We had a wonderful Easter I think, even though it didn�t go as planned. Nothing usually does though. Saturday night the kids and I painted eggs and made a nice mess with the pretty dyes. Not only did I dye eggs but also I dyed the sleeve of one of my favorite cream color sweaters. It was a nice shade of red too. I took off the sweater but I needed to take pictures of the kids to capture the moment, so I did it in my bra.

Of course the kids weren�t co-operating with the magic of the moment and I had the mother of all PMS going on so I yelled and hollered at them in my bra, to smile pretty as I posed them. I was going to capture the magic dammit. That�s when my darling said, �Honey, is it that time of month?� And you just know he walked away with a prettily colored Easter egg up his left nostril.

Sunday morning, the kids woke up and I had one big basket with some candy in it for all of them. This is the first year that I didn�t go all out on Easter and it didn�t seem to make a difference. I bought them some window paint sets and that was a huge hit, more about THAT in a moment. It was nice and cool out in the morning and we have such a lovely little backyard I decided the kids could hunt eggs outside. I love all of the daffodils that have sprouted up back there. Anyway, Glen hid the eggs and the kids got dressed up and ran out to hunt them. This time I was able to capture some magic in a much better mood. I even made a �special� egg that was decorated as a baby chick. The finder of that egg gets 5 euro. Emily found it this year.

Since we have no family here and no one that we are real close to, it was just us. We planned on going to the Schonbrunn Palace where the Easter Market was in the early after noon. As soon as we came inside though, it started to rain. It continued to rain for hours so we sat down and watched The Cat In The Hat.

After that, the kids decided to paint their windows. I went into Kelly�s room and saw different doodles of her name, AC/DC, flames, little sayings about stupidity, and lightning and scribbles and whatever else is cool to the middle school set here. Fine and dandy. Then I went into Dylan�s room and checked out his art. There was his name dripping blood and a stick figure man holding a gun and another stick man with Xs in his eyes that was supposed to be dead. There were other smears and what not but the little murder scene struck me. Yay, I�m raising a little killer. I peeled it off right away. Dylan came in and I said, �Dylan, I removed the little murdering stick men because I find it very inappropriate for your window. The blood on your name? Ok that�s ok but the stick men had to go. Why don�t you draw a dinosaur or dragon or sports stuff or something?� He said,� Cuz I don�t know how to draw anything. So Kelly and I and he worked on something else.

That was close. For a few minutes there, I envisioned the future with him in a tower with a rifle, while I stood at the bottom with a bullhorn trying to coax him down. �Dylan, honey, it�s ok, I love you. Come on down now.� That�s some pretty scary stuff. He decided to help Emily since she was too small to reach. He wanted to make sure he was being appropriate this time so he drew a mustard bottle. God, I love that kid.

I decided that even though it�s raining, and even though it�s just the 5 of us, this is still a day to celebrate. I made a ham dinner and set out the fancy tablecloth and the fine china. I put out the crystal wine glasses and served red wine and grape juice for the kids. I lit the candles that have been sitting waiting for a special purpose. I tried to make it as special as possible.

We held hands and prayed at the table and then enjoyed a very fine meal I must say. That ham was good and I didn�t dry it out. I think this will be the start of some new traditions in my family. One of the hard things about living over seas is not having your family around for holidays and special occasions. Those are the times I miss them the most. I was afraid that the kids would have been bummed out from not having all of their cousins and aunts around. To my surprise they had a really nice day and were thankful for it. And believe it or not, so was I.

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