Roller-coaster Weekend

This weekend had its ups and huge downs. Paul's birthday was Thursday and he turned the big 40!!! It's kinda weird just because I'm not even close to 40, but in all reality, it does NOT matter! Thursday was also our home study visit for our adoption. The visit went pretty well despite the children being overly open. Jacob gave the social worker the house tour and pointed out EVERYTHING, from each toy to where to sit to eat, to the poop spot on the mattress in the down stairs closet! But our social worker is amazing and I felt VERY comfortable with her. I'm so excited that we could be getting a baby very soon!

After she left we had dinner. In the midst of cleaning my house for the visit, I was brave and made my husband a dish that his Mom made that he really enjoys. I have had this recipe for many, many years, but was now only brave enough to give it a try. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but I did end up burning the tops of them before I realized they needed to be covered while cooking. (was not in the recipe) I also ended up burning the pot I used to steam the cabbage because it ran our of water and I didn't realize! (Bought some SOS pads today. Hopefully I can fix it!) Despite the burnt tops, my husband said they were BETTER than his Moms. I have to say, I was pretty proud of my self! This is a picture of the Halupki I made before they were cooked.

For dessert I made one of his favorites, Mt Dew Pistachio cake! I love how the kids help him blow out the candles!

Friday I had made arrangements for the kids to stay at friends house for the night with out Paul knowing. I planned a fish dinner. I don't like fish and Paul does, so he doesn't get it very often. I made grilled tilapia on a roasted pepper sauce topped with homemade cilantro pesto and a side of asparagus. I decided to eat what he was eating and even though I wouldn't prefer to eat it, it wasn't bad! Unfortunately, later in the evening we got a text that Ephraim was having a reaction to the animals at our friends house. So he had to come home to get away from the animals and get some medicine and a breathing treatment. This was a huge bummer. I was so excited to have a night/morning with no kids, but there is nothing we could do about that. Thankfully he is the easier of the kids. Despite the kid set back and change in expectations we were still able to somewhat enjoy our evening.

The next day I picked up the other kids and we set off for a day of Easter parties to give Paul the day at home to himself for his birthday! On our way we hit some construction and the highway went to one lane. It was pretty frustrating because we were already a little late to the first Easter event and the kids were anxious. As we were pushing through trying to get there we got rear-ended! Thankfully it wasn't too hard and no one was hurt, but it was still jarring and did damage to our car. It's hard to see all the damage, but the hatch won't latch and is all bent up along with our bumper being pretty damaged. Thankfully the lady who hit us had insurance and we are in the process to getting it fixed.

After going home and making insurance calls and dealing with the children melting down about missing Easter fun, we switched cars and made our way back out. I felt so bad for interrupting Paul's day, but know it's not my fault. We made it to the first party quite late, but thankfully didn't miss the egg hunts.

The first place was HUGE they had a live band, games, blow up things, and food, but because it was so big, there were a LOT of people! One Mommy and 4 kids in the mix of a MANY people equals stress on Mommy! Since it was so busy and the lines for everything were so long, we left to go to the next Easter party. Sadly, we made it late and missed the egg hunt at this one, but they did have the blow up things that the kids were really wanted. It was a smaller church and it wasn't busy so it was a lot LESS stressful and could basically stand in one place and let them play.

They also had some bunnies and chickens to hold. Judah loved the bunnies and spent most of his time holding them.

This party was a shorter ones, so the kids were sad to have to leave this place, but with a cupcake in the car and the promise of another Easter event, we went on our way.

I wasn't sure what to expect at the next place, but it ended up being a predominant African-American church. I had no problem with this, but we definitely stood out! It was also, more of a service with some music, teaching, and skits. Judah got to participate in one lesson, but the kids could not sit quietly through the whole thing so we ended up waiting out by the doors waiting to start the egg hunt. Sadly, they did not organize the egg hunt well and kids just ran out and grabbed all the eggs so that many kids, including us, didn't get any! This was a huge disappointment to the kids after sitting through a service waiting for it.

After that disappointment I took the kids to McDonald's for dinner and then home to bed. Easter morning Paul and I had to work through some issues from the weekend, then we got them dressed, took some pictures, gave them their Easter baskets, and went to a friends church and to their families for Easter dinner.

Love Ephraim's face here!

Trying to get Emma Grace to come stand for a family picture!

On top of it all, Easter is my favorite and hardest holiday! Thinking about how Christ gave his life so that we can live forever with him, and longing to see my brother some day. And today would have been his 25th birthday. Judah was 3 months old when he passed away. He was so excited about being an uncle, and I am sad about him not being here for that often! I also miss our families and friends back home so MUCH!!!