Flora Maura

Not much going on - just trying to get caught up at work and in my review class. But I just realized I never posted this layout I did a while ago with my "Pretty in Purple" photo of the kids. It's using a new set of templates by Amy (Doodleboogs) that she made specifically with me in mind - they are called "Flora Maura."

I decided to e-mail out the BBQ invites today so they actually arrive before everyone gets busy with Holy Week next week. And we're still trying to decide who to invite from Maura's daycare class to her party. We'd like to keep it smaller, but it's hard to only pick out a few kids from the class of 12. They all play nicely together. Part of the problem is that many of them have siblings that are Emmelia's friends, so of course we'd like to include them, too (Maura specifically says she'd like "Emmelia's friends" to be there), but that sure makes the number running around in our house grow quickly! It also makes us wish we had a different decor than "college eclectic." But there's no fixing that right now.

I think we're pretty much ready for Easter at this point - Palm Sunday dresses and shoes are waiting in the closet and Easter basket gifts have been purchased and hidden away. I would kind of like to make each girl a pysanky this year as I have in previous years, but I'm not sure that's actually going to happen. This Saturday is known as "Lazarus Saturday" in the Orthodox Church and every year our priest does a "teaching liturgy" for the kids (the adults learn a lot, too). Everything comes out of the altar (normally it's hidden behind the iconostasis) and we get to see exactly what is happening behind the scenes during a liturgy and discuss the significance of it. It's a fun day. That afternoon I'll help the girls decorate some candles for us to carry in the procession on Palm Sunday and we might bake some cupcakes to take to coffee hour to celebrate Maura's birthday. I can't believe she is going to be 3 in only six days!