Good Times, Bad Times

It was not your typical Easter weekend, that's for sure. It started off on a rather bad note, actually. Friday afternoon, Daphne and I were outside enjoying the sunny day and waiting for Kev to get home when our next door neighbor came outside and announced he saw the groundhog. I said, "Yeah, he stays under our shed (above)." And he said, "Yeah, I just bought this trap," pointing to a cage on his deck. WHAT?! So I said, "What will you do if you catch him?" And he informed me that it is illegal to remove trapped animals from your property, so you either have to put them down yourself, or call someone who will come and put them down. Then he went inside. I was in shock. He was talking about SNOOPY, for crying out loud. Now, I know groundhogs are pesky and eat everything in sight, but why not just drop him off in the woods? So after losing a lot of sleep, Kev and I decided that I should call and volunteer us to do just that. Early Saturday morning, I called and left a message letting our neighbor know we'd be happy to take full responsibility for the illegal removal of Snoopy from their property if they indeed caught him. But they have not returned our call, and we haven't seen them outside since. Nor have we seen Snoopy, so I fear we are too late. I even left him a carrot by his hole, and it's still there two days later. The whole situation kinda left a black cloud hanging over us all weekend. Poor Snoopy. He never hurt anybody.

Meanwhile, we tried to keep things normal for the sake of the Peanut, who has no idea that Snoopy might be gone. We colored eggs, which was fun but required a lot of patience. We made Easter milkshakes and watched the Muppets Take Manhattan. And we put out carrots and drew a picture for the Easter Bunny. And in the middle of all this, we took the diapers away. Forever. We spent the weekend dealing with big kid underpants and pull-ups and accidents and so forth. Easter morning, we got up and Daphne got all her cool Easter goodies and treats. At first, she was only interested in candy, but eventually, she started playing with her new toys and had a big time. At one point, she went into the playroom, did a quick survey, and said very matter-of-factly, "There's all my old stuff." But the majority of the morning was spent in our very small downstairs bathroom, waiting for the inevitable to happen:

It had been two days since, well, you know, and we knew she was scared and holding it in. I will spare you the details, but after a lot of jumping and crying with fear, there was finally jumping and crying with joy. Daphne ran around the house singing, "I did it, I did it, I really really did it!" We had the Official Big Kid Underpants Celebration with fried bananas and ice cream at the gas station Thai place down the street. Quite a treat for all of us.

So, overall it was a bittersweet, and definitely memorable Easter weekend. Kev and I were worn out last night. I think we went to bed at about 8:45. Hopefully, Snoopy got away somehow. I'd like to think so.

Next weekend is the Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival. The thing I am most looking forward to doing is going to the new Cajun restaurant that just opened up the street for beignets and chicory coffee. We stopped by on Friday and grabbed menues. It looks SO good. And the owner informed me that soon they will be serving cheese grits for breakfast there. Hallelujah!

And one more quick thing, speaking of grits. We were eating shrimp and grits for dinner on Saturday night, and Daphne out of nowhere said, "Hey guys. Little tiny baby grits are called 'Gritlets.' " She always makes us laugh just when we need it most.

Off to Trader Joe's!