Easter {2013}

Easter (2012)

This was the quietest Easter I can remember!  Moira stayed at FUS and spent some Easter time with the Steubenville Delaneys and Heusels.  The grandparents couldn't be with us this year either, so it was a smaller group with only the GB cousins joining us. 

Eileen, Bridget and Colleen went to the Vigil Mass at the cathedral, which was so beautiful, as always.  Mike and I took the younger kids to mass in the morning.

And of course the Easter Bunny made his visit, to the delight of the little ones...

Happy Easter!

We had a very nice Easter weekend (with the exception of a flood in the basement and a fire in the kitchen....more on that in a minute). Pat and Anna arrived on Saturday night, and since Mike and I are not in prime shape to tackle the late Vigil Mass with little kids, Anna kindly took our oldest three girls to the Cathedral Easter Vigil Mass. It was beautiful.  The rest of us went to Mass in the morning after the Easter egg hunt.

Here are some pictures...

Erin crawling under the table to get her basket

Beautiful roses - thank you Anna!

Seamus has that sugar for breakfast look on his face

Aidan, patiently posing for a picture before digging in

Chocolate AND a sugary center - yuck

The favorite gift!

A cake from Mr. Walker, which was delicious!  So...I started cutting it before someone thought to get a picture :)

Another picture just because they are awesome!

Eileen's strawberry pretzel dessert - yum!

So, now onto the drama.  Somewhere between Friday night and Saturday morning, our sump pump got caught up on some pipes, or something, and stopped working.  It didn't take long for the basement to become soaked, with 1-4 inches of water in various places.  We quickly moved anything that we could save to a dry spot and Mike quickly fixed the sump pump.  Most of the standing water was pumped out pretty quickly, and thankfully, nothing of great value was lost. The carpeting was completely soaked, so that will need to be replaced. We sort of just put the basement on "hold" to enjoy our weekend, and there was really not much we could do anyway, except run the fans and dehumidifier. We spend this past weekend ripping out our carpeting and throwing away our destroyed junk. The worst part was the smell, which started on Monday.  It is just about cleared out now.

Now, onto the mini-fire.  Being the oldest child, Moira has found her toothbrush in undesirable locations more than a few times, thanks to the shenanigans of her little siblings. She is used to this.  She knows to either get a new toothbrush or boil it.  On Sunday, she chose to boil it. Then she chose to watch a movie. ha ha.  Several minutes later, toxic fumes where pouring out of the "toothbrush pan" into our kitchen.  You would not believe how bad the fumes are from an incinerated toothbrush!  Seriously, you could hardly breathe!  All that remained in the pan was a bit of dust.  It was so bad we all needed to evacuate the house for a while.  Mike had all the fans going and the windows open.

Never a dull moment, I tell you!

The Seamer-boy, ready to take on the flood!

Regardless of the drama, we really did have a great weekend.  We are so thankful for so many blessings!

Holy Week

After 40 days of Lent, we have finally come to the Easter Triduum, the holiest time of the liturgical year.  Last night we attended the beautiful Mass with our Bishop at St. Francis Cathedral. 

"Leaving aside "my will" for "thy will" is the drama of humanity. But it is not slavery; rather it is an entering into truth and love and goodness" - Pope Benedict XVI   (The full text of the Triduum meditation)

Our family will begin praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet today, a nine day novena celebrating the mercy of God.  It is beautiful and I love that the feast of Divine Mercy comes the Sunday after Easter :)


"On each day of the novena you will bring to My Heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls. By this novena I will grant every possible grace to souls." - Jesus to Saint Faustina

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday Moira!!!

We hope everyone had a very blessed Easter!  We had a great weekend.  We not only celebrated Easter, but also Moira's birthday on the same day! 

The Easter cake (with a smudged nose)...


Here's the birthday cake, made by the sweet-deprived birthday girl herself.  Yes, it was really that loaded.  After giving up sweets for Lent, Moira thought she'd make up for it by adding every bit of sweetness she could muster up on this cake. It was a bit too much for most of us; even Erin spit it out and made a strange sound.  lol.

And if the Easter cake or birthday cake did not tickle your fancy, most likely this 8 lb chocolate bunny did (this bunny was gift from a generous friend)...

Now, of course our Easter was not all about sweets!  Mike and the older three girls went to the Vigil Mass at the Cathedral on Saturday night.  They said it was beautiful!  The little kids could not have lasted through the two hour mass, so Mike and I took the little kids to mass on Sunday morning.  But even before that celebration, we had a little egg hunt, bright and early Sunday morning....

Our quantity of baskets have grown over the years.....ha!  We're a big stop for the Easter Bunny!

It was a beautiful Easter day!

Erin giving kisses...

We all enjoyed the special day a little extra because it was Moira's 17th birthday!  Happy birthday Moira, we love you and are so very proud of you!!!