Friday, April 28, 2017

He Is Risen - Easter 2017

Easter is one of our favorite days! Not only for the religious meaning, but also as a signal of spring's arrival and an overall feeling of joy and new beginnings.

The Easter bunny came to our house and the boys were pumped to see what they got in their baskets. The bunny went light on the candy this year, knowing that the boys had several egg hunts and would be getting plenty of candy (a lot of which will probably get old and have to be thrown away - sad but true). The Easter bunny brought the boys their own umbrella, which is super helpful today while I'm typing this and the rain keeps on coming down, a Loggerhead Apparel collared shirt (so so cute!), coloring books, bubbles, a recorder, more underwear & socks, new toothbrush, goggles and the biggest hit of them all...a watch!











After checking out the baskets and eating some jelly beans, we went into the typical Sunday morning get ready for church scramble. We had a quick breakfast, showers for Mama and Dada, marathon getting-kids-dressed routine, and I wanted to take a few pictures of my handsome boys before we got in the car for church. You never know how long their clothes will stay clean(ish) and I wanted to get at least one picture before someone had to change.

Between, running a little late, Thomas still in the shower, me trying to get them all to sit still on the steps, having to take off each little toddler watch to get their hands and arms through their coat arms and then put the watch back on (UGHHHH), all the while working up a SWEAT, we had a little incident. Ryan tumbled down a stair and scraped his face....just a little. Poor Ryan! I grabbed him and ran inside so I could put a cold compress on his cheek/temple area. He was definitely crying but calmed down after a minute or two. That little incident put us even further back, so I was really only able to get a few pictures before I needed to get them all buckled in so we could scramble to church. Notice the side of Ryan's face is red. :(





They all 3 looked incredibly handsome!

So church decided to not have Sunday school on Easter Sunday, which meant that the boys stayed in church for the whole service with us. This may not have been a first, but it's extremely rare, as they tend to be a bit of a distraction in church (ahem). The saving grace is that we're currently worshipping in our gym, due to our church fire, so the gym has a more casual feeling to it in general. It doesn't seem as bad to have your son in the middle of a gym aisle with folding chairs versus running in between pews - ya know what I mean?  So they definitely tried to be good, but they were dancing and getting a lot of attention during the songs. And I think there were 3 different potty runs within the hour that the service was being held (insert eye roll), but overall, they did pretty well. We got a lot of comments on how cute they were!

After the service, we got our annual picture in front of the cross, although it was in a different location this year.



Then we went back to our house, joined by MaSha and the boys got to enjoy another egg hunt while I finished up our Easter lunch!

Pictures right when we got home from church:
MaSha and her boys


Stokes the pirate joined us!



Egg hunt!
Easter lunch!
The open spot is where the glazed carrots went
(they were a little late - EEK)
After lunch and nap we spent some time outdoors and worked on our little garden! We've planted several veggies!









After dinner (leftovers from lunch!!!), we did our egg pipping contest! We used these beauties that we had dyed on Saturday....



...and had some fun! The boys really got into it this year. As soon as their egg cracked, they kept asking for a new one. We may have to dye more eggs next year!





Easter is such a beautiful day for so many reasons. I continue to count my blessings for my family and my life. It's the simple things in life that are the best - afternoons in the back yard, egg pipping contests, hearing the Good News about Jesus - and those things mean the most. I hope that these are the types of memories that stick with my kids and that cause them to reminisce about the good old days way in the future. Happy Easter to all.

Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!

OUTTAKES:








Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Hunting and Dyeing Eggs

Saturday before Easter was the day of one of our favorite celebrations of the year, Aunt Wendy's Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch. Remember this post from last year? In true form, this year's egg hunt was once again perfect. It is so much fun to see all these kids that we don't get to see all that often, all gathered together in pastel colors and looking so sweet. I love getting the opportunity to (kind of, sort of) catch up with some friends in between wrangling kiddos.

Wendy had around 50 people attend this party. Seriously, it's so fun that no one wants to miss it.

William with the fabulous hostess!

We were a little late showing up this year, so it was pretty much egg hunt time when we arrived. Wendy tried to create fairness in egg distribution and broke the kids up into age group. The older kids even had a scavenger hunt in order to find the eggs. She's so creative!

Wendy dividing the kids into groups
and giving instructions for the egg hunt

And they're off!

Hunting for eggs with their friend, Jones
Our Caroline!

Sweet Ava Lane!

William and Ryan with Dada
More eggs!
Jones - isn't he a doll???




Auntie Heather talking to Ryan

When the egg hunt was over, we had a delicious brunch!



After brunch, we tried (unsuccessfully) to get these 5 cuties together for a good picture!

Lifelong friends...

...because their mamas will make them be!

Back outside we go!

My boys + Jones
How cute!
Ryan with Mrs. Thacker
Lots of kids!

With some of my faves!
Wendy, Heather, me, Stacey

I almost forgot (actually I did forget) to include the dyeing eggs part of the day when I originally published this post. Oops! Then I saw the title and realized that I'd left it out. Here it goes...

I think most people probably do this a little farther in advance, but we always end up dyeing our eggs on the Saturday before Easter. This year, we even waited until after dinner, due to a long nap following Wendy's egg hunt! It was actually starting to get dark while we were still dyeing eggs. I guess that's a giveaway that the boys were up a little later and didn't start bath and bedtime on a typical routine. It's not getting dark until 7:30 or 8ish!

Let the dyeing begin!

So much fun!

I can't tell you how many times I had to say, "get your hands out of the cups!". They're fingers were pretty much all blue when this was all said and done. They weren't very patient to let the egg sit in the dye. Thomas and I had to intervene quite a bit!



The finished product!!!!

Their monogrammed eggs!
I let them choose their colors