HOPPY EASTER

That silly Easter Bunny has nothing on my grand kids.  The Easter Bunny may hop his way across the world in 24 hours but Abby, Roman and Smith have enough energy to put 6 adults to bed at 8PM after a day of playing, swimming and eating. I AM EXHAUSTED!
It has been a whirl wind of kids since Abby and Roman arrived last Tuesday. We have been spending lots of time in the "new" pool and so far the pool is doing just fine.  Ger inflated the slide that sits and one end of the pool and we have had 2 rafts, a big green tube, 5 noodles and any number of toys floating or sinking at any given time. The pool is not that big so when you add 6 adults and 2 kids and a baby it really is a tight fit. But the pool survived as did all the people in it.
Last night we took a break from the pool and all of us, Smith included, went over to Rodger Dean Stadium, our minor league stadium and spring training center for the Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals.
There was a 6:30 game between the St. Lucy Mets and the Jupiter Hammerheads. GO HAMMERHEADS!  But before the game the stadium had an Easter celebration. A local church bought out all the tickets to the game and GAVE them away. First come first serve. We got our 8 tickets and were there for the helicopter arrival and drop of 2,500 eggs. That was in addition to the eggs already on the field. It was organized bedlam but Abby and Roman were out there and got their hands on some eggs. Smith went out with his mom and dad to help and managed to collect a fair share. The eggs were filled with a piece of candy or a prize. None of the Lawlors got a prize but they could have cared less. Abby's family stayed for a few innings of the game, Kristen, Smith and I left early and Kent and Ger stayed till about the 5th inning.
This morning we all met at church for mass in the parish hall. We decided to forgo the beautiful church in hopes of a quicker and less crowded mass for the kids. The parish hall was only half filled, Father Eve said a 50 minute mass and the music was done by the youth choir. It couldn't have worked out better ! Smith crawled around on the floor in the back, Abby and Roman didn't fidget and Grandma stayed awake. After we got home there was the easter egg hunt and breakfast followed by more swimming!       I planned ahead for a "simple" dinner. The spiral ham just had to be heated, the frozen mac and cheese just needed to be heated and the veggies went into the microwave. DONE! So how come I spent 3 hours in the kitchen?
It sounded very simple . . . I just don't know what took so long.  Dinner was a success even if the ham was a little burned around the edges. ( God's joke for me making fun of my sister-in-law burning her ham.) The sangria mix that Kristen, Kent and Smith gave me for my birthday was FANTASTIC and I think that may have had something to do with me burning the ham.  Kyle and Bridget took over the cleaning of the dinner dishes and they were as fantastic as the sangria! The two of them work so well together that they had the kitchen cleaned up before I even knew what they were doing. I was busy playing with Smith, Abby and Roman. We had spent a good part of the day in the pool so now it was time to play with the indoor toys that are covering the living room floor. Abby kept finding more and more things for Smith to play with so by the time Smith was ready to leave for the day the room was even more crowded than it had been  at the start of the weekend. Husband and I have decided to leave everything out because Abby and Roman will return tomorrow for a sleep over.  If I think I am tired now I can only imagine what I will be like by Tuesday night. The English Lawlor's will return to Windsor Wednesday evening and our house will return to the quiet place it usually is when no one is here.  Grandma will return to sleeping 12 hours a night and grandpa will return to sitting in front of the TV 12 hours a day. We will miss the kids terribly but we sure are glad that we have time to recover before the next wave of visitors.