Day #34: The one where the girl gets trampled

There is something to be said for Easter in London! Granted, we missed having a picnic with family, going to church at New Break, hitting up Disneyland with the Ketchum's (one of our favorite Easter's by the way), and celebrating Kristyn's big Easter B-Day. However, if you can't be at home for such a special day, the old cathedrals, shady spring trees, Easter dresses, and stylish Easter hats of London are a close second.

We decided to start the beautiful holiday by hitting up our local church here in Islington for Easter service.

We knew that the service started at 11, but we didn't know what kind of church it was. When we got there, we realized it was the Church of England...when in Rome right? The congregation was dressed in their Easter best and it was so fun to see all the little one's with their frilly dresses, tights, and tiny suit coats. The service actually ended up being very similar to a Catholic mass with very few differences here and there. The biggest difference was a demonstration instigated by the priest.

During his sermon, he discussed how we should all go to Jesus with the excitement of a child. It was a wonderful visual and it made us smile to think of the hypothetical analogy. However, the HYPOTHETICAL analogy quickly became something more.

Let us pause here and remind you of the typical behavior of british children: Do sharp pencils and buckets of water ring a bell? If not, refer to the one with the supply teaching luncheon.

Let us proceed...

So, the priest says, "For this demonstration, I am going to need all of the children's group to help me out." "YAY," thinks Shayne who loves a child demo! We hear all 20 kids start to gather in the back of the church. Up to this point, they had been at a little table in the back making sweet Easter gardens out of clay. Now, remember the HYPOTHETICAL analogy? Good! Here we go. The priest then says, "Let us watch the joy of a child when they run to the arms of Jesus." Shayne says outloud, "Oh no, not a good idea!" The priest then says, "Run my children, run to the alter!" All 20 kids, ages 2-12, take off at a dead sprint down the center aisle of the church. They get to the front - success! Shayne breathes a sigh of relief that the child chaos was over and no one has been hurt. The priest clearly needs a lesson in child tendencies because he says, louder this time, "RUN, RUN again, and back up to the front!" Ok, with children, don't push your luck. The first time they do something out of the ordinary, you can count on them to be hesitant and on their best behavior. As they do something again and again, and it becomes too familiar - watch out! So now, there are children in their little suits and dresses absolutely tearing up and back down the aisle. They are going at different speeds and different directions as the older ones start to lap the younger ones. Some of the congregation is laughing at the visual demo, Jake chuckles, Shayne cringes, the priest looks like he isn't sure how he created this madness and then...sure enough...you know what happens next! A little blond boy with a combover hair-do runs giggling down the aisle, turns on a dime, and plows chest first, into a 5 year old little girl who is just covered in white lace and bows. She never saw it coming and is just whacked down flat on her back. You could hear the whole church suck in their breath through their teeth as they watch the rest of the antelope children stampede over top of her. No one rushes to her aid, there is no one there to help! Shayne has a glimpse into what her first day of supply teaching will be like with these animals! Finally, an older boy sees what's happened and stops the rush to help pick her up.

 We had to give the little girl credit. No tears at all! She just brushed off her little dress and rejoined the pack. It seems that this was not something out of the ordinary at St. Marys! We laughed about it later thinking these kids are in the car on their way saying, "Please mommy, please don't make me go to that church!" HA! Here is the best part though. Now that the priest had opened this can of worms without any restrictions on the rugrats, for the rest of the service you could see a radical 4 year old just tearing down the aisle whenever they felt like it. You know kids, if it's ok the first time and the second, why not do it again?

After church we came back to the Money Pit and read for awhile. We were just enjoying the afternoon when the Easter miracle of 2011 occurred. Now, if you remember, receiving our first care package box was like trying to get a ladybug to make honey! However, there was a knock on the door - ON EASTER SUNDAY! - and there stood a FedEx guy. It was like the Easter Bunny had arrived. Jake asked, "Wait, do you even deliver on Sundays?" We opened the box to find all sorts of Easter surprises from Shayne's mom: candy, magazines, scratcher tickets, Steeler's mugs (our first non-disposable cups since living here), and even the HP7 DVD! Thanks Mama! What a treat!

So, with the Easter excitement we headed down the road to Keston. We spent the afternoon playing Canasta with our friends (aka - the waiters and bartenders) at our favorite neighborhood joint. Shayne would like to add here that she beat Jake really big. It is tradition that the Singleton ladies always win on holidays and she kept the Singleton success alive! We ended the holiday with our first traditional Sunday roast from Keston Lodge. All-in-all it was a beautiful holiday spent in London! Happy Easter everyone.

Lessons Learned: 1) Don't run in church, 2) Don't let your child attend children's group at St. Mary's in Islington, London, 3) Don't underestimate the power of a FedEx man on an Easter candy sugar high, 4) Don't challenge a Singleton lady to any game on any holiday - Arbor Day included.