Easter Sunday Angel

Here are the pictures we took on Easter Sunday, Evie's last day with us. Evie had been feeing great all weekend and we had a wonderful holiday with her. You can click on any of the photos below to see larger versions.

The twins were going to get some new outdoor toys for Easter. Gavin was getting a new Strider balance bike. Evie had started riding a tricylcle at school, so we decided to get her a similar one for home. Here is what Francis had to say about Evie's new Kettler Trike:

"It was 3:30 AM and I had the trike spread around me in about 20 pieces. The instructions were in German, so I only had poor black and white pictures to guide me. I had assembled, disassembled and reassembled it about 3 times to make some pieces work right. I finally finished it around 4:30AM. It was a pain, but I was sure she was going to love it."




The morning started extra early and the twins and I started by opening some other presents from the Easter Bunny. Evie got a Dora the Explorer matching game:




Gavin got another "Cars" related toy. This one is Luigi's Casa Della Tires shop - he loves it!




Doesn't Evie look cute in her "morning hair"? Click the pic for a larger version.




Evie also got a Veggie Tales video from Jan, a good friend from Francis' work:




Later in the morning, Grandpa & Nana Cermak came over.




Evie and Grandpa played the Dora matching game:




Then it was time to color eggs! It had been several years since Francis and I had colored eggs, and we had not done this before with the twins, but Evie and Gavin LOVED it! Below, Evie has her egg-grabbing tongs and is ready to go!




Evie watches her egg turn green. The twins were fascinated by the whole color changing process.




Evie watching Gavin work on his eggs:




"Can we color more eggs?"(Francis only boiled 36 of them!)




Gavin was very careful with his eggs, and was able to use the little bunny ear tongs as well as the old-school wire holders:

After a while, Evie decided she was done coloring and gave her color cups to Gavin. She enjoyed watching him multi-task with 5 eggs at once.

Evie and Grandpa with the finished eggs. Evie was quite proud of them! (and Gavin would enjoy cracking most of them open a week later).

After eggs, Gavin wanted to play out in the back yard. He worked on golf with Grandpa:

They played football and soccer, too:




Our neighbor Nick even came over to play with Gavin for a while too.




During the time that Gavin was playing outside, there were two times that he stopped and said, "I want to check on my sister." So I opened the sliding door for him to stick his head in, and he said to Evie (sitting at the kitchen table), "Evie, are you OK?" She would nod and give him a thumbs-up. Now, Gavin had never done this before. Could he tell that something was not right with Evie that day? I'd like to think so; one cannot fathom the depth of their "twin bond."

When the kids woke up from naps, we drove over to Grandpa and Grandma Cordes' house for a delicious Easter dinner. Grandma had only been home from the hospital for a few weeks after having liver surgery, so she relaxed while the rest of the family did the work. She and Evie opened some more Easter presents:




Me and my siblings (David and Diana):




Uncle David showed Evie some cat videos on his iPhone, something she LOVED doing with him:




Flashlights are fascinating to Gavin. He especially likes to take them apart. He found Grandpa's flashlight and had to show it to Uncle Brad (who is holding his new Strider bike).




Evie ate a lot of ham for dinner (she loved the burnt pieces!) and then sat on the couch with Uncle Brad. They looked at some books and Evie made silly faces.




Just a few minutes after this photo was taken, we said goodbye to everyone and packed the twins up into the minivan. Evie had a wonderful last day on Earth with us, playing with Gavin, visiting with family and enjoying life to the fullest.