Easter weekend this year was full of fun and meaningful events. It began on Friday evening with an intimate Good Friday service at the church which was very a meaningful time of contemplating Christ’s death.
After the service, Tom, Vicki & Ingrid as well as our friends Rebecca & Pisey all came home with us & we fed Ieva her first non-breast milk & non-cereal food: mashed bananas!! She became the evening entertainment as she got all puckered up trying to decide if she liked this new taste. It was very fun to watch her eat!! She’d take a bite, pucker up & look like she was about to yell or cry, but then hear everyone laughing hysterically at the faces she was making & she’s look around & start laughing with us! It was really cute!
Saturday we went to Klaipeda’s old market with the family to see all the Easter goods people were selling. There was everything from uniquely designed Easter eggs to potted Easter grass, to beeswax candles and special pastries, to branches with buds & small leaves and stalks of pussywillows. The market was packed with people & it was fun to be a part of the festivities.
Then we walked down to the ferry port & Ieva got her first boat ride! We took the ferry over to the Curonian spit (the stretch of land that comes up from the 
small piece of Russian below us & ends across the harbor from Klaipeda) and then a bus to the resort town of Nida at the opposite end of the spit. Thankfully, it was a gorgeously sunny day which made it very enjoyable, despite the chilly temperatures. After a trek up the huge sand dune (Andrew took ieva in the front pack & I stayed down with the stroller), we had a leisurely dinner & came home to spend the evening decorating eggs Lithuanian style. 
There are two traditional ways to decorate eggs here – one is to draw on them with wax & then dye them (since the wax doesn’t dye, whatever you design stays white & the effect is really neat) which we didn’t do, and the other is to wrap onion skins around them before boiling them & they come out all different shades of browns with unique markings – almost like a patterned wood grain. We had never tried this before & it was really cool. You can also put a small leaf or flower between the egg & onion skin leaving that shape undyed which is also a nice effect. We also did some of the traditional pastel colored water & vinegar Easter eggs dyes, too.
Our church normally meets at 5pm on Sundays, but we had a special Easter morning service, followed by a pancake brunch at the home of a couple who work at LCC. Both the service & the brunch were really nice! 
Since Monday was a day off, we took the family to an outdoor museum in the 
middle of the country called Rumshishkas. There you can experience examples of traditional Lithuanian life by seeing the different architecture & idiosyncrasies from each region. The Monday after Easter is a good time to go as they do special celebrations & music, as well as sell traditional crafts that give a great feel for Lithuanian history & culture. Tom & Vicki especially enjoyed learning more about our country & Ieva got to ride in her stroller sitting up & facing forward for the first time! It was a fun weekend for all of us!
We decided to do it on April 23rd, as Tom, Vicki & Ingrid would still be here & could participate, and it was the last Sunday of the academic year which meant our last Sunday with the bulk of our LCC community members present. It also happened to be the Sunday on which I had been asked to lead the worship service...but Stephanie stepped in to lead the dedication service.
She did a lovely job and made the experience very meaningful to us. As I looked out over the faces of those I've shared my life with and come to know and love during the past four years, I was touched to see how many seemed truly committed & excited to partner with us in raising Ieva in the nurture & admonition of the Lord. We are truly thankful for this community.
