rather of the feelings we felt and the love that abounded for each other and for our Saviour. It's a large order, I realize that, but I know that it can happen if we give it all we can and put the rest in His hands, our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Week; celebrating the life, death and resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

To help you get into the Spirit of this coming week, please listen to this song below. It is from one of our favorite CD's from composer, Rob Gardner, that we love to listen to, particularly at this time of year. The CD is called 'Lamb of God'.

 Enjoy!

Halloween Day

We had a nice Halloween. We carved a pumpkin on the weekend before and on the day of we threw a mini-Halloween party for our kids and another family we are friends with. It was nice, relaxed and fuss-free. Here is a quick synopsis of the day.

We started the day with orange oatmeal 

(colored with carrot juice, which I do not recommend unless you like oatmeal that tastes like carrots. The kids loved it but I still think I will opt for pumpkin next year.)

 We actually had quite a few decorations up (ghouls climbing out of the toilet, bats covering the walls and lights etc), but this picture seems to be one of the only ones that you can actually see them in. Sigh...

 In the afternoon our friends joined us for some Ghost Bowling

with our hallway as the bowling alley. 

The kids thought that was pretty awesome.

The littler ones (Milayla and Niko) even gave it a go.

 Then it was on to a little pin-the-tail on the Wolverine.

And from there to Pumpkin Painting for the older ones

 and coloring pages for the littler ones. (don't you just love Milayla's lone pigtail? We just can't get her to keep elastics or clips in her hair because they are way more fun to try to take apart or see what all they can fit into.)

You know Milayla is starting to get tired when she is snuggling up to Niko.

So the kids settled down with a picnic dinner and watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown while the adults enjoyed some lovely conversation. Before the Wekerle family headed home, the kids got to 'trick-or-treat' to each of the moms for a little treat bag. It was a really nice, relaxed afternoon/evening and a great way to spend Halloween. Thanks for joining us, Wekerle Family!

Pumpkin Carving

I know this is a little late, but I am still playing catch up with getting all of our trip photos online as well so things are in a bit of a jumbled mess.

Seeing that Halloween isn't really celebrated here, we have typically endeavored to do our own little family activities. Since last year's pumpkin carving was a lovely success we decided to give it another go this year. The day started off heading to market to pick out a pumpkin.

Milayla has been quite in love with this puzzle for the last few weeks and trying to get her out the door without it was an interesting feat. We probably would have let her take it if she would have been able to hold it while wearing her gloves.

Once bundled up and out the door, it was off to market. (check out Milayla's wonderful smile in the photo below. It's her most recent smile and we love it!)

 Despite the weather being a bit chilly (we nearly ran to market just for the sake of warming up) the sun was shining and we had gorgeous blue skies. It really couldn't get much better for end-of-October weather.

BRIGHT!

There was no shortage of squashes but pumpkins seemed to be in a strange minority since the last time we were there. We ended up finding one, smallish pumpkin and headed back for home.

Once home, Jason got the table ready while Atticus set to work trying to find some inspiration for our pumpkin. He consulted a very reputable source :) .

Then it was time for Mommy and Milayla to draw on the face.

Then the boys happily went to work cutting open the pumpkin...

scooping out the insides...

(they certainly enjoyed themselves.)

And while Jason took over for the cutting out, Atticus eagerly snuck nibbles of raw pumpkin while Milayla and I snapped away with the camera. 

And in no time, the pumpkin was finished! (there are certainly some advantages to picking a smaller pumpkin)

 We headed into Atticus' room to light it for the first time as it was still extremely bright out. The kids could not wait to see it lit up.

 TADA! Did we do a good job matching the inspiration from the book?

After we finished ooing and awing, Atticus gave his best attempt at blowing out the candle before he had a little fatherly assistance.

 It was sure a fun activity and we displayed our pumpkin proudly until he started to go the way that all jack-o-lanterns go. He at least made it to Halloween Day for our little get together with friends (more on that later).

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving. We hope that everyone is finding away to enjoy the celebrations and remember the many things there are to be grateful for.

Love and miss you all.

Canada Day

Now, I know Canada day was nearly two months ago but when I saw Atticus proudly sporting his Canada t-shirt (part of a lovely shipment from Great Grandma and Grandpa Hochstein :). I decided it was time to get a couple photos up about the celebration.

Seeing that Canada fell on Sunday this year, we kept things pretty relaxed and had planned a picnic in the park with lots and lots of watermelon (and seed spitting). The rain, however, seemed determined to spoil our plans so it our plans were destined for the indoors. 

So we colored Canadian flags, made pin wheels with the maple leaf on it, tried our best to teach the kids the national anthem (in English and French) and then gave singing it a go. Our success rate for retention of O Canada words was pretty low, but we weren't too concerned about that as both kids were pretty ecstatic about everything anyway. 

Then we sat down for our "picnic" dinner. Naturally, I got picture of everyone with their mouths full. It makes for very flattering pictures, I assure you.

For dessert we served up Nanaimo Bars - easily a Canadian original. However, determined to try a healthier (and vegan) version of the butter-dense dessert we attempted a raw Nanaimo bar recipe and that was not a very wise choice.

It certainly looked great. The crust, made of nuts, shredded coconut, coconut oil and cocoa was delicious. The topping made of cocoa, agave, and coconut butter was divine. The filling made of agave, avocado and fresh mint, however, was awful! Personally, I could not finish my square.

The boys didn't seem to have a problem finishing their helpings, though we still had plenty left over as no one ate a second helping (we still have some in our freezer and I nearly died when Jason offered it to a guest he had over while I was at class one evening - poor guy, probably thought we were tricking him by offering him a Nanaimo Bar and then serving him that.).

In any case, at least we can say we tried the recipe and next time we know better. Treat yourself to the original or find a recipe with reviews! And even if the dessert was a little funky, we enjoyed celebrating Canada's birthday. It is one incredibly beautiful country with some incredibly awesome people living there. Happy Canada Day!

Vrolijk Pasen (Happy Easter - Part II)

For the last two years, we have opted to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior by going to a garden on Easter Monday as a family. Fortunate for us, the nearby garden that we selected at the time was the famous tulip gardens in Holland -  Keukenhof. Seeing that we still live relatively close to where we used to live in Leiden, we decided to continue tradition this year and drive to Keukenhof for Easter Monday. And as a lovely bonus we were also privileged to celebrate Easter with some good friends of ours, the Prins Family. 

Following church services on Sunday we hopped into the car and headed for Leiden with two very excited children. 

Shortly after we arrived, Atticus and Evia were reunited and it did not take long for them to pick up where they left off. Leah set up a lovely egg hunt in the garden and those two happily held hands as the marched off in search of eggs.

They shared the eggs they found and showed one another where to find more.

It was rather nice to not be the only one with a camera permanently attached to her hand as Leah was happily clicking away as the events transcribed as well (which also meant more lovely pictures to select from of Keukenhof). We enjoyed a good laugh as Evia began transferring all her eggs into Atticus' bucket; much easier to have someone else carry them :).

Despite the chilly wind, the kids had a wonderful time!

Daddy and Milayla came out to join in the fun, but unfortunately could not stay for long as it was a tad chilly for Milayla. (We had very responsibly brought a snow suit for her but as we pulled out of the church parking lot we said those infamous words "I hope we didn't forget anything". We did. The snowsuit. It's still sitting in the church foyer, waiting for us to finally remember to get it. Unfortunately, we did not discover this forgetfulness until it was time to put her snowsuit on for the egg hunt...in Holland).

Once Daddy and Milayla headed in, the kids only wanted to sit and check out their eggs before heading in anyhow.

Then there was more planned. Leah had hidden a picture of every family member in their own respective egg. When the egg with their picture was opened, that person received a gift (and Leah picked those gifts perfectly).

The kids enjoyed playing together until dinner time. Milayla loved exploring and was eager to join with the "big" kids and play with all the pretend kitchen items.

We enjoyed a delicious Greek dinner before sitting down to open one, final egg. Inside this special egg was a picture of the Savior which stemmed a spiritual thought about the gift that the Savior gave to us. It was a great continuation on the idea of "gifts" and definitely helped those precious little ones of ours to understand just a little bit more what Easter is truly about.

The kids were then tucked away in bed while the adults enjoyed some greek desserts and some very funny animal encounters.

The following morning, a very eager Atticus and Evia woke up the adults and we all staggered around to begin getting ready. In a surprising feat, even Jan was ready to go by 8am, and we were all off to Keukenhof.

Despite it being a rather gray and rainy day, the gardens were spectacular - as always.

We really lucked out that so many of the flowers were already in bloom, and the tulips fields were already bursting with color.

A nice close-up from Leah's camera

Atticus and Evia certainly did not waste any time making the most of all the puddles that were around either.

This last one is from Leah's camera. LOVE having the advantage of shots from different angles at one time!

To say this place is stunning would be a serious understatement. Between the gardens and greenhouses, there was no shortage of beautiful flowers to see (and smell).

There are always some creative displays to check out in the green houses, this year that even included fashions from nature...

...tree horoscopes...

...and a beat-up, old car set up for picture posing that we all took our turns in.

Leah even caught a couple of Jason and I taking a turn.

We ran, played, explored and posed for plenty of pictures.

The little kids enjoyed some silly time.

And Jason enjoyed making some silly faces to keep our ever-patient babies entertained.

Even the big kids were able to squeeze in some play time.

another catch from Leah :)

The vibrancy and beauty of the flowers were certainly unaffected by the gloomy weather.

Nor did that gloomy weather affect the good time that we had walking the gardens together.

Adore this photo that Leah snapped of Milayla. 

To wrap up our morning at the gardens we headed to a nearby Pannenkoekenhuis (Pancake House) to enjoy some Dutch Pancakes and some more catching up. 

Then, far too soon, it was time to say goodbye and we were on the road again to head back to Bremen. Though we would have loved to stay longer, we were very grateful for the time that we did have to spend with the Prins Family while in Holland and even more grateful for the efforts that they put into welcoming us as guests in their home. It was a wonderful time.

How great it is to remember our Savior, how he died for us, and rose on the third day that we, too, may live again with Him and our Father in Heaven. I am overwhelmed with gratitude that the tomb was indeed empty on that Easter morning so long ago. I am grateful for the words from The Living Christ that touch my heart and soul deeply as I work to recall the words we memorized last Easter.

"...He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary’s cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.

We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world....We testify that He will someday return to earth. “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.

...We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."

As I do my best to rededicate myself to His service each and every day I pray that my children will be touched by the reality of our Savior. That their hearts will be filled with comfort, peace, love and gratitude for His selfless sacrifice and what it will mean for each of them. That they will welcome Christ into their lives to be with them through every day. That they will accept and use the gift of the atonement. That they will look forward to the blessing of the resurrection with hope and joy. That they will know that it is through Him that our family can be together eternally. Because it's all true.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He lived for us. He died for us. He rose on the third day. He is always there for us. And I hope they will never forget,

He lives.