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Good morning!  This morning I got to give Mom an Easter basket, and I rather like the way this one came out!  It's a "White House in Bloom" themed one, with cherry blossoms all in there, and various official White House items from the historical society.  There are two ornaments in there, one for Easter 2026 and the other a really nice one with cherry blossoms sweeping in front of the White House there, very nice.  To go with the cherry blossom theme, I added a few bottles of Mom's favorite shower gel, a Japanese cherry blossom scent from Bath and Body Works.  

The rabbit is wearing a little bandana that is from the White House 2026 Easter celebration, also another purchase from the historical society.  And then there's the eggs:

These are the eggs that will be used in the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn this year.  Obviously, these particular eggs won't make it, but these are the colors and designs of the eggs that will be there with the White House logo on the front, dated 2026, and with the signatures on the back of the President and First Lady.  They're made of wood, and actually pretty nice.

Beneath all that, there are some of Mom's favorite Crunchy bars that I picked up recently, and also a few Cadbury eggs from the British import shop.  I'll probably be eating those eggs!  But overall the basket turned out really nice - as did this entire day.  It's Good Friday, the start of Easter Weekend.  We'll have updates in a bit!

Today is Good Friday, and Mom had me pick up a traditional item that you're supposed to eat on Good Friday, and that is a hot cross bun.  One of the side effects of hot cross buns is singing that incessant song inside your head over and over each time you mention hot cross buns.  You may be doing it now.  Nevertheless, the three of us had a nice quick breakfast this morning, one featuring... wait for it... hot cross buns.  And they were actually pretty good!  I haven't had one of these in a long, long time, but you know how it is!

Passover meal, Chosen Last Supper, Good Friday service, picking up ham, taekwondo, virtual moon walking, Braves win again, updates coming soon...

Coloring Easter Eggs

We did our Easter eggs tonight!  This year, we boiled a few dozen of them and that gave everyone plenty to try out - including Nate!

He came over a little later and here we are at our one-year anniversary, at least for coloring Easter eggs.  Nate was with us last year doing this same thing!  Anyway, this year was fun, because Mom was doing some different eggs, as was I too.  

I created some gnome eggs that you can see here, using a kit that was provided.  These little guys look cute, especially with their bunny ears and riding these geese!

We were all using the spinner again this year too, this device that holds an egg in place and spins it as you use your marker.  We used this in combination with other techniques for some pretty cool looking eggs.

Mom was doing some really nice ones with these egg-wraps.  She'd first dye them in different softer colors and then she put the wraps around them.  When submerged in boiling water, the wraps suddenly shrink down and cling to the surface of the egg as you see.  These turned our really well!

This egg seems worried about something?

This egg was colored using a unique device that we'll show you in a moment.  It's an unusual combination of colors though.  It actually looks kind of like an alien egg!

The spin-art eggs turned out really well tonight, as we added markers and colors for some unique combinations.  These were dipped in dye first, and then we used the markers afterwards.  Or sometimes we reversed the process.

Nate made some unique eggs combining colors and using the paper towels to rub in patterns and abrasions. 

I did this one, coloring the egg blue first, and then using the spinner to make the patterns of lines.

Ah!  Tradition!  Maddie made her famous egg with three crosses on a hill tonight, adding some small speckles to the landscape below.

Maddie added a nice spectrum of colors on this one.  We were getting creative tonight!

The texture on this blue egg is just so cool.  Nate made this egg, one of my favorites of the night.

Maddie wanted to do an Irish flag for one of the eggs, so there it 'tis!

Okay, here's the other device we tried out tonight.  You take a room-temperature boiled egg and put it in the spinning device.  Then you add 8-10 drops of dye or more, although not directly on the egg.  Then seal up the plastic and use the plunger above to spin the egg and dye inside around, almost like it's in a washing machine.

You wind up with some pretty interesting results, particularly when mixing different colors.  It sort of came out with a tie-dye look about it.

It was a fun night.  Maddie and Nate played some games, watched a few episodes of Phineas and Ferb, and we had dinner too, of course.  It was a good evening together.

As Nate was leaving, the next Braves game was starting, so we watched that for a while - the Braves went on to crush the Arizona Diamondbacks 17-2 in a night where all nine Braves in the hitting rotation got at least one RBI.  

Maddie and I read for a bit tonight before bedtime, and then we said our prayers together with Mom, and then it was time to try to get some rest.

Here's my post card for the day, part of my virtual "Moon Walk," which has been great.  On the treadmill, I"m watching the outstanding series "From Earth to the Moon" as I walk along.  This path is 100 miles, and along the journey you learn a bit about the race to the moon.  So far we've met Alan Shepherd and heard JFK's speech about getting to the moon by the end of the decade.  

Coincidentally, the Artemis II is ready to head to the moon today.  After going around the earth a few orbits, the space craft is about to return to an orbit around the moon, something no one has done in fifty years or so.  It's such a thrilling time to see the space program soar.  We'll be back at Kennedy Space Center soon, as I imagine many others will.  

Earlier today at the office, we were setting up for Easter weekend.  That crown of thorns on the cross above is super realistic - one of those authentic things that really can cut you if you're not careful.  It's a full-sized crown, and this large cross looks impressive on the wall as you enter the church.  Our church's worship team is actually at the White House, which is pretty awesome. 

We were giving out four baskets this morning to friends at the church, just for fun.  This one above is for Camille's daughter, Bonnie.   She loved it!

And here's Maddie in the passenger seat as we go through the car wash.  So much pollen in the air, so we decided to take one of the cars over to the car wash, that way Nana and Ye-Ye could give her a driving lesson where Maddie could see through the windshield!  Seriously, the yellow sludge was getting thick.  But Maddie had a short driving lesson this afternoon too, and that went well.

It was a good day.  The blood pressure is up and down, and there are stomach issues - not sure what's up, other than me.  I'm typing this pretty late - or early, depending on your point of view.  I'll have to get this figured out hopefully soon.

Artemis II

What a historic moment!  Once again we were here to see a rocket launch, and what a momentous occasion this was.  The Artemis II had a successful launch this evening under perfect weather conditions, taking a crew of four astronauts upwards to the heavens on a very special mission.  This space craft will be taking these astronauts around the earth a few orbits, and then head off to circle the moon.  We haven't done this in fifty years.  The technology is more advanced now, and certainly more roomy compared to the  Apollo mission crafts.  But step one was a big one as it seemed the whole nation was watching and counting down with Mission Control.  It's just a really cool, positive thing.  We were watching and talking with friends as we did so, and all of us were getting surprisingly pretty emotional in a good way.  So much pride in our nation and our abilities and achievements as a people.  

Along those lines, today I stared a new virtual marathon, this one based on the great Space Race to the moon in the 1960's.  There's a cool badge earned at the end, and all kinds of videos, postcards and areas to explore along the way.  The virtual map with the launch of a mission to the destination and finally returning home - it's all really awesome.  I plugged in one of my favorite series on the subject, episode one of "From Earth to the Moon," and got walking a little "moon walk."  It'll be a great time following this path and watching all these great themed movies and videos.

So today is also April 1st, or April Fool's Day.  I started off the day at the office where we saw roughly 250 tiny little ducks all over our desks.  This was Ansley's thing of course, as she loves ducks.  Anyway, here are just a few of them - I had to take pictures to send home to Mom.

At home tonight, Maddie was making her own dang quesadillas, all set up with her headphones, a stool, and a spatula!

Not bad!  And meanwhile, Mom and I were heading down to Braselton's campus - they're taking up the carpet and redoing some of the hallways there.  

 We were there to drop off a few things, then get some items for Easter, and then get home quickly - there was another game tonight as the Braves defeated the A's, winning the series overall two games to one.  We saw just enough of that on BravesVision before picking up where we left off on our Spiderthon, watching the next Spider-man movie, "Homecoming."  Another classic!  It was late when we were finished with that, but we still made time to read from this new Discworld book, "Thud!"  After that, prayers... and some much-needed rest (the blood pressure is a little wonky this week!).