Easter...a glorious day!

I love Easter! I don't get terribly excited about Easter baskets and eggs and all that, but I love the chance to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for me, and the victory He has every day! I love teaching my kids the resurrection story with my homemade resurrection eggs. (How is it possible he's grown so much in just a year?) I love the fact that so many people come to church on Sunday, that the church is so crowded and people are hearing a life-changing message! I hope the truth of Easter sinks in with you this year. God loves me enough to die for me, when it was ME who deserved to die. And He has the power to triumph over death...so the power of sin has no hold on me any longer! Amen!

We had a great Easter weekend with beautiful weather and fun activities. We got messy and dyed eggs.



We went to church on Sunday morning and got slap worn out by teaching the 4's and 5's...we had 40-45 kids that day! This was afterwards, putting on our smiling faces because we were headed to Mimi and Pa's for lunch! As a side note, I love this picture because I think the last picture I have of the sign on the front of our church was maybe in our wedding album. It's the church where we met, married, and now we're taking our three children. It's wild to think about!


The kids got to hunt for eggs!


Aaron had to run really fast to get them all!


Gonna beat Reed!


My sweet hubby. :-)


Mammaw enjoyed pointing out eggs to the kids.




We even hid some down in the woods by the treehouse-in-progress. Isn't the railing beautiful?


I love having the family together, enjoying the beautiful weather.






Hannah really was at the Easter festivities, but she was upstairs asleep almost all afternoon. She takes really good Sunday naps because she rarely sleeps in the church nursery!

Resurrection Eggs, by Aaron

On Easter Sunday, after lunch, Aaron insisted on having everyone sit down in the living room and hear the "Resurrection Eggs" story. I made the eggs for him a couple of years ago, and it only took a couple of times through the story this year for him to remember the whole thing. He loved to take his eggs to people and tell them the story. So here is a really long video of Aaron telling the story to his cousins and the rest of the family. Aaron is pretty bossy but it's kind of out of character for him to be so bold so I enjoyed watching him lead.

In the eggs are:

1: Leaves (palm branches) - Jesus's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
2: Bread - represents the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples
3: Coins - represent the 30 coins Judas took to betray Jesus
4: Thorny branches - represent the crown of thorns they put on Jesus's head
5: Purple cloth - represents the purple robe they put on Jesus after they beat him.
6: Nails - represent the nails used to nail Jesus to the cross.
7: Dice - represent the soldiers casting lots for Jesus's clothes (Aaron says that Jesus's clothes "cost alot so they played a game to see who would get them.")
8: Sponge - represents the sponge they filled with vinegar and lifted to Jesus's lips when he said he was thirsty.
9: Cross - Jesus then died on the cross.
10: Perfume (on a cotton ball) - represents the expensive perfume used to prepare Jesus's body for burial.
11: A rock (stone) - represents the stone used to seal the tomb.
12: Empty - represents the empty tomb on Sunday morning! He Has Risen!!

Easter pictures, finally!

We got back from our trip to Poppy's house after bedtime on Saturday night, so Sunday morning came quickly! Aaron was very excited about Easter. He had been going over the resurrection eggs story and wanted to recite it to everyone. I am so thrilled he is learning the true meaning of Easter!

We didn't make a big deal about the Easter bunny--in fact, I don't think we mentioned him at all before Sunday morning--but the kids did have a few little books and some bubbles in their Easter baskets Sunday morning. They asked who put them there, and I said, "Oh, well, the Easter bunny." They didn't question it.

Sunday morning at church there was a big cross covered in flowers. We were encouraged to bring flowers to place in the cross, and it made for a great backdrop for family photos after church. I brought roses that Poppy bought for me the day before.

One of my favorite pics was the first one I snapped, and it's overexposed! Bummer! But the kids were being precious!


Claire in her sweet pink and green dress with a white sweater. She loved the dress when we put it on her Sunday morning. She said, "This is a pretty dress! My friends will like to see my pretty dress!"




Aaron is so hard to photograph!






Our attempt at a family shot!


After church we went to Mimi & Pa's for lunch. Since we had been out of town, we had not dyed eggs yet, so we did that while waiting for other family members to arrive. Claire enjoyed passing the time with the matching game that came with the Paas kit.


Chris got really into the egg dying with Aaron.


And Pa helped Claire!




We got in our egg hunt before lunch, just before the rain started. We hid 136 eggs for the 5 kids!!








The rest of the day I apparently didn't pick up my camera--I even took a nap on the couch with everyone talking and playing around me. I was exhausted!!

Easter Egg hunt on the farm

This afternoon I am slap exhausted after taking the kids to a local farm today where they do Easter Egg hayride/hunts and have a petting zoo and playground. I knew that going today would be way too much for my 32-week-pregnant self to handle, but I knew I wanted to do it anyway, so I prodded along. It helped that my good friend Regina e-mailed last night to say she was going too, so we met up! Aaron is quite snotty (allergies!!!) and wasn't feeling great, so we didn't stay long after our picnic lunch.

I got tons of pictures, and I'm just throwing most of the good ones in a slideshow here!


Now it's rest time!!