Sometimes I worry about these long four-day weekends because Hayley is used to every second being used up at school that I feel like I need to create a full schedule to fill in the time that she’s off. Then I remember that it’s FUN to just go with the flow and not necessarily have any set plans. Because that gives you time to just sit around eating too much Easter chocolate and spend another two hours in the park on the final day of the long weekend.

The kids were both up bright and early on Easter morning. Hayley has had a lot of questions about God and Jesus lately, and I’m doing my best to answer them in ways that she can understand. However, on Sunday it didn’t matter to her about things like Jesus rising from the dead and sitting at the right hand of God and salvation. At 7:15 all she wanted was the chocolate that the Easter bunny had left lying around various parts of the living room.

(How did the Easter bunny even come to be? I should go Google it because while I understand giving gifts at Christmas and the tie-in to the three Wise Men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus, what in the heck does a large bunny leaving chocolate eggs out have to do with the Resurrection?!)

Anyway.

Breanna was still asleep when Hayley woke up but all it took was hearing her big sister say, “Breanna! It’s Easter!” and she was sitting bolt upright in bed, ready and raring to go. They were not impressed that they had to wait for me to take Pearl out to pee, but I really didn’t relish listening to “arroooooo” for the entire egg hunt.

They were pleased to see that the bunny had eaten his salad and apple that they had left out for him, but mostly they were ecstatic over all the eggs they found.

We also gave them a gift from us, a little Easter pail with some jelly beans, markers, a notebook, and a Precious Moments soft doll. I *love* the doll and wouldn’t mind one for myself to be honest. Those dolls then went everywhere with us for the remainder of the weekend.

In the mid-afternoon we went to see George’s parents and had our Easter dinner of chicken, ham, black-eyed peas and rice, vegetables, and key lime pie. We had wanted to visit my parents on Monday for an Easter lunch but the timing didn’t work out so hopefully we can get out their way next weekend.

Breanna was so eager to eat that when she was done playing, she went and sat all by herself at the little table set up for the kids. It was at least 20 minutes too early for her to be waiting for supper but she flat out refused to get back up, and she sat there drinking some juice and waiting patiently.

It was totally delicious but poor Hayley got a little carried away. She ate so much that her evening went down the tubes because she got a huge tummy ache from all the food.

Luckily she was all better by Monday morning. It was quite nice out and I didn’t want to waste the day so I put off most of my work until the late evening so that I could take the kids out to play. As per Breanna’s request, we first went for a walk in the woods again. Her new thing is that she insists on leading. Just to bug her, I ran ahead and taunted her because I was first. She then charged straight past me, yelling, “no you’re not! I’M FIRST!” And then she gave me this face.

Well she sure told me!

When we got to the park, Hayley was ecstatic to find a five-year-old girl there with her family, so they played together for a long time, further proving that language barriers are non-existent in kids – she spoke Spanish and French and Hayley is still learning French, but they managed anyway and had fun.

Meanwhile, the girl’s older brothers and father were practicing soccer on the grass and you could tell by the way they kicked the ball around that they play on teams. Breanna ran straight for them and I cringed as I thought of the scene she might cause when I would go to remove her from the middle of the game.

Instead, they immediately welcomed her and let her play. They would kick the ball hard back and forth a few times and then one of the boys would stop the ball and kick it very gently to Breanna, and then they all hooted and hollered at her in encouragement when she would take off kicking it along the grass. They did it for a good half hour with her, and I let them know I could take her to the swings but they flat out refused and said as long as she was having fun, it was fine.

At one point Hayley thought it would be funny to climb into a baby swing but was unamused when she realized she couldn’t get out. The father came over to help me when he saw me struggling to pull her out and on the way back to the grass he mentioned his sons were 14 and 16. I told him that they were both incredibly nice kids because really, how many teenagers would be willing to play soccer with a three-year-old? Those are exactly the kind of kids I want to raise.

We were all so exhausted when we got home that by bedtime it took very little prompting or effort to get the kids to sleep. And frankly it didn’t take me long either.

I think all weekends should be long ones. Four-day weeks and more weekend time to spend playing would be a wonderful thing.

(You can see all the Easter photos right here.)