Day 2057. Finally Easter holiday! No classes - no piano, no swimming - but a day off! I was looking forward to sleeping in but the kids came to me constantly. At about 10 am Randy left with Tammy to take her to hospital. She's been saying that her foot hurts for the past few days, and had even cried because of the pain. As it was still really bad, it was time to do something, and as there was time, Randy took her to the hospital, while the boys stayed home with me. It took them about 3 hours as they also did an x-ray of her foot but nothing was invisible. They just said she should not run or jump for a week, that was it.
I ate lunch with the boys, and Randy and Tammy ate, when they came home later. Then we did piano practice downstairs. At 4 pm we all left the house together to go to church. We hadn't been there in a while because of sickness or a busy schedule, so I was looking forward to it. We took the train and then the subway and walked to the church. It was a special family service, so a clown already greeted us a level down from church.
We continued on and found seats in the sanctuary. However, they had little chairs set up for the kids up front, and so the kids went over there, to the other side of the sanctuary. And so I went there as well, and Sammy sat down on a kids' chair in front of me. The service started with music and singing, and the clowns were animating everyone to participate in the arm movements. Tammy finally did them, later Emmy did them. After the songs, two puppets came to have a conversation, and they came again later after the preaching. It was a great, simple gospel message everyone could understand, and it was interactive. The clowns sat in our section, and Sammy was determined to get to the own clown. She then actually picked him up and let him sit on her lap for a while before she put him back on a chair. In the end, they prayed a prayer of commitment with everyone, then the time had come that the kids had all been waiting for: an Easter basket hunt.
The kids went out the door together, following the lady in charge, and quickly found the baskets that weren't very hidden. The kids had them immediately, and Tammy got one for Sammy. Then we went to the café where we looked to see what they had to eat. The kids were happy to see their friend, especially Sammy. After a few minutes, we decided to leave and get something to eat at McDonald's.
We walked through the mall and sat down at McDonald's. The kids were disappointed that they had run out of the toys they wanted. But they were happy about the balloons they had received at church, balloons that were flying.
After having eaten we got on the subway and then on the train home, where we arrived just before 8 pm. It was time to get them ready for bed right away.
This morning I was really hoping to get to sleep in. The kids came to me a couple of times, then Randy took them downstairs, and I got to get some sleep. Just before noon I got up and went to the kitchen to make lunch. It was about 1:30 pm before we got to sit down to eat. After lunch, I went downstairs to do piano practice with the kids. Back upstairs, I soon started making their dinner boxes for church. At 4 pm we left the house to go to church.
As always, we got on the subway, then on another subway. But before we reached our destination, we were told to all get off the subway at the main train station. We found out that there was construction work going on and that we had to take a tram for a while before being able to get back on the subway for the rest of the way. As we were walking to the tram stop, we were weighing our option. I had a terrible headache and didn't feel like making such a big detour. Plus, I was thinking how long it would take us to get back home with this detour. It didn't seem to really make sense to continue on our journey. There was a McDonald's right there, and we decided to stop there for "afternoon tea" before going back home. We got some hot chocolate and cake and pastries and icecream. Then we continued walking to our train.
I remembered that there was a bike festival going on on Town Hall square, and everyone agreed that we should go check it out before going home. And so we continued walking to get to the tram that would take us there. It was a bit of a walk. Just before we got there, I remembered that there was a nice playground nearby and asked the kids whether they would rather go there. They immediately said yes, and so we went to the playground. There were little ponds with ducks on the way there. Once there, the kids ran off to have fun - climbing, swinging, sliding. I took Tammy's nice dress off to keep it safe. Sammy enjoyed the swing, and then the zipline. After a while, we packed up to leave again.
We had to walk through the whole park to get back to the train station - a different way than the way we had come. They had planted tulips in different places that looked nice, and that's how I got to take this cute picture of the kids. We finally reached the train station and took the 6:45 pm train to go home, where we arrived just after 7 pm.
The kids had already eaten some of their dinner on the way, and sat down to eat the rest at home. Then they went into the bathtub, where they had fun and ate some more. Back out, we read some stories, then I prayed for them all and put them to bed. It was already 8:30 pm. I was really tired and waited for a while before going to the kitchen to make my soup. Somehow time slipped away from me, and before I knew it it was midnight and I still had to edit the pictures and write my report. Now it's 2 am, and I still have to take care of the kitchen.
