Happy Easter! Happy Birthdays!

On Easter Sunday our church has a bank of beautiful memorial flowers and I am a paparazzi!!!  Bapa Ross is a singer not a preacher and Lucy loves to smile for any camera.

Alex spent Friday with me, going for a bike ride over slush and ice and making beautiful foam Easter decorations for each of our 13 Easter plates.  I think he might be an upcoming engineer as he wants them all exactly the same and I jump in an egg or a bunny at a time here or there!

Birthday girls:  Beth (my friend of 48 years and lots of fun), me and Amy.  Our birthdays are within 5 days of each other and Amy's happened to fall on Easter Sunday.  Last week the 3 of us went to a movie/breakfast girl date and now Easter together.  Our years total 172.

It's hard to pin 13 people down for a shot and of course the four little kids (ages 3-7) are now relegated to the "kids table" aka kitchen table to fight or eat or whatever kids do.  I remember having about had it age 12 or 13 at the kids' table - some of the kids were 2 years old - I mean REALLY!!

The kids - Amy's Dad and Scott brought the bestest DQ cake and the leftovers are in my freezer so I find myself today sneaking down to the basement with my fork and taking the cake out of the freezer - rather like a sneak thief.  I should be ashamed:)

Saturday night before Easter sleepover at Grammy and Bapa's house - they love to play with flour on cookie sheets.  Alex has been doing this for about 5 years and it seems never to get old.

In preparing to visit the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam next month I continue to read her diary turned novel - "Diary of a Young Girl".  8 July 1942:  ..."it is just as if the whole world had turned upside down" after her family and other Jewish people headed to the "Secret Annexe" in the house to hide from the Nazis.
23 February 1944: still there and never ever able to leave or make noise with at least 8 people in the apartment:  "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of Nature.  As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be".  Anne was about 14 years old when she wrote this.