Easter Fun

Early Easter Celebration With Grandpa & Grandma

Easter Day the kids were not really cooperative with taking a picture. So, we didn't actually get a good one of all 3 of them.

Our fruit "basket"

Grace looked so grown up in her polka dot dress!
Titus gets in on the Easter egg hunt at Gramy's house.
Faith discovers her Easter "bag" from Nana.
Our family Easter basket- we have opted to do one family basket instead of individual baskets. Our own twist on the Easter basket tradition.
Our attempt at a family picture.

The girls opened their Easter baskets from Grandpa Rick & Grandma Leeanne early when we were visiting them. As you can tell from Faith's sweatshirt the weather was chilly that day, unlike the beautiful weather on Easter weekend. The girls both loved their new outfits.

On Saturday Nana came to celebrate Easter with us. We packed as much fun in as we could! The girls hunted for their Easter bags, we colored eggs (only pink and purple), made a fun "basket" cake that was a bit of a creative disaster but tasted good, and then got dressed up for church. Our family went to our church's Saturday evening service. Grace made a set of eggs that helped tell the story of Easter. She absolutely loved it and was showing them to anyone who would listen including my dad's Sunday School class the next day. We spent the night at Gramy & Papa's house.

On Easter the kids wore their super cute outfits. We attended church with my family. After church we went to my grandma's house for lunch. She had an Easter egg hunt just for the girls. I always loved the Easter egg hunts she did for us kids when we were little. We always found a few eggs months later. In fact when her house was damaged in the fire they found one in the rubble from when we were little! One of our funnier Eater memories this year was when Uncle Cody took Grace for a walk in the pasture to see his cows. They found a "sleeping" calf that Grace was excited to pet. (It had been killed by lightning, luckily Grace believed Uncle Cody that it was sleeping ;)

Later that day we went back to Gramy & Papa's house for another hunt. Even though the girls were starting to get worn out from a full weekend their excitement returned when they found all their treasures hiding in the yard.

My favorite quote from Grace, "Mom, drive this van and take me to see where Jesus' cross is."

This Easter as I held my only son in my arms I felt a deeper appreciation then ever before for the great sacrifice God made by sending his only son to redeem me. The depth of God's love is beyond my comprehension.

Faith Like A Child

Lately Grace has been very interested in Heaven, acting out Bible stories, & Jesus' death on the cross. Here are some of the ways I've seen her faith developing:

* She drew the above picture of three crosses. She has been asking who the other people were and why they died.

* She continues to ask an unending string of questions about Heaven. What will it be like? When will we go there? How will we get there? Will our yellow house be there? And on and on....

* She asked me why Jesus had to die. I explained he had to die so that we could go to Heaven and be with God. She then replied, "Mama, couldn't God have found another way?" I sadly explained, "No, this was the only way." She thinks its like a destination that you just need to find another route.

*She has been acting out Bible stories with Faith. She has a sparkly blue dress up dress for Mary & a veil/wings for the angel. I have heard her say, "Don't be afraid you are going to have a baby." & "I am rolling away the stone," while rolling around my exercise ball.

*At our church she made a set of "story eggs." Since then she has taught anyone who will listen the story of Easter. She even visited my dad's Sunday School class to tell them. She knows what each one means.

I have found such joy in seeing her grow in her faith. I pray she will continue to have this enthusiasm for Scripture.

Easter Part 2

Faith shows off her find.
Loves from Uncle Cody
Grace finding eggs & special surprises.





The girls had fun opening their Easter basket. We decided to do one basket for them to share. We are considering making this our family tradition to have one family basket for the kids to share. We will see. I thought the girls looked so cute. They were so excited to wear their hats. I decided to enjoy it while they thought it was fun (since I'm thinking that won't last). Then after church we headed to my parents to enjoy dinner with my family. My mom hid easter eggs and all the girls' gifts out of their basket around her yard. Faith didn't get the the concept of hunting for the gifts. Whenever you put one in her basket she would throw it back out, she only wanted eggs. I LOVED spending the time with my family.

I have two favorite memories from this Easter. The first was funny. Whenever anyone would hand my girls an egg (real or plastic) they would try and crack it. To most people it might have looked like banging. But I knew all that cooking with me is sinking in. It was fun to see them connect eggs with cracking them for baking. The other memory is more serious but still sweet. On the way to the Easter party Grace and I were discussing what Easter is really about. We were talking about how Jesus came and died so we could be in Heaven with God some day. I expressed that I really wanted to be in Heaven with God. Grace said, "Me too, our baby is there, and I want to hold her and feed her." I'm so thankful that she trusts God is caring for our baby. And it gave me a whole new reason to be thankful Jesus died & rose again for me.

Easter Fun Part 1

Grace hunting Easter eggs.
My Easter surprise from Jeremy, gorgeous tulips!
Daddy & Faith hunt eggs.
Our very first "crop" of dyed Easter eggs.
Nana helps Faith with her eggs.
Grace hunts for her Easter basket from Nana.
Dying eggs.
Grace coloring at the Easter Party at church.
Grace making her snack at the Easter party.

Because the girls have been sick we had to pack all of our Easter fun into one weekend. On Saturday Nana came to visit. The girls hunted for their Easter baskets & eggs. We also dyed Easter eggs for the very first time. The girls really enjoyed it. While Faith was napping Grace got to go to our church's Easter party. She really had a lot of fun. They colored a book that talked about the Easter story, made special snacks, and had an Easter egg hunt. More on Easter fun soon..

Easter Pics

Well, it took me a little while but here are a few pics of the girls in their Easter outfits. Grace got an umbrella which she loved (as you can see it made most of our pics) I was very sad it made an appearance in the one of her kissing her sister as we have very few decent pictures of them together. But they aren't screaming so in our house that is a succesful picture of the two of them at this point. :)