Easter photos (lots!)

I was going to post this yesterday afternoon. That has become my "blog time." If I can get a few posts written and scheduled on Sunday afternoon, then you'll have something to read that week. Otherwise, I don't really find much time to work on it anymore. However, after church here yesterday Will and Jaan went with the choir to another church, for another Easter service, so I was busy. But I'm grabbing some time now to write....

So, last Sunday I woke everyone up with "Christ is Risen!" and loud Easter music. Jaan said that he thought the building was on fire. Take a look at his face in the picture below:

Prettiest Easter cake we've ever had.

Will had to be at church really early, so he didn't get to share Easter breakfast with us (), but the rest of us had a fun and special meal. We get enough kulich/paska from other sources, so I don't labor over that. I do make a quick coffee cake every year. Remember how plain it was, with the closed tomb? By Sunday morning it was decorated and with an open, empty tomb. Over cake and juice, we all retold the resurrection story to Bogdan. And we told each other that "Christ is Risen" while breaking red eggs:

No, he wasn't trying to hurt her!

Bogdan's butterfly from the cake

Where is the butterfly, Bogdan?

After breakfast we got dressed and headed to church, stopping for photos on the way.

Easter 2013

Children singing at church

Quick tea afterwards

Then we went with a group to visit a tiny village church.

Headed out to village

Beautiful flowers there!

From a distance, they even looked like dogwood, much bigger than they show up in the photos I took. In my photos, they pretty much just look like apple blossoms, but in real life they didn't. The tint was purplish, instead of apple pink. Katya and I guessed that they're айва, and it looks like we were right.

Bogdan was tired of sitting and just plain tired--it was nap time--so he and I did more wandering around the village than anything else. He was determined to find a "moo," but was satisfied with lots of goats, chickens, birds, butterflies and other bugs. Going for a walk felt like a great way to celebrate, and the church babushki were happy to see him before and after. Plus, the older children got to sing for everyone:

Children singing in the village

Tea again

I loved the yellow fields on the way there and back!
(It's too early for sunflowers yet; this is rapeseed. Maybe even prettier?)

Done in!