The Number Field

Our Easter celebration this year stretched across two weeks and three main locations, but more than that, Elena and Roman really got into it. Elena really started to understand the religious significance of the holiday, and Roman figured out how to make the most of an egg hunt.

The week before Easter, we visited Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Kevin, and Uncle Mark. Jenny and the kids had gone down in the middle of the week; I took the train down on Friday. When I arrived, I found batch of sugar cookies that Elena had helped Jenny and Grandma make and decorate earlier that day. On Saturday morning we visited Amazement Square , which is one of Grandma's favorite places to take grandchildren. There were fun exhibits for all of us. Elena and I spent a lot of time in a multiple-story maze of tubes and ladders in the middle of the building, which was fun at first, but I was just a little too big to be comfortable; I got tired of it much sooner than Elena did. Roman's favorite exhibit had a lot of golf balls and tracks to run them along, illustrating some of the principles of physics. He especially enjoyed the golf ball roller coaster track.

In the afternoon, the Easter bunny visited and laid out a special egg hunt just for Roman and Elena. There were special football easter eggs for Roman and hard boiled eggs that Elena had helped to color. I think that the kittens joined in the search for the better-hidden eggs. The only problem with such a fun egg hunt is all the candy that goes along with it. We managed to put a dent in it the following day on our drive home, which started out in the middle of a freak spring snowstorm. We outran the storm and had an easy drive, but it followed us and left a surprising accumulation of springtime snow the next morning.

A week later, on Easter Saturday, I spent the morning helping Leisa and Sam move out of an apartment and into their first home. Congratulations to them! While I was away, Elena and Roman went to their second egg hunt, this one for all the kids in our neighborhood. They had a great time, and were happy to share their candy with Jack and Luke, who showed up only two minutes late--apparently the number of kids who showed up exceeded expectations.

The next morning, Elena and Roman woke to find that the Easter bunny had brought them baskets full of gifts and candy. Unlike the Esater bunny that came to my house when I was a boy, their baskets weren't hidden. After church we made the trek south to visit Leisa, Sam and Vera in their new home. They did a good job with what must have been a big task getting it ready to host Easter dinner in the one day since we had moved all of their things. Sam's parents were there along with mine, along with Luke and Jessica. The food was especially good; we contributed a Texas sheet cake that turned out well. Jenny found novelty sprinkles that made it look like a field with Easter eggs hidden on it. Although we didn't have a full-blown egg hunt, Gran Ann and the kids took turns hiding and finding a few eggs. When the children started to cry almost as much as they were laughing, we decided to leave on a high note, before the ratio of tears to giggles tipped any further. All in all, it was a long and fulfilling Easter celebration.