I’ve been working on organizing photographs, updating old blog posts and getting my external hard-drive nice and organized while I have a little downtime. I was editing photos earlier this morning and realized that I had a couple of pretty important life-events that never made the blog. Easter was already a busy weekend for us and we threw in some last minute travel, so my normal posting schedule went out the window. Who cares if it’s a month later and practically summer, because I have pretty pictures to share!
If you’ve been reading for long, you’ll know that we’ve been in a major transition, church-wise, for the last eighteen months. Last Easter was the first time in almost thirty years that I celebrated in a different place and as it turns out, we were at another church this year. I think it’s safe to say we’ve found our church home, but for the second year in a row we were learning “new” holiday routines. Since we attend a pretty large local fellowship and later Sunday-morning services are popular, it’s always possible you might find yourself without a seat. Since we didn’t want to feel rushed or show up for a standing-room-only service, we opted to attend services on Good Friday instead. I’ll admit that it was really weird to come home from work and get all dressed up for Easter, but it was also a lot of fun!
Perhaps the funniest part is that since we always take a family photos in the same spot every Easter (you can see a few previous years at the end of this post), we were standing in our front yard, all dressed up, operating a camera/tripod/remote while the high-school parking lot across the street filled up for baseball games. We pressed on, but I’m sure there were lots of eyerolls from the husband while I wasn’t looking.
On Saturday morning, we decided to hit up a local “Eggstravaganza” to let the kids play outside and burn off some energy. It’s a little hard to tell in these iPhone photos, but the weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time. I need to tell you that Ella was less than thrilled about this “baby activity,” but she was a huge helper and did end up in the bounce house despite her protestations. We are fighting a battle with things that are too young for her these days!
We met the Easter bunny and had to explain to Hudson that there was a man in there, because he would NOT have it. After that, he just asked “what man?” every time we crossed paths with the bunny for the rest of the day! The little kids got their faces painted and were later divided up into age groups for an egg hunt. Sophie had estimated exactly how many eggs she might find and was a little disappointed to have fallen several (or twenty) eggs short.
Can I tell you a funny story? Do you promise not to judge? Let me preface this whole thing by saying that I fully believe that little people can have real and impactful salvation experiences, okay? Ella met Jesus and was baptized at a young age (as was I), so I’m not being critical at all. The thing is, this is just too funny not to share. The event was put on by a local church and they had so many fun experiences for the kids to enjoy. While the egg hunt was being prepared, the kids were corralled into age groups in the elementary school gym and introduced to a few Bible stories and praise music. My girls loved it and recognized several of the songs. This is a fantastic ministry opportunity and it was so cool to see hearts genuinely turned toward Jesus. Now for the funny part. At the end of the service, they asked us to bow our heads and pray and then the leadership asked us to raise our hands if we had a salvation experience. What do you think happens when you say the words “raise your hand” in a room full of elementary aged children who aren’t paying attention? Exactly. They passed out cards to anyone with a raised hand (Sophie included) and wanted you to share your experience. Let me tell you that Sophie was LIVID that I wouldn’t let her fill the card out and return it. I asked her a few questions and it was clear that she had no idea what they were asking or why her hand was raised, so I quietly (and quickly) tucked the card into my pocket. This is what prompted me to have her estimate the number of eggs she would find. I needed a distraction, and fast!
After the egg hunt, we decided to spend the afternoon with my sister and Hudson dyeing Easter eggs and playing outside. We encountered a few sprinkles later in the day, but for the most part the weather was perfect and the kids all played so well together!
Once the eggs were done, the kids broke out the sidewalk chalk and ran around in the grass for a few hours while Kamin and I tried to ignore them (I kid. Sort of.). Fortunately, she has a great backyard with no street access, so we got lots of adult conversation in while they rolled down the hill.
That night, we left our paper eggs out for the Easter Bunny and made sure to go over the “no peeking” rules with the girls. I guess I didn’t realize that families did Easter any different than we do until I started blogging. When we were little, the bunny came in the middle of the night and hid the eggs inside the house for us to find. In exchange, he left our baskets full of small gifts and candy. We still do that now and my kids think it’s the coolest! Since our girls don’t have a designated basket (we have three matching baskets that were mine and my sister’s as little girls), the bunny marked which basket belonged to who, so there was no drama or comparison the next morning!
Sophie got a new sprinkler, beach towel, bathing suit, sunglasses, an outfit, coloring book, hair barrettes, legos, sidewalk chalk and candy.
Ella got a new water bottle, beach towel, bathing suit, sunglasses, an outfit, coloring book, hair barrettes, legos, skip ball and candy.
The eggs were hidden all over the living and dining room and it took them quite a bit of time to find all thirty-six!
Apparently puzzles are kind of hard on a Sunday morning…
We spent the afternoon at my parents’ house for lots of delicious food and a few hours of fellowship with our favorite people. There wasn’t a softball game this year — partly because it rained most of the day and partly because we had a big surprise for the girls later that day. I’ll share more details of our whirlwind 24 hours on the blog next week!
