Easter Weekend {unabridged}

Our Easter weekend was AMAZING.  It was crazy busy.  But it was amazing.

First stop...
KJ's school Easter Egg hunt.  I love his little preschool and the people we are meeting there.  I especially love the times when I get to visit and watch him in his element.  He knows everyone.  Everyone knows him. The easter egg hunt, though, was business.  He was totally focused and it was hilarious to watch him run in circles gathering eggs like his life depended on it.  The best part was, though, at the end of it he couldn't have cared less how many eggs stayed in his basket and willingly shared with others who didn't get very many.  What a precious heart!

I love that he goes to school with the daughter of someone I work with.  It is so amazing to me to see the Lord bring "co-workers" into my life in a deeper way.  I'm blessed to be getting to know this family...and KJ loves his friend K.

Second stop...Cousin brunch.  For several months now, I've been meeting once a month with some of RRL's cousins and their kiddos for a playdate.  It is so fun to watch "family" become so much more as these children develop relationships.  This month we decided to expand to the whole family on a Saturday morning for brunch and an egg hunt.  It got a little crazy with 8 kids under 5 (even with missing the other 5 great-grandchildren).  But it was so much fun!

Here is KJ showing his great-grandmother his prized football egg.  This was bittersweet, because I so wish he could really know her, but I do know that I can see her legacy in him and in each of these sweet great-grandchildren.  What a privaledge to pass on to them the faith that we celebrate at Easter because of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents!

I'm so blessed to have married into such a fun group of cousins.

Saturday night we moved our normal small group to the park for "family church" and an Easter egg hunt.

This is what Easter weekend should be about.  Showing our kids what is important to us.  Showing them that our family is surrounded by people that love them, but even more who love the Lord and believe that He died and ROSE on the 3rd day.  These people will encourage our children to claim this truth and these are the moments I want them to cling to, espeically around holidays like Easter.

We started the evening with some singing and a lesson for the kids.  One dad did an amazing job of using symbols in Easter eggs to have hte children help tell the story of Christ's death and ressurection.  It was perfect and the kids soaked it up.  We also did family communion.  I loved that another dad led us to really think about the ways Jesus moved in the bible and even in our own lives. He is RISEN INDEED!

My treasures showing the spear that they found in their egg and listening to the explanation of what it symbolizes.

After Church we had an egg hunt.  What a fun group of kids!

Easter Sunday!

All dressed and ready to go.

Note-

1) Lou does have two legs, she just kicked one up in her dress and

2) Lightning McQueen really is a family member.

We went to Sunday morning service at RHCC.  Another great blessing in the weekend!  We went prepared for wrestling all 3 through service thinking there was no childcare.  Don't get me wrong, I love the moments when our family gets to be together for worship.  However, 1.5 hours keeping 3 kids under 4 still and quiet is just a lot.  So judge if you want, but there may or may not have been an audible sigh of relief when we heard the announcement that there was indeed power kids and I quickly filed all three munchkins to their respective classes.  They loved it, we loved it.  Really a win/win for everyone, right?

As for the wardrobes, Libby's dress was given to her by a dear family friend.  It is a treasure indeed and I loved having all of my sweet children dressed in white for the morning.  I was actually feeling a bit overwhelmed by their "adorableness" until I looked down the pew at KJ in the middle of serivce and realized that he had on his black and red flame hotwheels socks under his dress clothes.  Oh how the Lord will humble us. 

Then went to Grammy's house for lunch and ONE MORE Easter egg hunt.  Another fun time with family and friends!

KJ's shirt below was his Easter basket present.  He LOVES spider man these days.  The boys also got walkie talkies.  Which would have been great...except they didn't work.  What a downer!

Easter weekend was such a delight!  I loved every. crazy. moment.  And while I hope we can teach our children about Jesus all year, I'm so thankful for times when the whole world stops to aknowledge Him.  Time set aside to remind us to continue teaching them.  Hope your weekend was full of those reminders, too!

ABL