Big Fun in the Big Easy

For the past three years, which just happens to be the entire time he has been at our high school, our high school band director has been telling the kids he wanted to take them to New Orleans on tour. This year was the year and Daniel was extraordinarily excited. He just got back and unlike Nathan, he had a fabulous time and didn't feel like he missed out on any of the important stuff. Since he was there and I wasn't, he has chosen to be my guest blogger.

This spring our band got the opportunity to go to New Orleans for our band tour this year, and it is the best tour to be my last tour! We flew out there, so it was my first time flying. I’m a huge airplane nerd, so the flight was super cool. My overall impression of the area is that most of the people are really nice, I could get used to the altitude (because I could actually breath without difficulties for the most part), and there is jazz and music literally everywhere. Seriously, I could walk around the French Quarter and see and hear 8 different songs from 8 different bands within about 2 minutes of each other. The music was the part I’m going to miss the most. The only thing I hated about the trip was the over-abundance of cigarette smoke and alcoholic beverages. That made it really hard to find lunch in the French Quarter, because 90% of the places where they serve food are bars of 21 years or older. The French Quarter, aside from the tobacco and alcohol, was a really cool place which we got to spend a long time wandering around. There was music, food, and small shops everywhere. It was quite a culturally diverse place!

Some highlights from the trip included the clinics we got at Layola and Tulane Universities. We got a bunch of really helpful information that we can apply to our music. We also went to Marti Gras World and saw the floats and was able to compete at making our own. 

We also went and saw a historic plantation home, which was quite the fascinating taste of older fashioned life. 

One of the best parts of the trip as a whole was the time I got to spend with my friends, though. I definitely can’t complain about my company!

My absolutely favorite part of the trip, though, was Sunday night. That night we went on a steamboat river dinner cruise through the Mississippi River. We had a dinner with gumbo and jambalaya while being serenaded by the Dukes of Dixieland. They are a famous New Orleans band that I love listening to, and I was totally nerding out when I found out. The best part was that my band director arranged to have me and some of my classmates in the jazz band to play in one of their breaks with their equipment and then to play with them! We played some of our combo pieces and we got quite the audience reaction. Then we played When the Saints Go Marching In with the Dukes. That was the best part of the trip, to be honest. It was super cool! Afterwards, I got an autographed CD with all 6 of their autographs. I had When the Saints Go Marching In stuck in my head for weeks afterwards.

On the whole, my trip to New Orleans was super fun! I had a blast, and I’m glad I got to do it during high school!

A couple more tidbits about Daniel's tour. He got to go on a tour of the swamp and hold an alligator.

He also had the opportunity to walk through the Jazz Museum. He said it was completely underwhelming, but he had a good time anyway!

And he tried on some fancy hats while souvenir shopping. He didn't buy it though, probably because he has no where to wear it around here. :-)

 

The Real Reason for the Season

Today is Easter. It’s quite obvious that I like all the fun holiday stuff (bunny buns, bunny cookies, bunny pancakes…we had kind of a theme going on this year), but we do all of those activities before the actual holiday so that on Sunday we can focus on what it is really all about. Having the “Come Follow Me” lesson this week focus on the Savior’s final week including the crucifixion and his glorious resurrection was a fantastic way for me to keep the real reasons in mind. So while I was baking bunny buns on Monday, I was thinking about Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Wednesday’s bunny pancakes were accompanied by reminders of his many teachings. Friday’s egg coloring and cookie baking were tempered with gravity over the immense suffering he went through and the great love he showed for each one of us. And today, I’m buoyed up by the reality of his resurrection and thoughts of what that means for me and my family.

I also love Christmas and all the festivities centered around that holiday, but to quote Gordon B. Hinckley, “There would be no Christmas if there were no Easter.” So yes, I enjoy all the themed stuff. But while I’m doing it, I’m keeping in mind the real reasons behind the celebrations.

Hippity Hoppity, Easter’s On Its Way

Malia is the only one of my kiddos that is young enough to do an Easter egg hunt this year. My sister Rachael also has only one egg hunter this year. As such, we decided it would be more fun for the two to hunt eggs together. Malia and Kate were in complete agreement.

We’ve done our egg hunt the Saturday before Easter for years, so today was the day. All the older kids helped hide the eggs and were quite creative in finding unique hiding spots, especially since our yard doesn’t have all that many bushes or other foliage in which to hide eggs. It took the two hunters at least three laps around the house to find them all.

After all the eggs were found and some of the fillings were inspected, (Candy! Coins! Yay!) we provided lunch as well. The festive additions to our repast were some lovely bunny buns (which I forgot to take a picture of) and the tasty bunny hug cookies we created yesterday (which I also forgot to take a picture of). We had such a good time celebrating with family. I’m so glad that my kids have cousins that they consider friends, not just family obligations!

Hoppin’ Down the Bunny Trail

Today’s Easter activities were twofold: coloring the eggs and creating some super cute bunny hug cookies. We started off the day with the cookies. They was a Pinterest find, of course, but they were so cute that I just couldn’t resist. And I didn’t even need a special bunny cookie cutter. We used a gingerbread man shape turned upside down. The legs were reshaped just a bit to become ears, a simple face was created with a skewer, and the arms were tucked in around some jellybeans to look like the bunny was hugging eggs. The original idea used Cadbury chocolate eggs but swapping those for jellybeans made the treat Matthew friendly. For some reason, I didn’t get any pictures of the finished product, just the kiddos creating them (and Matthew snitching cookie dough). But they turned out delicious!

I haven’t purchased those little egg dye kits for years because we discovered years back that making our own dyes with vinegar and food coloring creates much more vibrant colors. Malia was really the only one interested in coloring eggs this year, so she got to do everything. She helped mix the dyes (A medicine dropper is a super handy kitchen tool. I use them all the time and keep a few on hand even though I no longer have any kids that need them for medicine.) and then colored all the eggs. Daniel is on band tour right now so without him to help consume the eggs, we didn’t boil as many as usual, but with only one kid creating the color magic, it worked out just fine. Malia used a variety of methods-the straight up dunk, the crayon colored resist paint job, the two-tone egg, and even some rubber band inspired designs. She had a lovely time with her food art.

In a few more years, I might not have anyone interested in coloring eggs. As such, I suppose I’d better stack in the memories as quickly as I can!

Here comes Peter Cottontail

This year’s spring break just happened to coincide with Easter. That provided me an opportunity to feed the kids a themed breakfast, one I wouldn’t have time to create if they all had to get to school. As such, this morning’s offering was carrot cake pancakes with a light cream cheese syrup. They were both entertaining and delicious!

Fashion Statement

Apparently, Malia felt that our Easter decor needed to go punk this year. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a chick with a nose ring before.

I’m Not Sure I’m Ready…

This week the first young men of Daniel’s age group from our ward announced their mission calls. Daniel is working on getting his papers in (although it’s actually a digital process now). The fact that my oldest child is going to be leaving home is suddenly getting very real. I know he has anxieties about what his future holds. As his mother, I have anxieties of my own. I’m not notoriously good at handling change. It tends to stress me out. I’ll lay awake at night and worry about all the “what ifs.” One thing I have learned though, is that the Lord is in the details. While things aren’t always easy and life most definitely doesn’t always work out the way we expect, when I let the Lord guide me, things have a tendency to be easier for me. I have a feeling this is going to be a learning experience for my entire family, not just Daniel. I also have a feeling that we are going to need to rely on the Lord to guide us and help us. I’ve never been a mom to a missionary before and honestly, I have no idea how I’m going to handle it. But I do know that these young men are doing important work. And with the recent changes that allow missionaries to call home, our entire family will be involved in the work. So hold on tight. Here comes change, lots of it.

Tailored to Each Person’s Needs

I know I say this every time, but General Conference was amazing. One of the things that always strikes me is that the things that stick out to us, the messages that impress us the most, are different for each member of my family. I felt that there was a lot of focus on being responsible for our own learning and teaching our families. I felt greatly impressed about the importance of the Come Follow Me program and how if we use it in our home, we will have greater spiritual protection and guidance in our eternal progression. Nathan heard a lot of things about looking for the light and how to face the future with confidence. It is a tender mercy that the words spoken touch each of us in different ways and that the Spirit helps each one of us learn what we need to learn.

As for how the Come Follow Me program is working for us, I think we’ve got a good routine in place. It lets all of us participate in not only our own learning but provides opportunities for us to teach our family members. It allows the kids to learn and grow without overwhelming them. And It grants each of us the chance to receive the guidance of the Spirit so that we can learn the things we are ready to understand. I occasionally get overwhelmed myself, but then I just need to remind myself that I don’t need to learn everything there is to learn every week. As with all things, line upon line. Here a little and there a little. The Spirit will help me learn what I need to know right now and next time I revisit this portion of the scriptures, hopefully I’ll be prepared to learn a little bit more.