Catching Up

It has almost been a month since my last post. However, it has been a month filled with a full family trip to Disney, a number of school musical performances, a visit to a Jerusalem market, Easter celebrations and all around spring fun. So, we've been busy, which is a good thing. Over the next couple of days, I'll be doing my "back-blogging" and filling in all the missed events over the past month. Thanks so much for your diligence in following my blog, even in my blogging absence. Look to be caught up pretty soon!! I think some of my blogging will be done outside in the beautiful sun ~ the wonderful life of wifi!! Have a wonderful spring day!!!

*************NEW POSTS BELOW*************

Easter Hunts

Easter Sunday we headed down to celebrate with Craig's family. We enjoyed a delicious meal with his family and some good conversations. Following lunch, we headed outside for the annual egg hunt. Craig's mom dyed about three dozen real eggs for some beautiful treasures to find. We can usually get three to four hunts out the kids before they are worn out. The kids were ready for the hunt - they had been hiding and hunting their own plastic eggs for the past week. They all had a great time searching for the hidden eggs. They even did one hiding on their own where Craig and I hunted.

The search is on ~

The three on the hunt - Trinity finds one in the tree

Xander found one in the grass

Trinity filled up her basket pretty quickly

Kalyn discovers one in the flower pot

The clover hid one, but Xander found it

Kalyn carefully takes her found egg to her basket - she got tired carrying it, so she hung it on her bike handle

Craig took some time to relive his biking days on Trinity's bike

It was a great afternoon with family. We stayed down in Bowdon for a couple of days after Easter. The kids had a great time hanging out with Papa and Gendy during their spring break and Craig and I did some cleaning out work in their sheds. This was the final wave of reporting their loss from the tornado that hit their house almost two years ago. This was a hunt in itself. There was a lot of stuff to go through, figuring out what was damaged, what needed to be tossed out and what they wanted to keep.

While Craig and I worked in the shed, the kids had a blast in the motorized jeep. They have so much room to drive around the yard in it. Isn't Kalyn just stylin' in her shades?

Craig's dad had some dirt delivered while we were there. Watching the big dump truck brought everyone out into the yard . . . plus one of the wild turkeys from the forest behind the house!

It was a lot of work, but after four trips to the dump, it was well worth it!

Easter Morning

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

Matthew 28:1-7

We love Easter - the celebration of the day Christ Jesus rose from the grave! What better reason for pure, eternal, true joy than this? We try our hardest to make Easter a special day of celebration without taking anything away from the real meaning of the day. Our day began (after breakfast and getting dressed) with our kids opening their Easter baskets. We don't do too much for baskets, usually something small. This year, we kept along the same lines.

The girls each got a batch of silly bands. Trinity came home with some from school about a week before and it fascinated her - these cool stretchy bracelets that are shapes when they are off your wrist, but fun bracelets on. We had hoped to get her some faith bands (bracelets in the shapes of various Christian symbols), but we couldn't find them locally. So, we ended up getting various musical symbols, such microphone, guitars and music notes. They loved them.

Each of the kids also got specialized gummy packs. Our kids love gummies and often have them for snacks and little treats. Xander got Spiderman gummies, Trinity received My Little Pony gummies and Kalyn got Dora gummies. Each child also got their personal duck-shaped bubbles. Lots of fun to come!!!

Xander's main gift was a new Cars car - Chick Hicks. He was actually with me when I bought it. As I was looking at the various Cars vehicles, I asked him to name the ones that he didn't have. I decided to get the one he could name. He loved it very, very much.

Following the baskets, we headed outside to take some quick kid and family pictures. I love any excuse to get a picture of all five of us dressed up. Not too bad!

Then it was off to church to celebrate with our friends and our church family! We began taking a few pictures of just the kids outside our church. I love the trees that are in front of our sanctuary.

Trinity was singing with the children's choir that morning. I just love to see her sing her heart out and worship.

It was truly a blessed day of worship!

Easter Preparations

The day before Easter was a lovely spring Saturday. I was just lounging around, actually catching up on some blog reading of my friends. I read about many friends doing things to celebrate Easter - one friend who had put together a Sader meal for her family, a second friend who helped her girls plant seeds and one friend was dying eggs and another. Well, all those ideas got me motivated and looked around for what we had at home. Cookie mix, cookie cutters, lots of decorating goodies and a Bible. Sounds like a plan to me.

So, I got the kids together and began reading the story of Jesus' death and resurrection out of one of their Bibles.

We then pulled out our various cookie cutters to pick shapes that were meaningful in the story of Easter. They each picked out a few shapes and got to cut out their own cookies. They choose flowers (new life), fish (the disciples ate fish when Jesus returned for them), crosses, a tomb and a butterfly (another new life) just to name a few. We ended up with tons of cookies to decorate.

By this time, Craig had returned from work and was ready to join in the fun! We took plain vanilla cupcake icing and added some food coloring to make various colors of icing. We had sprinkles of every color. Let the fun commence!!

Everyone was so pleased with their creations!! We had some very colorful and sparkly cookies, ready to take to Craig's parents' home the next day for the family lunch.

All the decorated cookies ~

We finished our day of Easter preparation by going through our Resurrection Eggs. This is something Our MOPS group assembled (each for our own families) a number of years ago and I finally remembered to get it out before Easter! Each egg has a special item significant to the crucifixion and a verse to read along with it. The kids really enjoyed it!

We headed to bed that night, ready and looking forward to Easter morning!!!

Easter Pictures

A few days before Easter, we headed up to the mall, to our local Picture People to have the kids' pictures taken in their Easter outfits. Craig's mom and dad bought their Easter clothes and they did a wonderful job. The pictures turned out so cute!

Xander being Xander

Cutie Kalyn

Grown-up Trinity

The three of them looking adorable together

Kalyn's Spring Sing

Each spring, the preschool holds their annual Spring Sing and Easter egg hunt. This year was to be no different. These productions are always a treat to enjoy!! The preschool's music teacher, Ms. Brandy, does an amazing job with the kids!!! A huge round of kudos goes out to her after every performance!! Here are just a few of our pictures and the videos from the songs. Just in cast you're wondering, yes, there is a beautiful bruise between her eyes. The poor girl accidentally got hit in the face by a swing the night before the performance. She's a trooper, though and kept going.

Ready to sing!

Song 1: "Sing-A-Ling-A-Ling"

Song 2: "Kum Bah Ya" on hand bells

Song 3: "Everlasting God"

Song 4: "He Is God"

I love the love Kalyn and Xander have for each other. (I promise, that's a hug, not a choke.)

The Spring Sing is always followed by "hunting" Easter eggs on the front lawn. The kids are limited to 12 eggs each, so it's fun to watch the range of kids from those counting their eggs carefully to make sure they don't go over the 12 limit and those who didn't really hear the stop-at-12-rule. Regardless, it's always fun for everyone!!

Waiting paitently for the signal to start . . .

. . . and they're off!!

The preschool is generous enough to let siblings hunt (when we bring in an extra dozen eggs for them too). Xander found an egg filled with goodies!

Kalyn takes inventory of her eggs

Finishing the egg hunt together

The weather was beautiful. The singing was enjoyable. What a great midday treat!!