I'm Sick! :-(

Well, I'm sick. Most of yesterday and all day today.

Please pray that I recover soon, and especially that no one else in the family catches it!

Ugh.

Evelyn

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Parenting: How Do We Get It Right?

Unplug the Plug-In Drug!

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Now that we have finally replaced the camera that was stolen, here are the long-promised pictures of Peter with short hair. These were taken on Easter Sunday. (click on the picture for a larger view) 

A closeup of Peter looking thoughtful. 

A perfect angel! 

Opening his Easter egg. 

Looking like he is up to something. 

More about Easter

Tim forgot the most important things about Easter dinner!
a can of cranberry sauce, left over from Mary-Kay's visit at Christmas
ginger ale, drunk from the goblets MK gave us for our wedding
chocolate cream pie, also with ingredients MK brought

While there is lots of candy and goodies here, we really miss the traditional American Easter candy:
jelly beans
peeps
big chocolate bunnies
Whoppers eggs
Cadbury eggs
etc.!

But we have some Halloween peeps that Tim's parents sent and we had saved! Also a white chocolate bunny! And fruit snacks and gummy bears from Tom & Vicki stand in for jelly beans quite nicely.

We also played an Estonian Easter game. Everyone took an Easter egg, chosen with eyes closed. Then we turned to a partner and smashed our eggs together. The one whose egg shell didn't break was the winner!

We went to our friends' house (Patricia, Jason, and son Issac) on Good Friday morning and colored hard-boiled eggs with them and two other families. The other little boys were Lauri, whose mother is British and father is Estonian, and Jaan, whose mother is German and father is Estonian.

We also had fun decorating some eggs at home just using markers. We got some eggs while we were in Finland last month. Click here to see them; it's reallly remarkable!

Evelyn

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday together. We woke up to find that the Easter bunny had visited, with some added surprises from Tim's parents and brother, who had recently sent packages with goodies. It was especially fun to watch Peter stare and point at it all, letting out little exclamations of excitement. At around 11:30, we had a family Easter dinner with a 6 pound turkey (the biggest we could find), mashed potatoes, corn, peas, fresh bread, home made stuffing, pickles and olives. It was a nice way to celebrate the day.

We had a good time of worship in our Sunday service. We found that we had the Estonian works for many of our Easter favorites, like "Up From the Grave He Arose," and also had the tunes on our accompaniment CDs. I felt so uplifted as I sang each one. I was leading the meeting (Evelyn spoke), and I kept commenting on how special these songs were to me. We all shared in the joy of the resurrection!

It was a beautiful spring day, with blue skies and pleasant temperatures, so we had an Easter egg hunt in the yard with the kids, which was new for the Estonians. They had a lot of fun, and Ats, who got the most eggs, kept bragging, "Not bad for my first Easter egg hunt, huh?"

We finished the day at the homeless shelter, singing those same songs of hope with those who often feel hopeless. It brought our day to a satisfying end as we sang, "Ta elab, Ta elab, toob päästmist kõigile/ Sa küsid, kuidas seda tean: Ta elab südames" (He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives: He lives within my heart).
--Tim

Below are some pictures from Easter morning (click on the pictures for a larger view).

Easter morning our couch was overflowing with goodies from the Easter Bunny, as well as from Grandma and Grampa Clark and Tim's brother Tom and his wife, who had each sent packages in the past month. 

Christopher's bounty ...
... and Elizabeth's ...
... and Peter's! 

Peter was really facinated by all of the goodies that were waiting for him on Easter morning.

Peter enjoys his chocolate bunny while Elizabeth looks at some goodies sent by Uncle Tom and Aunt Vicki.

Peter shares an egg with Chris. 

Explore. Dream. Discover.

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the things you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."-- Mark Twain

(thanks to cousin Reggie Groff for sharing this one!)