Alleluia! And Eggs!

We had our nephew Liam for Easter weekend this year, in preparation for taking him with us to Bumgarner beach week - which means we had FOUR kids up and ready before the earliest service, which is a new record for us!

And when I say us, I mean Mark, because... I did nothing. That's not true. I spent a lot of time blow drying my hair and brushing it one hundred times or whatever. Anyway. Mark did it, he gets the credit, he is a rock star, and they all looked adorable.

My kids, being kids of a choir mom, are among the first children at church every week. On Easter, that means getting to put the first flowers on the cross. Basically every year.

We usually have to go back after the later services and Sunday school hour to see it fully flowered, but I sort of like it empty like this, mostly wire, only a few flowers. It seems the most appropriate for the chilly wee hours before everybody gets all He Is Risen excited, yknow?

I also took Nathan and Anneliese to the Easter Vigil last night (a first!) and that was really great.

Nathan got to ring a bell as we all processed from the courtyard into the sanctuary.

(Liam and Charlotte stayed home with Marky, since they - the babies, not Mark - were on the verge of Easter breakdowns. It's a late service for three-year-olds.)

And then we got to the beach and did the traditional egg hunt, except without my sister to make it happen (SAD FACE WE MISSED HER), which means I did, which means Nathan did most of the hiding work, because I'm either really lazy or really smart.

But it was a hit anyway, and now it's time for the beach! Happy Easter! Alleluia!

Things I Am Crabby About

Happy April! I am crabby.

1.) I don't know if it's a cold or allergies or what, but my head is killing me and I am sneezy and this is terrible timing for going to the beach next week.

2.) It is still cold out. It's getting ridiculous. I cannot remember a winter that lingered this long. We are back to life, back to reality, spring break is over, yet it somehow isn't spring yet. Spring, you suck, and you're over a month late, and I'm pissed at you.

3.) This morning in preschool chapel, they celebrated Easter. IN THE MIDDLE OF HOLY WEEK. There are still crushed palms on the floor that have been poignant and achy (appropriately so) for the Lent services all week; I don't want to watch kids doing a choreographed hallelujah cheer in the middle of Holy Week. I mean what? Why not wait until next week? It'll be actual Eastertide then. Today would have been much more appropriate to do a lesson around the Last Supper, or even the Hosanna parade from Palm Sunday (since they were on spring break last week). Not Easter. Not yet. We are doing ourselves and our kids a disservice when we cheapen church for them. TELL THEM THE WHOLE STORY. (Hi I have officially become a curmudgeon.)

4.) Delta changed my schedule home from the Blathering in Seattle in a few weeks (my connection between Salt Lake City and Atlanta is now a misconnect) and that's a normal thing they're totally allowed to do, and they don't owe me any particular connection points, and I certainly didn't pay to stop in SLC for any amount of time, and I had to look on the timetables and then use a million search filters to force the website to offer me that option anyway, because the schedule is terrible, but I WANTED the stop in Salt Lake City (hi I am a worker-of-the-system), because I had an hours-long layover and dinner plans with Liz. And now I don't get that. And it's not the end of the world, but: CRABBY. (Mostly sad.)

5.) The stupid B key on my stupid computer still doesn't work, and that makes it hard to type an all-caps word like CRABBY.

6.) There is a general underlying assumption about my time: that I am around, available, and at everyone's disposal, to schedule (or unschedule) things for me, and even at the last minute it's assumed that's fine. I, uh... I exist outside of what People need me for. I am not a public commodity. And yes this is cryptic because Some Of The People Who Do This are reading here, and I am too chicken sh!t (and exhausted) (and passive aggressive, apparently) to address it directly, I just need to be pissy about it and vent for a second. I feel gross and taken for granted. (If you think you might be Some People -- check yoself. Whether it's about me or any other stay-at-home-parent you know. Our time is not "free time" or "available time" unless you PLAN and ASK. End rant.)

6.) April Fool's Day makes the whole internet annoying. Pranks are annoying to me anyway (#teamRoss) and half of what people post are not even pranks or April Fool's jokes. Saying something that isn't true? Not a prank. Shut up. It's annoying. (And companies who need to make their ads and promos into jokes are even worse than the general population.)

7.) Nathan gifted Anneliese one of the clay boat hulls he had carefully molded for his science project (the project is done now), and she broke it into a million tiny pieces and put it in a ziplock bag. And then looked at me confused when I told her it isn't really nice to break something someone gives you, especially if they made it. She was all, "why? he gave it to me so it's mine." How can kids be so wonderful and have such awful moments? (Not singling out Anneliese, either. Charlotte has been tantruming in the pre-dawn hours every day for the last week, and Nathan took a huge amount of nagging to do said science project in the first place. IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM I DON'T WANT TO MANAGE IT.)

(I got lost in the Wal-Mart parking lot a few weeks ago -- yes really, shut up, it was more complicated than it sounds but I don't care enough about explaining myself to explain myself -- but then I found this bright scarf, and it came in a 2-pack but I threw the other one away immediately, so anyway at least I have a relatively pretty $3 scarf? Whatever.)

Next week will be 75 and we will be at the beach and life will be less annoying right?

Alleluia!

{Update 5/21: Still catching up on the happy things from April. Still not in the mood to hit "post" on the Craptastic. Instead, here is some Easter loveliness.}

We had a fun and lovely Easter this year, which I desperately needed, because April was hard, and also because I felt super detached from church through Lent (with mono, I was trying to do only the most bare minimum of outings, so extra worship services seemed expendable, and I guess they were, but dang it messed up my churchy rhythm, especially in Holy Week, and good grief I just realized I sound like a big ol nerd, but there you go).

We had the kids up and Easter dressed by 7:30 (!!) (Mark and I would like our parenting medals now) which means we got to barrage them with pictures before we went to church, which was totally worth their eye rolling because I loved all of their spring outfits so much this year.

Our church, like many, does a flowering of the cross every year on Easter. All the children bring plants and flowers and decorate a cross in the courtyard -- bringing new life to a symbol of shame and death, which is kind of the whole point, yknow? Anyway it is a cool thing that the kids love, and this year they were the first ones at church so they were the first three flowers on the cross.

We went back after all the services and took some pictures, with Another Nathan too. I've said it before and I'm sure this won't be the last time either: we love being his Raleigh family.

Because I was trying to lay low, we didn't make any grand brunch or big meal plans, which at first I felt kind of sad about but then ended up being a good thing. We just did a simple dinner of mini Easter pies (there is nothing made from puff pastry I won't eat) and a strawberry almond tart (thanks for the idea, A'Dell!) that looked nothing like the picture in the recipe but was kind of tasty nonetheless. 

Nathan and I spent the afternoon making it, and he basically did it all himself. I supervised a lot but he is getting really good at reading recipes and stirring carefully on the stove and slicing gently (while I watch nervously and try not to panic). He spent a lot of his cooking time saying adorable things like "Do you think the blended strawberries will taste like a smoothie? That is my hypothesis." (He took a kitchen chemistry elective at school last quarter. You could have guessed that, right?)

Anyway he has been my kitchen buddy for years, and I love it more than ever.

So, yeah. It was a sweet day. Happy Easter!

Another Bumgarner Beach Week

{Update 5/20: I have not blogged in so long I don't know where to start, and I tried to start by telling about the sh!tstorm this spring has been, but then I decided that even though it has sucked, there have been some fun lovely things too, and I feel like thinking about that today instead. So, the brief version of the sucktastic: I got mono, Charlotte sliced her forehead open, a million things in our house broke, and and AND (longer version of the sucktastic can wait for another day). Here is something happy instead.} {Yes I said mono WHAT THE FRESH HELL.}

Bumgarner beach week, in happy pictures.

All the grandkids, post egg hunt. You cannot even imagine the shenanigans my dad was pulling behind the camera to make them all laugh like that.

All my kids wanted turns holding baby Sully.

Ashley's kids have the best facial expressions. I want to pull this picture of Sully out anytime I need to say "come at me brah." And from Liam, he is clearly saying "b!tch please."

Anneliese and I have cornered the market on excellent beach hair.

Look at all my sweet babies! (I made them stand like this because I have a photo of just Nathan and Anneliese like this and every time I walk up the stairs and see it on the wall it makes me sad that Charlotte isn't in it. Hey! I have three babies to look at the ocean together now!)

We don't love being up bright and early, but if we're going to be, it might as well be for the beach, right?

We take this picture every year, my dad with all the kids. This year everyone is happy, and is almost looking at the camera. (We have some years where everyone is crying. Which is funny. But this is better.) Someday I want to line them all up and we can watch the babies multiply. I remember when it was just Dad and Nathan!

Bumgarners on a beach! Ashley and I made everyone climb out of their beach chairs and smile for this picture; we flagged down a random passer-by to take it for us. They all roll their eyes at taking the pics, but some day they will thank us for having the pics. Oh they will. (Mark is still exhausted from the Salzburg incident of 2002, so I don't think he is ready to thank us for all our photo memory-making just yet, but he will get there.)

This has seriously become one of our favorite weeks every year. Dad and Cathy are so lovely to keep making this happen, and the kids just love running around and playing with each other. (Nathan and Anneliese barely know what to do with themselves on the rare occasions we are on a beach without their cousins.) It makes me feel warm and happy and fully of family nostalgia, even as it is happening. Even with mono.

Happy Easter Girls

I swear all of us went to church on Easter, but Mark and Nathan left after the early service to come home and load the car for our beach trip.

However, the girls and I (who had stayed to help manage the nursery through the later services) were still Easter dressy when we finally remembered to get the camera out. So at least we got the three of us.

Also, I present to you my bloggity friends, my most-"liked" facebook picture, ever. (I think.)

Okay Charlotte. Your Easter joy is contagious, I will give you that.

Charlotte at Eight Months

There's this thing in the midwest or maybe everywhere called a Golden Birthday. Whenever you're turning the age of the date of your birthday. For instance, Mark's was when he turned 28 on November 28th. Ashley's when she turned 11 on December 11th.

Do other people know about this? It's completely new to me. Maybe because mine was when I turned ONE. Lame. (Solidarity *fistbump* Merritt?)

Anyway. This post is not about that.  It's about Charlotte and how she's EIGHT months old on April 8th and I am therefore declaring it her Golden Monthday (um, actually now that I write it, it might be a title in progress; I'll work on it) and I don't want anyone to tell me it's not a Thing because it. is. a. Thing.

On Charlotte's Golden Monthday* she is as beautiful as ever. She is imitating sounds well, she is deliberately picking things up (and putting them in her mouth), she is still sleeping great at night and loving the one nap I let her take during the day (see: what works best for mommy's schedule). She is now a whopping 29 inches (!) which is well over the 99th percentile, and she weighs right at 16 pounds which is about the 20th percentile (starting solid foods should fix that slowing weight gain). She is still very happy as long as she's getting attention, and increasingly fussy when she's not. Which, aren't we all?

Also, today as Charlotte officially hits her eight-month mark, it's Easter Sunday! Hey baby girl, did you know that Jesus the Christ was crucified and resurrected... for you?  That's right, sweet Squeaks. For you. It's about the best Golden Monthday* present you could ask for, am I right? (I am.)

Love you, sweet Charlotte. Happy eight months.

*still a title in progress, remember?

Pretty Much a White House Lawn Event

So, we went to this egg hunt with the well-kepts of Raleigh. It was hosted by my friend Kelly who is cool and fun and a beautiful singer, who has two children very close to Anneliese and Charlotte's ages, who I know and like from various mommying and choir things around church, and who would never host any eastery event that was much less than what you'd find on the white house lawn. She's extremely down-to-earth small-town southern on one hand, and on the other... yeah. Well-kept.

Anyway.

Kelly and her family are lovely people, and it was a great way to spend a fun afternoon with the kids. They played on the swingset, pulled each other in the wagon, hunted for eggs, and ate snacks.

I sat in a comfy adirondack chair and chatted.

Chancel Choir babies! (with Kelly and baby Eva)

And collected compliments about my new sandals.

And pretended to be better kept than I really am. (Real Housewife of Anderson Heights? Check.)

And we left with cute favors of graham crackers, chocolate bars, peeps, and a well-wish for s'more fun next year. Oh yes she did.

Let's call this one a well-kept win.

Easter at the Beach

The kids and I are at the beach this weekend with my family, and I am writing this on my droid. (Thank you, Androblogger app!) Impressed? You should be. I am a thumb typist extraordinaire. Although I have to confess, it probably won't get posted until I get back home, because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to edit the html code to get the pictures in place.

That's what you were hoping for when you started reading this, right? A lovely Easter story about the risen Christ and sand and surf... and html code.

Anyway.

Mark is backpacking in the mountains and although I'm sure he's having fun, it's been kind of a bummer to be apart, for three reasons: a.) it's Easter, b.) it's Anneliese's first trip to the beach, and c.) she has been kind of fussy and hasn't been sleeping well. These are all occasions when you want Daddy around, I promise.

But.

It's the beach. And it takes a lot more than a fussy baby to mess up the beach. I mean, it's the beach. In between fussing, we really did have a nice time. Here are the highlights:

1.) The condo my dad originally rented apparently had some damage, so we got upgraded. The new place is gorgeous. Also it has extra bedrooms. So Anneliese and Nathan can share, in theory, while I get to have my own room (which is very rare on vacation). In actuality, she has spent most of the night with me, both nights. But still. Gorgeous condo!

2.) At the last minute, my sister Ashley and her fiance were able to come! John is still recovering from his crash and surgery last week, so he isn't too mobile with the cast on his leg. But it's fun to have them here. Probably less fun for John since he has to do all of his beaching from the balcony. At least he has a nice view. Hello awesome oceanfront condo (see #1).

3.) I got to eat my favorite steamed shrimp and fried pickles. Required eating for me at the beach. Nathan ate ten big shrimp! I couldn't peel them as fast as he was eating them. :) He dipped most of them in honey mustard, which shows he has a thing or two to learn about sea cuisine, but we'll get him there.

4.) Nathan loves the beach. He's hauled dozens of loads of sand in his dump truck. He's spent hours and hours playing outside and still isn't tired of it. Amazing.

5.) My stepbrother Collin came too, and we have really been enjoying him. We haven't hung out (besides big family meals) in forever, and we are getting to see a different (funny!) side of him on this trip, which is nice. The six year difference in our ages seems less now than it used to, of course. We do miss our other stepbrother Sean and my brother Brad, though. Getting all five kids together is oh so rare.

6.) Anneliese did stop fussing long enough to enjoy some playtime on the beach and on the balcony. Which makes me happy. And it also taught me that she is inflicted by the same photographic anomaly as Nathan: they're cute at home, but they're really cute at the beach.

7.) The weather is perfect. Ashley and I decided it's the best beach weather we've had in years and years. Hot, but not so hot to get all sweaty and gross. Windy, but not so windy to give you goosebumps and kick sand in your face. Just... awesome.

8.) My dad has been bonding a lot with Anneliese. Which makes him happy. And makes her happy. And therefore makes me happy. Because as we've established, a parent is only ever about as happy as her least happy child. So giggling Anneliese = relaxed mommy. :)

9.) This morning I went to an Easter sunrise service on the beach up in Calabash (slightly north of where we were staying in Cherry Grove). I ran into some friends from our church here in Raleigh, so we got to worship together. Hello random. :) But it was nice. I really really needed to go to church, since last night was immensely dark and frustrating with Anneliese. It was an amazing worship service, right in the sand. There were tons of people there. It just felt organic and simple and loving and celebratory all at the same time. It was... good. :)

10.) I also ran into my former neighbor Lindy, who used to live across the street and now is apparently earning extra cash by working for the people who own the pier near the worship service I went to. That was a fun and unexpected reunion!

******added after I got home******

I had an adventure with two sick kids on the drive back. Anneliese had it coming out one end and Nathan had it coming out the other (just for kicks, I'll let you guess which is which). There is something about the beach that apparently brings out carsickness in my kids. Lovely. Between the two of them, I listened to crying the whole trip back, until I was about 60 miles from Raleigh. Whereupon the gas light came on, so I had to stop for refueling and they both woke up and cried again.

But with the distraction of a phone call with a patient friend, the knowledge that Mark was at home waiting on us and could help get two sick kids through the night, and my droid finding an alternate route when I missed my exit, we're home safely now. And overall it really was a pleasant beachy weekend. Thanks for the vacation, Dad! :)

And Happy Easter!!

For more pictures of our weekend, click on Nathan on the beach, below.

by mgoetts

Egg Hunt and Joyful Noise

It's the first weekend of spring! (By the calendars anyway. If you'll recall, in my brain it has already been spring for several weeks.) And we spent it the way spring weekends should be spent -- happily and mostly outside.

Yesterday morning we woke up and hit in the ground running... we went to a pancake breakfast at church pretty much as soon as we rolled out of bed. And then proceeded to stuff our faces. Even Nathan. And Anneliese. ;) I have to say, I love a big breakfast when someone else cooks it and cleans it up, and in a room loud enough that no one is bothered by my baby fussing through the meal (which she manages to do approximately 95% of the time when I sit down with a plate of food in front of me). We feasted on pancakes, grits, eggs, bacon, toast, and I longingly eyeballed the orange juice but didn't touch it. (They even had sweet tea. I do love that iced tea is considered a legitimate breakfast drink around here. Even though I didn't drink any.)

After breakfast there was an egg hunt for the zillion little kids who had showed up. Nathan did pretty well! He found more than one egg this year!! (in past years he hasn't fared so well.) I didn't actually get to see him hunting down the eggs this year, though, because we had a rehearsal for our Lenten cantata and I had to be there earlier than Mark. So while Daddy and Nathan were busy filling eggs with dirt on the playground, Anneliese was in the nursery and I was in the sanctuary singing. (It's actually kind of typical for our family to be scattered all around our church campus on any given morning.)

After the egg hunt, Mark dropped Nathan off in the nursery too, but was still a little early for his part of the rehearsal. So I ducked out and we took a few minutes to ourselves. (If you're rolling your eyes at the thought of us sneaking a kiss during a rehearsal at church, you clearly have never been a new-ish parent whose alone moments are precious and few, or you would have done the same thing when you looked around and realized your kids were taken care of and no one would miss you for a few minutes. So don't judge me, applaud me.) I don't think our music director noticed, but I'm sure he wouldn't have minded anyway. :) Right before we went back in, we took a few minutes outside since it was so gorgeous out. Definitely the best weather we've had so far this year. Thanks, vernal equinox.
I spent a good chunk of the afternoon out on our deck and then Mark and Nathan did some running around on the golf course. Seriously, I don't think I can emphasize it enough: it's so so nice to be outside!!

This morning after a loooooong stint at church (Mark did three services, I did two) with lots and lots and lots of joyful music-making, Mark went and played soccer with some friends from church, and I spent my afternoon recovering (surprise!) out on the deck in the sunshine before the rain starts. We have big plans to hang around the house with the windows open, some pizza, and some adult beverages (what? Sundays are feast days, even in Lent) and enjoy the spring evening together. I like knowing that even if it's going to be crappy out for the next week, we made the most of our sunshine over the last few days.

For more pics from yesterday, click below on our church.

by mgoetts

And since I don't think I ever posted it a few weeks ago, here's the link to more pictures from the last couple of months -- click below on Nathan in his high chair.

by mgoetts

Happy Easter!

Those of you who know my family might have noticed a rather alarming absence from my blog post about being at the beach with my dad during Easter week: The absence of Easter eggs.

You're probably wondering, what happened? No egg hunt? No color-coordinated hiding system for different ages intelligence levels of the searchers? No candy and cash to be found? How could Ken have orchestrated these egg hunts -- in ways that only a Bumgarner could -- through his children's college years and then not have any eggs for his only grandson?


(Ok, maybe two of you know my family well enough to be wondering those things. As for the rest of you... just play along, mmmkay?)

The answer to all these questions is: I don't know. I have no idea. Keine Ahnung habe ich.

The truth is I didn't even think about it when we were at the beach (and I suspect dad didn't either), though a fleeting egg memory or two did cross my mind as we were planning the trip, and after we got home. But I have a feeling that after dad reads this blog post and realizes how legendary his color-coded egg hunts were (yes, even when we were in college), he will never let a plastic hinged egg go unhunted again, at least not with grandkids around.

When I did remember (ahem -- late yesterday) that Nathan might like to hunt for eggs this year, I did some quick searching and found that our neighborhood had a little Easter gathering. Nothing Jesus-centered, mind you (how dare someone put Jesus into Easter!), but an egg hunt and snack food and games for kids. So we went.

If my dad had been there, here's what I think he would have taught them about how to run a proper egg hunt (there's a right and wrong way to do things, you know):

1.) Dividing the hunts up by age is admirable, but one-year-olds still can't compete with five-year olds.

2.) Don't send all the toddlers down to start the hunt fifteen minutes before you're sending an official to start the hunt. They can see the eggs. They're toddlers. Not so much good at the waiting part. Especially don't do this at nap time. Tears will ensue and there's no crying in egg hunts!

3.) No color coding? Really? But what about the younger dimmer-witted children? I guess color-coding is only fancy enough for those people savvy enough to create multiple hunts on the same course (like our family).


4.) Put cash in the eggs. Even if the kids don't get it, the parents deserve it.


5.) Encourage anyone with Bumgarner blood to move fast and get lots of eggs in lots of colors. Not just yellow. Because we can't have anyone comparing us to the other kids and coming to the conclusion that we're younger not the sharpest tools in the shed. Especially if it's the oldest grandson. Come on, Nathan, not just yellow! You can do it!

6.) Don't bother inviting the Easter bunny if there are cupcakes. Bumgarners don't care about the Easter bunny (unless it leaves a partially-chewed carrot in the yard, in which case it's fascinating) in the best of circumstances, but especially not when there's free food.


7.) Don't let pregnant women around the children's cupcakes. They will attempt to eat said cupcakes, putting children in the awkward situation of having to force them down in one bite without sharing.

Anyway, after the hunt was over (thirty seconds, tops, I'm not even kidding), we came home for naps all around.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the real Easter. You know, that part about Jesus rising from the tomb? The most important thing that ever happened, ever?

In the meantime, just wanted to share our eggy Saturday. For more pictures, click on our family at the neighborhood hunt, below.


by mgoetts