Easter 2013.

Easter 2013 was ... weird.

It wasn't bad.  It was just different.

We woke up and found what the bunny had left for the boys - some nice, modest baskets with a few small toys, a bubble bucket, and a giant bubble jug.  I don't understand why society has turned Easter into Christmas these days, but with the exception of maybe a special year or 2, Easter is going to remain normal here in our little family.

But, I digress.

The bunny hid some candy-filled eggs in the backyard, which the boys Brennan found in approximately 60 seconds.  Because while the bunny thought that it might be smart to just leave a few in the grass for the Brothers to pick up, big brother obviously went for those first.

It took some reminding coercion bribery strong words but eventually he helped his little brothers find a few eggs ... but only a few.

They were perfectly content with that though, because while Brennan found the eggs, they emptied them ... directly into their mouths.  At one point I told Brian that we could play "guess how many pieces of candy are in Kiernan's mouth" like those games where you have to guess how many M&Ms are in a jar.  My guess was 642.  He just rolled his eyes at me.  Standard.

So while the boys were egg-hunting and I was stalking them with the camera, Brian was sitting in the chair screaming in pain if anyone got within 4 feet of him.  I moved them all to the back porch, threw 2 Vicodin into Brian's mouth, and went inside to cook breakfast.

We ate breakfast on the back porch and then moved the boys in to watch TV while Daddy closed his very heavy eyelids.  I went to get dressed for church and when I came back out, there was drool coming from the corner of Brian's mouth and his eyelids barely flinched when I called his name.

So I was left with 3 options:  A.) Take Brennan to mass with me and leave the Brothers with Daddy ... who was currently in a Vicodin coma.  B.)  Take all 3 boys to mass with me.  C.)  Stay home, wipe up Brian's drool, and go with that whole "God is loving, accepting, & forgiving" concept.

I wasn't really in the mood to go to jail for child endangerment/neglect (option A) or be committed to the mental institution (option B), so I settled for option C.  The rest of the day was much like most other days, except I was wiping 4 drooly faces instead of only 3.

Later in the day, after a nice long nap for all 5 of us, I made the boys get dressed for an obligatory Easter photo.  In exchange for their cooperation, and since we weren't going anywhere but the backyard, I let them choose their own footwear.

Flip flops, crocs, and rain boots.  We keep it real, folks.

The cripple was feeling alive enough to try to help wrangle the crazies for picture time.  This was not an easy task, but with the help of bribery and bubbles, we accomplished it.  Kind of.

Next came more bubbles, some digging, and lots of meltdowns.  Just another day in the Gase family!

Eventually we realized that the boys needed to eat right now and Mommy had failed to put dinner in the oven.  Brian decided that Vicodin went well with chinese food, so off I went to retrieve a nice, traditional Easter dinner.  Because nothing says "He Is Risen!" like fried rice and General Tso's.

So, as I said, it was a weird Easter.  Not bad, but weird.  I guess it's one for the memory books, if nothing else.   At least we spent it together.  It's always nice to just be with our little family.   We'll try again next year.