LONG EASTER WEEKEND

Well our celebrations actually started Thursday for Madi when she got to celebrate Harmony Day at school. What is Harmony Day you may ask? Harmony Days is the 21st of March each year and is to celebrate cultural diversity. It only began in 1999 and the color for it is orange. Madi got to wear her uniform to school and anything orange. We put orange pony tail holders in her piggy tails and she wore a orange, green, and yellow hat that Kev and I had picked up for her in Japan in 2006. She told me that they had to write in their journals about Harmony Day. She wrote that they celebrate Harmony Day for people from other countries - like me! I thought that was cute!

Then we had a long weekend. We got to celebrate Good Friday and Easter Monday - even Kev got those days off of work. I actually had to look up what Good Friday means. It is the day that Jesus Christ was crucified. I had no idea exactly what the day was for.

We didn't have any big plans set and were going to play it by ear. Friday we got up and decided that we wanted to take a trip to IKEA to pick up a Mother's Day gift for me. So we packed up the kids and headed to IKEA. Little did we know that Good Friday is not a good day to go shopping. As we found out when we got to the shopping center where IKEA is located and there were very few cars in the parking lot. IKEA was closed - as was almost everything else. Luckily for us the movie theater was opened. We decided to take the kids to see Horton Hears a Who. After biting the bullet and paying the price for admission we had a great time and the kids loved the movie. It really was well done!

The other problem we had was that I had been waiting to do the grocery shopping when Kev was home. We literally had nothing to eat at the house. No milk, eggs, or bread. I thought for sure at least a grocery store would be opened - nope! Luckily we found a burger shop near the train station and got something for dinner.

Satruday was a very busy day. I had a baptism to go to in the morning. I love baptisms - there is such a Spirit there. After that I had to go to the grocery store - we really needed some food. I also had to get some presents for a b-day party that Cooper was going to in the afternoon. He has a good friend at school and his twin sister invited him to their party. He was worried that he wouldn't know anyone so he told me that I had to come with him and stay the whole time. Really he didn't need me there - he didn't even notice that I was there most of the time. Regardless I had some interesting conversations with adults there about the United States and the Church.

That night we colored our Easter eggs. Can't buy the little tablets here that you just add to water. So I got out the vinegar and food coloring and added them to water. The eggs turned out pretty good. They are a bit harder to color since they start out brown already.

The kids put out their Easter baskets and headed to bed. In the morning Kev came round the corner to wake up the kids and found Madi. She said can we go out and see what the Easter bunny brought? Kev looked at her and said, "Did you already go and look?" A big grin spread over her face and she said, "Yes!" He had to wake up Cooper. This picture makes me laugh. You can still see the sleepiness in her face, but the joy on his face as well.

Interestingly enough it seems that Australian Easter traditions are a bit different from those we always celebrated. The Easter bunny leaves a trail of eggs to your surprise. It is usually a stuffed animal or something small like that - not a basket full of treasures. They also don't get new Church clothes for Easter Sunday. Therefore it was hard to find Madi a dress. Luckily for me I bought Rylee's before we left on clearance and Cooper's shirt as well. So we got ready for Church and had a wonderful meeting learning more about the Savior and the reason for celebrating Easter.

After Church we called the Hutchinsons on the web cam and had a good chat with them. Then we had our egg hunt. Usually we have two Easter egg hunts back home with both families, and I don't have to do either of them. It was fun. After that we had some friends from the ward, the Perrymans, come over for afternoon tea and they also stayed for Easter dinner. I made my first ham, which was delicious, and we had yummy potatoes. It was a very nice day!

Monday we wanted to go to the beach. The day started out not too promising with fog and dark clouds. Kev headed out in the morning to play basketball and took the two kids with him so they could play (this is a weekly occurance, usually on Saturday). By the time they got home the sun had come out so we decided to try the beach. After talking to my parents on the web cam we packed up the car, had some lunch, and headed to Dee Why Beach. It wasn't as warm as it had been in the summer, but it was still a nice day. We really liked this beach - it is on our list for one of our favorites along with Palm Beach.

Cooper was so brave this time and decided to try the boogie board. He had sure come a long way from not even wanteding to put his feet in the ocean when we first got here. He even got up and tried again after crashing. He had so much fun and wanted to go again and again.

We came home after four hours at the beach happy, sleepy, and sandy. It was a great weekend!