Easter Flowers

I love Easter. I love Springtime, and I LOVE Eastery and Springy flowers. I spent several hours of the past week working in my garden, and because I failed to plant bulbs last Fall, (you know, while moving into a new house with four children and trying to keep their education on track) I had no spring flowers to bloom this year. How could I have MISSED that opportunity??? I will never know. But, if you know me, you know I can NOT live without my pink tulips. My old house, had a BEAUTIFUL garden(all credit due to the nice lady who used to own it...tulips, pretty little purple flower ground cover, azaleas, peonies, etc.) But in my new house, while they did do a nice little landscaping package, with....drumroll please...A PINK FLOWERING TREE(I should probably find out what it is called)!!!! Yes, my ABSOLUTE favorite Springtime tree...God loves me so much--it just bloomed today, I wasn't sure what it was going to be. What a gift to me! So, anyway, back to tulips--my little head got to thinking...why I never thought of this before, I don't know--but I started wondering why I couldn't just go to my local nursery and buy me some almost blooming pink tulips and plant them right into my little garden. Well, last thursday, that is JUST what I did. I "may" have gone overboard, spending wise that is, these flowers are not cheap! I bought several pink and dark purple hyacinths, about 5 pots of tulips (all one shade of pink or another), then went BACK and got some daffodils, MORE pink hyacinths(does anyone see a theme here???) (I must digress, and tell you that my favorite childhood crayon color WAS "Carnation Pink" so you can't blame me for all the pink). I also got two more huge pots of tulips--yellow this time, and a big white Easter Lily...which is not planted but in my dining room. Anyway, I got to diggin' and a-plantin' and this is what I ended up with....

We had a fabulous weekend. Holy Thursday we celebrated a sedar meal and then Brian took the oldest 2 to Mass at 7pm. On Good Friday, we had a low key, Spring Clean day, up until Stations at noon. My husband got ALL our countertops cleared off for Easter...(that was really MY goal, but he loves me so he did it for me.) Hmmm...should put a pic of that up. I started the big "Clothing Switch" a huge undertaking to me....size change, seasonal change, etc. etc. I did some bathroom cleaning, and lots of laundry. Anyway, Stations were good. My son(almost 6) was really moved when they "nailed" Jesus' hands and feet. I could tell it touched him, that Jesus would go through that for us. After that, we came home and I got to head over to Good Friday 3pm services. It was good to be there. It is so long, that it is hard to take the kids to, so it has been a few years since I was able to go. After that, it was dinner time and bed time. We tried getting through the Passion the movie...but we were so beat, that we just zonked out. Saturday, another GORGEOUS spring day, we went early to breakfast at our favorite diner, then to Lowes to pick up our porch rockers. I LOVE THEM!!! I planted the rest of my flowers, and we spent hours outside. It was heavenly. The day ended with Dying Eggs, Resurrection Cookies, and Easter Basket stuffing and hiding.

Easter Sunday, brought a VERY EARLY alarm clock waking. We woke at 6am...showered, woke the kids, who quickly got their Easter clothes on, had a quick basket hunt, complete with personalized clue maps, ate a dyed egg or two, and off just like that to 7:30am Mass. Which was surprisingly packed. We did, however, get a seat. And it was beautiful.