Passover, Easter and Shmita!

April was a busy month with holidays, our third winter and actually attending celebrations and events in person. Tony even traveled for work! We've really enjoyed reuniting with family and friends...doing things we did with just our immediate family last year and the year before...and we're eager to keep it up as the weather and temps improve!

For starters, a few gals from the neighborhood book club and I tried a new wine and jazz bar in OTR that's both black- and female-owned. 💪 Such a fun evening! 

This month marks twenty years that Tony and I will be married. We figured you can't start celebrating too early, so we had a delicious dinner out in early April! 

It turns out that exactly ONE of my new coworkers from my new job--still remote--lives in Cincy! We met for brunch and had a great time getting to know one another. It's fun to talk admissions with someone in the field AND he's a Duke grad. Turns out we have two wonderful friends in common!💙

Last year, when international admissions waned due to COVID and the kids were home with virtual learning, the timing seemed perfect to lean into a volunteer opportunity: I co-chaired our synagogue's assistant rabbi and educator search! It was a fair amount of work, but very enjoyable. Our committee chose Rabbi Erin (below with me and Renee)!

She has fit right in at Rockdale and (as she organizes religious school every Sunday) the kids adore her. A few weeks back, we had a full weekend of celebratory events for her Installation, including this one at Copper & Flame! 

Then it was time for Passover and Easter with Tony's folks! It was nice to have several days to relax with them. They played cards...

And crocheted with the grandparents. 

And we hit a trampoline park, too!

Nonno and Nonna picked out a new bed for Blossom at Costco. Gosh, was she HAPPY!

That weekend, Bas had his first baseball game. It was one of the cutest things we've ever seen. Check out his first at bat!! (He was the final batter of the inning, which is why he got to run ALL of the bases.)

Here we are at the beginning of our seder. Happy Passover!!

Lots of reading and nibbling on those special once-a-year foods.

The kids were excited to share what they know about the holiday. 

As always, we hid one afikomen per child (= less sibling rivalry). Brie found hers first! 

The next day, Samuel joined the grandparents for Easter mass and then we had a delicious lunch together...with plenty of chocolate!

And eggs! 

Speaking of, I was jogging recently and saw some lawn ornament Easter eggs in a neighbor's yard and thought, "Those look exactly like the candy eggs that Beth and I loved as a kid!" Wouldn't you know it? They have them on Amazon. I paid way too much for two bags of candy and gave them to the kids after they found the afikomen (sounds like the start of a new Eastover tradition, doesn't it?), BUT the kids did NOT like them! 😅 I thought they still tasted pretty good, but I was in the minority. I'm planning to share the rest with Beth! 

Later that week, Tony flew to Chicago to be the keynote speaker for the lecture series created in honor of our dear friend Danielle. The kids and I were not home, so we watched Tony on Zoom. His lecture was excellent and his dedication to Danielle (complete with personal stories and photos) at the end was really touching. (Here's Tony--top right)

Tony's former boss and nearly everyone from their lab in NC Zoomed in for the lecture. Even Nonno joined! 

Very heartwarming to see old faces! 💜

Here's the chat from during and after. 💗

Then we capped off an awesome month with one of our favorite times of the year: Rockdale's Family Retreat! It was the seventh retreat (with a virtual one last year) and we've attended them all!! The theme was Shmita and we learned all about how the earth needs a rest every seventh year...and how we can be more intentional with our own breaks...and make an effort to care for on another more. 

On the first night, a non-Rockdalian was walking through the lodge and spilled his cocktail all over Sebastian! He reeked! So the only answer was a quick bath with a snack, of course!!

Followed by an arcade game or two! 

After the kiddos went to bed, it was karaoke time! Renee and I sang "Sweet Caroline." 

The next morning was Shabbat! We helped with the blessings for wine and food!

We had the most gorgeous weather that weekend, so we were outdoors quite a lot! 

Lunch with buddies! 

Learning about wild birds!

This year's social action project was making "plarn" (plastic yarn from grocery bags) and crocheting waterproof sleeping mats for the homeless. Brie was the lone crocheter in the entire retreat! She taught us all how to do it! 

S'mores after dinner! 

And then movie night, complete with onesies! 

We watched Encanto. It never gets old! 

Snuggles! 

The next morning we took a walk by the lake! Lucky us to get away for a weekend and feel like we had a real retreat from our nutty lives!**

Hooray for a month of togetherness!

P.S. Today Brie and I are kicking off a pescatarian lifestyle for a month. We've been looking forward to it. May the fork (and chopsticks) be with us! Ha! 

P.P.S. Blossom is tired of rain. She says, "We're ready for sunshine every day!"

**I know what you're wondering. Was it safe to attend a retreat with many families? Well...we all had to be up-to-date on vaccines and test negative with a rapid test before going. And did that work? Almost! Thanks to masks, nearly everybody stayed healthy. A few people tested positive right after the retreat, but it's tough to know the cause (Before the retreat--but finally positive after? During the retreat? After the retreat?), but it was a very small number. Phew!