Despite getting a trophy for being the most valuable part of her age group, Madeleine decidedly opted to act like a toddler and set a great example for all her teammates by doing this with her cupcake:
After the girls went to bed last night, I agonized over where to hide their Easter baskets. I was out of fresh, new ideas, and wanted to make my hiding spots challenging enough to merit a search but not so challenging that I would need to guide the kids along the whole time. Julia is a ridiculously good hider in "Hide and Seek" and also tends to find hidden things *really* easily. Madeleine is less able, as recently evidenced in her game of "Three-Digit Scoot." I finally settled on hiding Julia's basket in Shannon's room, underneath her clothes rack and behind her row of shoes. I hid Madeleine's on the window sill, behind the curtain in the play room.
This morning, nice and early, the kids burst into my bedroom to wish me a Happy Easter. They were bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready to hunt for their baskets. I took a moment to get myself out of bed and then went downstairs, to find them both snuggling with Auntie Shannon in her bed.
ME: Are you gonna look for your Easter baskets?
JULIA: We're just really cold, so we had to get in bed.
ME: Well, Julia, I'll tell you one thing: you're definitely getting WARMER in here.
JULIA: Why? Because I'm in bed?
ME: I'd just say that if you're looking for your Easter basket, you're getting WARMER.
JULIA: Why? Because we're under the blankets?
ME: If you want to look for your Easter basket, you're pretty WARM already.
JULIA: What? Why am I warm?
ME: Where you are right now, you're definitely WARM.
JULIA: What?
MADELEINE: (speaking slowly, as if to a child) I *think* what Mommy's trying to say is that YOUR EASTER BASKET IS IN THIS ROOM, Julia.
Despite that super obvious hint, Julia proceeded to follow Madeleine and I out of the room as Madeleine went to search for her own basket.
JULIA: Mommy? Can you just tell me whether my basket is hidden upstairs or downstairs?
ME: Honey. I just gave you a HUGE hint.
JULIA: You did? What was it?
ME: Oh my God. Madeleine, can you please tell Julia where your Easter basket is?
MADELEINE: It's in Auntie Shannon's room.
JULIA: It is? I didn't know that!
Seriously?!? So much for expecting her to be a whiz at finding her basket.
At long last, both girls came across their baskets, and were able to peruse their loot:
Later in the morning, Julia, Madeleine, Yiayia and I headed to church for the Easter Vespers service, whereat I discovered the secret behind keeping Madeleine quiet and still. Apparently, all it takes is a lit candle:
She sat and stood so erect and without a murmur that I was shocked. At one point, I leaned over and whispered to her.
ME: (murmuring to Madeleine) You're showing me SUCH good behavior today.
MADELEINE: (whispering back without moving her head in my direction) This is TERRIFYING.
ME: Why??
MADELEINE: What if we light something on fire and burn down the entire CHURCH?
Luckily, nobody burned down the church, and we got out of the service and off to the following Easter egg hunt without calamity.
When we returned from church, we played the traditional Greek egg-cracking game called tsougrisma. My family had grown up calling this game by a much simpler term: "Chingety-Mingety." Hence, this is what my daughters also refer to the game as. I displayed the carton of decorated eggs to all the players, allowing them to pick a color:
You'll notice the dark red egg in the bottom left slot; red eggs are a traditional part of Orthodox Easter, and are given out at the end of the service on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Madeleine had asked me to hold hers after the service so that she could go on the Easter egg hunt, and I promptly dropped it and cracked it on the pew floor. Madeleine allowed me to put the egg in our carton to replace a previously eaten egg so that we had a full set.
MADELEINE: Oh, my red egg is in here, but I'm not gonna use it, because it already got Chingety-Minged!
This year's Tsougrisma champion was Julia, much to Madeleine's chagrin. I was out on my first two attempts, cracking both ends of my egg, but both Rowe girls held strong until the very end. Julia just edged out Madeleine by a hair (or hairline fracture,) and she is probably as proud of her victory as she was by yesterday's trophy. Hey, it takes a lot of talent to be BOTH a fast swimmer AND a champion uncracked egg-holder!
Happy Easter to my fellow Orthodox blog-readers!
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