An Egg-Cellent Weekend

I’m in the midst of a busy week but I wanted to do a quick Easter recap before it got away from me.

Easter was absolutely wonderful! That’s the best way to describe it. Good food, good friends, and a celebration that Christ has risen an saved us from our sins. The most wonderful gift of all. There really is no way to top that gift with any amount of chocolate eggs or Easter basket goodies, but we have fun anyways.

Kicked our festivities off on Good Friday with Egg dying. It is fascinating to see how each kid has progressed every year. No longer am I overly worried about spills and both kids can dye with limited supervision. This allows me a little time to “get fancy” with some of the eggs and try things I’ve seen or heard about.

The biggest issue this year was cracked eggs. Emilie had to be reminded that setting the egg in the dye doesn’t mean slam-dunking it into the cup. However, with a reminder and the placement of a hot pad under her dye cups (so the eggs had a bit of a cushion is they were dropped hard) we ended up with only two eggs receiving hairline cracks…no serious injures. She had a great time moving eggs from cup to cup and really loved the shrink wraps and stickers.

All of Jack’s eggs were green. He was asked several times if he wanted to use different colors, but no, all he wanted was green. He then lined up a single strip of stickers around the middle of each of his eggs. So focused and so determined!

The other thing we did on Friday was plant our ‘magic’ Easter jellybeans. We told the Easter story and explained that just as Jesus died on the cross and was placed in the tomb these jellybeans are planted in the ground. After three days, like Jesus rose from the dead, these jelly beans ‘rise’ from the ground as lollipops. The kids were more stoked about watering their jellybeans from Friday to Sunday than anything else we did. They checked them frequently and gave them a deluge of H2O.

That brings us to the big day. Easter Sunday. Both kids were soooooo excited the day before that they had a hard time going to sleep so Sunday morning they actually slept in a bit. ‘A bit’ meaning like 7:30am. Emilie was the first up but missed her basket entirely in her half drowsed state and determination to get to Daddy and beg for pancakes (a morning tradition of hers). Jack however spent several minutes blinking on the couch trying to tell if he eyes were deceiving him or not.

Thankfully, his eyes were telling the truth and it wasn’t long before he started hollering for his sister to come and see. Then the fun was on!

The Easter Bunny did some thinking this year an brought each kid a fishing pole all their own. One green and one pink, with real spinners and not those obnoxious capped reels with the casting button. Emilie got some sidewalk chalk, and Jack got a Tow Truck. They also got waaaaaaayyyy too much candy. Easter Bunny may have miscalculated just how much she was buying. This is what happens when you spread out your purchases months in advance and to try and work it into the household budget….

 

Kevin got Anchorman 2. Very convenient since my basket had movie candy in it. Can we say ‘date night’ next time the kids go to bed early? Yes ma’am!

Oh, and the black box in the above picture. I got a fire-resistant document safe. I’ve had that on my list for awhile and the bunny remembered. Good bunny! He even sent me on a scavenger hunt to look for the keys. Very good bunny indeed.

 

Once the baskets were opened we gussied up in our Easter finery and headed off to hear the Good News. The Church youth serve breakfast before the service on Easter so we were treated to pancakes, eggs, sausage, and a host of sweet treats when we arrived. Once sufficiently stuffed we got a fantastic Easter service.

The kids were all antsy in anticipation of the post-service Egg hunt. Every time Pastor paused somebody was trying to run for the door I tell ya.

Finally it was time. For as long as it took the youth group to stuff and lay out those eggs, the little kids had them cleaned up in about 5 minutes flat.

After service we took the kids fishing with their new poles. Nothing was biting but we had a great time anyway. Then it was home to a delicious Easter supper and a long leisurely afternoon.

Oh, and those Easter Jellybeans. Well, they truly did rise on Easter morning.