We enjoyed a wonderful Easter this year, and we hope you did, too! Here's the photo recap.
Let's see, to kick off the excitement of the holiday weekend, on Thursday night we got a surprise ring at our doorbell. When we opened the door we found a letter from, none other, than the Easter Bunny himself. To say that Elizabeth was excited would be an understatement. When she saw the note and I read it--her eyes were saucers! She jumped up and down all over the house and couldn't believe the Easter Bunny had come to our house!
Elizabeth was VERY excited about helping the Easter Bunny! When we went shopping for items, she picked up everything she saw, so excited, telling me how the kids might like this or like that. Both kiddos made cards to add to the baskets. This one was TOO cute to donate. Anyway, when we dropped the baskets off at the donation site, I rolled down my window and said (loud enough so the kids could hear) "We got a letter from the Easter Bunny that he needs our help donating these Easter Baskets... is this where we drop them off?" Thankfully, the woman in charged chimed right in, "Why, yes! I'm the Easter Bunny's helper. Thank you so much for helping me today!" It was priceless! And how cool that we got to help the Easter Bunny?!
Next up... time to Dye Eggs. On Friday night, we decided to do just that.
Both kiddos really got into adding stickers and dunking their eggs into the colors. Liam dunked his toy car a time or two, as well! And surprisingly, daddy also got REALLY into coloring his eggs w/crayons. You should have seen his focus! Lol! It was a fun family activity--and I wish we had the energy to do more stuff like that together each night. I think the kids really enjoyed it!
On Saturday morning, following soccer, we headed over to our town's Egg Hunt. We ended up missing the 0-4 year old egg hunt by 5 minutes... but fortunately, they said it was fine for us to join in with the next group.
The kiddos watched (fairly) patiently while 4,000 eggs were thrown out all over the lawn. Then they counted down from 10... and the kiddos took off! I promise, all of those eggs were gone in less than a minute, and I am NOT joking!
I loved how during the hunt, Elizabeth would shake the eggs... if they sounded empty, she'd throw them back. If she could tell there was something inside, she'd add it to her basket. Strategy I tell ya!
Liam was a little fussy at this point. We'd been waiting for the egg-hunt to start for probably 10 minutes. Meanwhile, he could see the Jumpy Houses in the distance, and that's ALL he could think about. He just REALLY wanted to go over there. Forget these darn eggs!
After Sissy showed him there was candy inside, he was a different boy, though!
"Hey guys! Look at mama! Smile! Say cheese! Look at the camera!" This was all I got--lol. It's amazing how well they can focus when it comes to candy.
My pretty girl.
Then we decided to head over to check out the jumpy houses. There was one that was just their size, so we threw them in. They both had a BLAST! Even Liam was jumping and bouncing all over that thing like a total big boy!
And of course, this was old hat for Elizabeth.
Next up, face paint. We've actually never done face paint, and every time we are some place that does it, Elizabeth wants it. Well, I told her the line was very long and asked if she was sure she wanted to do it. She said yes. We waited and waited, and when it was our turn.... what do you think happened?
She threw herself down in hysterics, of course! Sigh. This is happening more and more frequently. She just gets stressed and overwhelmed, and scared, and she loses it. It's crazy because she's always been my fearless, barge-into-any-circumstance-with-no-fear little girl. I'm hoping this is just a phase. Fortunately, the clown was very patient, and let her sit on my lap while she painted a butterfly on her hand, instead. Silly goose!
While Sissy and I were doing that, Liam and daddy made a friend at the egg collection area. Notice how nice and neat the area is--all the eggs have been put back in these boxes for next year.
Then this happened.
Egg Fight!
Apparently, he and the little boy he befriended thought it would be great fun to throw the eggs at each other. They were laughing and having the best time. I'm fairly certain they both thought this was WAY better than some silly egg hunt.
By the time I got done w/face paint (or hand paint) this is what it looked like--lol. We did clean up, btw!
When we got home, I tried to get a few more pictures of my crew. Not an easy task.
Anyway, that night we decided to do "Empty Tomb Cookies" (thanks Sara for the idea!) which you can read about HERE. It was such a great way for the family to focus on the scriptures leading into Easter--and to connect those scriptures with a little baking. Liam wasn't paying a bit of attention, and this was WAY over his head. But he sat on daddy's lap while Vassil read the scriptures, and Elizabeth helped with the directions.
I wondered if this would be a little over her head, but I think she got it. We'd read a scripture and I'd ask a question, and she'd answer in a way that I knew she understood some of what daddy read. Then we'd follow the directions and talk more about it.
For example, we read a verse about Jesus being beaten... then we hammered our nuts to symbolize that he was beaten. We read about him being offered vinegar, and added vinegar. A verse about the women's tears, and we sprinkled salt. A verse about God's love (which is so sweet) and we added sugar.
After following all the steps, you then put the cookies in the oven and "seal the tomb" (i.e. shut the oven door). And then you wait until morning to see what will happen.
The next morning, the cookies were supposed to be hollow--representing the empty tomb, and the resurrection of our Lord. Unfortunately, ours did not turn out. They were NOT hollow--in fact, they were still gooey (albeit totally yummy!) I'm not sure what we did wrong (I wonder if I made mine too big?) but I was still glad we did the activity the night before, even though the "big finish" didn't quite work out. Hopefully I get the recipe down pat for next year. I think this will become a tradition for sure!
We woke up early the next morning as we needed to be up, dressed, and ready for church about an hour before we normally do. When we woke Elizabeth, she ran to the window to see if she could see any eggs. She was SO excited when she saw some in the yard!
The kids had a blast checking out their Easter baskets. Liam adored this little yellow motorcycle and carried it around all day. "My bike!" he told everyone.
Sissy loved gathering all the eggs from the house and the yard and checking out her basket.
Then it was time to get ready for church.
There's my little nutbrown hare. "I love you this much!"
Liam didn't want to cooperate. He wanted to hold daddy's keys, and his motorcycle, and wasn't too thrilled when mommy wanted to put them in his pocket to take a picture. Silly mommy. But I did get... one.
Since it's rare for us to all be dressed up, when we got to church we asked our friend, Eli, to take a picture of us all together. My mom bought me this white dress when I was in Kansas last, and it is totally going to double as a beach dress for some portraits at the beach this summer! Thanks mom! It's always nice to wear something new--something I don't get to do much these days.
After church, the kids were excited to go play with their Easter loot. As you can see, spoiled rotten.
As mentioned, the motorcycle was the biggest hit with Liam. Elizabeth loved her Tinkerbell DVD, along with her "scooters" (her word for rollerblades).
We had lots of peeps, and jelly beans, and chocolates--and have been on a chocolate high all weekend! And Elizabeth has been practicing her "scooters" all weekend, too. I probably shouldn't let her do this on our hardwoods. But oh well.
Anyway, we hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We are so blessed and we cherished all our fun family traditions (old and new) and look forward to celebrating again next year!
He Lives!
He Lives!
From our family to yours...
