Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday dawned cold and bright, but by the time we left for church, it was snowing! In London! It hasn't snowed all winter here (sorry, Chicago and Cleveland folks) so we were very surprised. Of course, the ground wasn't frozen so everything melted immediately, but it was definitely a memorable departure.


Outside our coffee stop, we were greeted by a lovely older woman in a huge fur hat and coat who had a sweet twinkle about her. She could tell that Brooks was dressed in his fancy hat and coat too, and wished us a "Happy Easter" as we passed. She was clearly on her way to church as well.


As we walked onto the bus stop, I sang the Easter Hymn out loud for my own enjoyment! :-) We attended the HTB "family service" that morning, and sat with Joseph, a young man in our new small group. Church was a bit different - there were no traditional Easter hymns, no lilies being given away, no actual sermon even - they were just trying to make the whole service more child-friendly. I missed the church service from back home, but it was nice to have Brooks with us and to hear the other kiddos softly chattering and stirring around in other parts of the sanctuary. We invited Joseph to join us for brunch and loved getting to know him better over a "full English" in one of our favorite spots.

Brooks had a lot of fun playing with the crayons...


Again, we're working on the concept that they aren't FOOD.


Brooks enjoyed checking out the other kids in the restaurant. He's getting even more social, if that's possible...


A shot of us after brunch with Joseph. We didn't take an Easter "family portrait" but at least we're all in this one! :)


On the way home from brunch, Brooks fell asleep in the stroller,


so when we got home we transferred him to his crib and then Eric and I sat on the couch for three or four hours and just talked. It was a wonderful afternoon of processing different things that we'd both been thinking about, discussing our goals for our time here, how we were both really doing, etc. I think someone told us before we got married that "in order to have quality time, you have to start with quantity time!" We proved it that day as we both loved just getting to re-connect on a quiet afternoon of talking. That evening we went across the street to our pub, the PE, to enjoy the Sunday Roast supper and discovered that lamb with mint sauce is AMAZING! After supper there was a bit more play time with Dada - Brooks loved hammering the balls through...


And shoving them when they just won't go down!


We went to bed so happy that we had one more day of weekend still ahead of us and curled up with our guide books to plan the next day's adventure.

I'll end with a sweet shot of Brooks in his fancy coat and hat after church...