Sleep Over, Mel's 7th Birthday, Easter

The slumber party lasted until about 12:30 a.m. Dayton stayed up the lastest. He was engrossed in the cartoon network. Finally, Emma said indignantly, "I can't sleep with that on" and she got out of bed, turned off the television set, climbed back into bed and promptly fell asleep.

I took Dayton upstairs and he sat on our bed watching television. Grandpa wrapped his arm around him like he'd seen Don do and voila' in about 30 seconds he was fast asleep. Dayton, not Dad.



In the morning after fixing us all a nice breakfast, Dad went to the shop to do some work he hadn't finished yesterday.



I didn't want the kids stuck in front of the television set all day so we made plans.



Naturally, I told them that we couldn't do anything until the chores were done.



Cheerfully Melanie washed the dishes and I dried and put away.



She did a very good job and it gave us a chance to chat about her friends at school.



After Courtney had picked up their clothes in the guest room she got out her school books.


It didn't take her too long to get bored with that and she began playing a game on her Palm computer. She said that the work wasn't due on Monday, anyway.



I gave in and let Emma and Dayton watch a little television while I was busy with Mel in the kitchen.



I asked Emma if she would put away the cans of V-8 Juice for me and you can see that she did a very good job.



In this next photograph Emma looks as if I were treating her like she was Cinderella. And I want you to know that this is not one of those "Oops, I snapped at just the wrong time photos". No, indeed, she was not a happy camper!



Do you remember when I was learning how to drive the Zamboni? I got so frustrated that I just turned the darned thing off and left it in the middle of the ice.



Yeah, well when Emma got the fringe caught in the vacuum and the circuit breaker shut off the vacuum, she dropped it and just like her grandma indignantly left.




As soon as the kitchen was cleaned it was time to prepare lunch.



Naturally, each one wanted something different. So one at a time they came to the kitchen and prepared their own lunches.



Except for Dayton who refused everything that I offered to him and munched on Goldfish crackers and some V-8 Juice which he loved.



Emma decided that she wanted an egg salad sandwich. All I did was peel the egg.



She took one slice of bread and spread the egg salad over it and then folded it in half. It looked to me like it was almost 2 inches thick.



She took it to the guest room where I had set up the card table so they could eat while watching cartoons.



Melanie showed up for her time in the kitchen dressed like this. She's so cute.



She didn't want egg salad. So we walked downstairs to get a can of tuna fish. She fixed it the way she had seen her Mom fix it.



Insisting that she was starving she grabbed 4 slices of bread and spread the whole can of tuna on two of the slices.



That was followed by quite a bit of pickle relish. I put the top slices of bread on and sliced the sandwiches for her.



This is the same expression that was on her face as she told me that I was right and that two sandwiches were too much.



We got a sandwich bag and saved the half sandwich + for later.

Courtney decided that she wanted an egg salad sandwich too.






Everyone enjoyed their lunch.



Neal finally finished his work and came home only to begin working on the house.



He finished painting the porch ceiling and installed the new light fixture. It looks really nice.

Dayton dropped a lid on his toe and we put a bandaid on the 1/8 inch booboo. Then he and Grandpa watched some cartoons together.



After Dayton calmed down Neal put him in the guest room where he slept almost 3 hours.







During that time, Neal got some more work done and mowed the lawns while I took the girls to the Dollar store. We had fun there and when we returned they were very happy with their treasures. I gave each one of them a dollar and they added their money to that. Courtney got two games made out of a foam material; chess and Snakes and Ladders. She also bought her brother a cute stick horse. Melanie bought a little doll that you can style the hair and a box of pink Peeps which she shared with all of us. Yummy Sweeeeeeeeet.





Next thing on the day's agenda was to get the Easter Eggs colored.



I decided to split the 21 eggs into three bowls and I colored the 22nd myself.

Each girl had the opportunity to take their time and color their bowl of eggs with no one in the way.

Melanie was the first and enjoyed herself very much.

Emma joined us for a little bit and munched on her fruit flavored marshmallow stick that she bought at the dollar store.

"Emma, get off the chair." Melanie cut her visit short and Emma went back to the cartoons.

Emma was surprisingly neat and did a really good job of coloring her eggs too.

When did she grow up? Must have been while I wasn't looking!

This photo shows Emma playing with the Princess rubber ball that she bought at the Dollar Tree Store.

We were in the store for almost an hour checking out every possibility.

She came home with this ball and a package of Easter candy.

Courtney knows so much about the computer she plays games by herself. Once we check what she is playing, she just knows how to maneuver by herself.

Don't you just love the good posture that these games encourage?

Courtney found a crayon and wrote on her eggs before she colored them. We worked together to create a nice brown (I don't know...it was what she wanted).

Anyway, the egg really looked cool.

Emma worried that the Easter Bunny wouldn't know where they were so I had her bring me the telephone and I called Mr. Bunny in front of her. She was appeased.

Sunday morning began with showers and baths to get ready for church.

We didn't have to be at church until 10:20 so there was plenty of time.

Grandpa prepared waffles for everyone and soon he was off to church.

Just before we walked out of the house I snapped a couple of pictures.

This next one of Dayton I thought turned out really cute.

Dayton had a wonderful time in the nursery and Emma was a great sister by staying with him.

She was a big hit and when I picked them up after classes everyone stopped what they were doing, even the teachers, and called to her, "Bye Emma".

After a bite of lunch Dad headed for Newberg and had a really nice visit with his mother as they traveled back to Portland.

Dad and Grandma had only been home for about 15 minutes when Don and Gaylynne showed up.

You can read about their wonderful trip on their blog. It sounded like they got some needed rest and some nice "alone" time.

You can see how glad the children were to have their Dad back home. They pulled his ears and just generally abused him. He loved it.

After a very nice ham dinner Don and Grandpa took the kids upstairs. While they were up there the Easter Bunny came and hid a bunch of candy and eggs for them. He was even nice enough to hide the bags of goodies that Great Grandma had brought for them.

The next pictures are of the hunt.

I don't know....

You can't see them but Grandma was missing Lori and Matthew so she wore the necklace and earrings that they had given to her.

I overheard the following conversation as I took this photo.

"Well, Melanie, how does it feel to be seven years old?"

"I don't know".

"Some day you'll be as old as me".

"Oh," she laughed, "I don't think so"!

This cake is the traditional Henry and Dijuan Coates' Family Easter dessert.

You're Dad is 61... that's a lot of lemon Easter cakes !!!

Melanie got to put her birthday candles on the cake and with one nice blow she blew them all out and will get her wish.

Her Dad was pretty impressed.

Last Christmas Melanie got a wonderful doll. She saw this horse that goes with the doll in the Christmas ads and gave me the ad with instructions that that was what she wanted for her birthday. Of course, I wasn't smart enough to buy it while it was still on sale ! Doh !!

We were sorry that Teresa and the kids couldn't come but she had told Gaylynne that they would be with her family. Happy Easter to you guys!!!

We took Grandma home and it was a pretty quiet ride after a little bit. Our ears were still ringing and we were all exhausted.

Grandma cut me a bouquet of her lovely daffodils which gave a very nice ending to a very nice weekend.

After having had such sad news about Don's and Gaylynne's new baby it was nice to be together. What a hard week.