Easter 2011

Our family had a fantastic time celebrating Easter this week. Our preparation for the Easter holiday began on Wednesday when our family participated in the prayer walk at church. The prayer walk included nine stations that basically took you through the week leading up to Christ's death and resurrection. One of the most memorable stations for our family was the one talking about how Jesus washed his disciples feet. The kids were then able to "practice" serving us. Kianna passed around the hand sanitizer, Kaylee poured us each a cup of water, and Trace passed out crackers. It was a neat experience.

The festivities continued with an Easter egg hunt at our church on Saturday morning and then the egg hunt of all egg hunts on Saturday night. Our family was invited out to the Shane's ~150 acre farm, along with 10-15 other families. The Shane's have three children: a preschooler, a kindergartner, and a fourth grader. The family organized a separate Easter egg hunt for each age group. The Preschoolers had the usual egg hunt with eggs scattered all over a football-sized field. The excitement really culminated with the kindergarten and fourth grade Easter egg hunts. The kids were divided into groups and each given a hand-held GPS device with coordinates leading them to their first egg. Each group had ten color-coded eggs to find. Each egg found had the coordinates leading to the next egg. The only difference between the Kindergarten and fourth grade egg hunts was in the distance they covered. The younger kid's egg hunt covered a half-mile to mile area, whereas the fourth grader's egg hunt covered a two mile area. I went with Kaylee's group and had a BLAST! We found eggs inside a barn on top of some bales of hay, inside an unused chicken coop, and at the base of an uprooted tree. The last clue led to empty Easter baskets, which the kids could then take back to the main barn and fill with prizes of their choosing. It was such a fun night. We're hoping they do it again next year, because we all loved it!

Sunday morning, we attended a great church service. Thanks Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob for the kids' outfits. They looked cute! After church, we were invited over to The Riordan's house for our Easter meal. We spent the afternoon with them and had a nice, relaxing time with good food and our friends. The kids had another Easter egg hunt there and exciting new Easter buckets waiting for them. I think the kids each ended up with four Easter baskets by the time we were done celebrating Easter, not to mention a truck load of candy. We ended up staying away from candy for the kids' Easter baskets we gave them. Instead of candy, Kaylee got her first full bible with her name engraved on the front. She is super excited about it and enjoys looking up the stories she is learning about in school and church. She is quite the little reader these days. Kianna got the children's version of the book, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe". She is addicted to the Narnia movies, so we thought it was the right gift for her. Trace got his first baseball glove, along with a few more balls. Really can a boy ever have enough balls? Trace's answer would be a definite no! We are so blessed to have such great friends and even more blessed to have a savior who gave his own life for each of us so that we can spend eternity with him in heaven one day. Thank you Jesus!!!