easter swimming

Charlie observes.

 

Chris leads the charge into the ocean!

 

 

Always on the run!

 

 

Madonna and Charlie.

 

 

Papa finally decided jeans were "overdressed" for the beach.

Schuyler and Charlie playing together.  Is there anything more heart warming than two kid siblings getting along and digging in the sand?

easter on the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie can't get enough of golf carts!  Fortunately, the owner was kind enough to let us sit in one and even drive around the parking lot!  Daddy scored big with his son today.

Now THIS was a good idea.  Easter Sunday on the beach.  The Carpols were kind enough to invite us for Easter Sunday on the beach at TP.  It didn't promise to be ideal weather.  We made the kids wear sweaters and, as you can see, we thought jeans were a good idea.  But as the day warmed up and the mimosas went down, the day bloomed into one of those surprise days that really couldn't have been better.  Schuyler and Mama went for a swim in the ocean (first dip of the year!) and Charlie and Papa played in the sand.  We played with Eli and Lailani and just soaked in the best part of living on this island.  As Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, every now and then you have to kick back, look around you, and say "well, if this ain't nice, I don't know what is."

egg hunting party

 

So Ollie C. kindly invited the kids for an egg hunting party on the grounds of the old perfume factory.  We arrived a little late but still with enough time to scrounge some eggs from the bushes.

we're dying here

 

 

 

 

We may not have built a kite, but we did set about some industrial strength egg dying!  We all got really into it.  Once again, there's something about these recreations of childhood that transport you - the smell of the vinegar in the egg dye, the wet fine sandy feel of the eggs, and the sound of the crack as you peel that first one.  We loved doing this with you guys.  Sure there were moments of "don't touch that" and probably some tears here and there when the listening ears were turned off, but the lasting memory is technicolour family time.

good friday 2013

 

 

 

 

A REAL LIVE DIGGER, CHARLIE!!!

We didn't build a kite this year.  We will.  Just not this year.  But we went to the Botanical Gardens to ride bikes and see the sky festooned with humming ornaments.  No photograph can capture good friday in Bermuda.  You have to see it with the naked eye.  A camera just can't capture a sky resplendant with homemade works of art humming in the wind - hundreds wherever you go.  Even without our own kite this year, we all had an exhausting blast.

its raining, its hailing

 

It doesn't happen much in Bermuda but today the March showers thundered down and started bouncing off the lawn!  All Hail!  I summoned the kids to the window and we stumbled outside.  They pretended to listen to a mini-lecture from their Dad about what this unusual event was but really this was just snack time!  So like little woodland creatures, they set about snacking on the pellets of ice sent from the sky.  I didn't have the heart to tell them that they were picking it up off the lawn where Magic pees.

easter at scarrington

 

Miniature bowling with Walker

Charlie, Grayson, Spencer, Charlotte, Hailey, and Schuyler dye eggs (and their hands)

 

 

A huntin'

 

The harvest.

 

 

 

 

 

The famous egg roll!

 

Bubbles!

 

 

Easter just wouldn't be the same without the Scarrington Celebration organised by one Auntie Ardleigh.   All the cousins (first and once removed) got together for egg dying, egg rolling, egg hunting and just general carousing.   This is one of the reasons we had kids and built a family because no matter what, family is family.  I only wish Schuyler and Charlie had their cousins of the same age in a more geographically convenient location... after all these years, the bond of my cousins is still strong and for that I am truly grateful.  Having Ardleigh, Uncle Jamie, Walker and Mitchell here makes these family times root themselves in the memories of not just us, but hopefully, our kids as well.  Thank you!