Easter was good. I should start there. It was a beautiful day, and the kids loved their Easter baskets, and we had a good time at church, and we spent the day with friends.
But Greg and I were sooooo tired. I think for me, a lot of it had to do with the insanely busy day we had had the day before. Whatever it was, though, I was wiped out.
Also, it was not our most spiritual Easter. The kids had spent the previous week at Gaga and Granddad’s house having the time of their lives, but that meant that we didn’t do much spiritual preparation as a family. Also, I tried to observe Lent for the first time this year, and I kind of gave up that last week. So….yeah, we weren’t really very spiritually focused, to be totally honest.
Still, it was a good day. It started off, of course, with Easter baskets.
Luke is our morning person, so these holidays always begin with him waking the rest of us up at the crack of dawn. Thus, Anna usually spends the first ten or fifteen minutes staring at her basket while Luke tries to get her excited about it.
Luke, in the meantime, needs no pep talks:
Finally, though, Anna starts to wake up and to be her usual, enthusiastic self:
We repeat this routine every holiday.
Oh, yes, and I just realized from looking at the pictures that they slept in their clothes. So remember all the dirt and creeks that were involved in the last post? Yeah, all that dirt went to bed with them that night. We bathed later that morning.
Here are a few views of their loot:
While I finished up getting ready for church, Greg took some Easter pictures with the kids and their new Bibles. They didn’t turn out great.
Uhhhh…
…yeah…
…we’ll be trying these again later.
I did like this one of Luke looking through his new Bible.
On the way to church, we picked up our friends, Hadessa and Kingston. Their mom, Viviana had just had a baby and was still in the hospital. The kids were staying with Viv’s sister, Beca. I tried to convince Beca to come to church with us, but had no luck. Once at church, Greg taught the teen Sunday school class, and I subbed for Luke and Anna’s class. In service, Greg gave a great Easter sermon, if I do say so myself:). After church, we all came back home for a nice Easter lunch of…sandwiches. We did get a few more Easter pictures.
Anna was being a real jewel here:).
She loosened up when I took pictures of her and Luke (I got them saying silly words and cracking themselves up).
Next, it was time for Easter baskets, round two…
…butterfly hunting…
…and car building.
I see an enduring role as “guinea pig” in Anna’s future:
I love her dutiful “duck” in preparation of Luke putting the roof on her.
Ta-da!
It’s not so roomy…
…but it’s still a nice ride!
The kids all took turns riding in the car. We pretty much spent all day playing outside, and everyone got along beautifully. My favorite moment had to be while Luke was working on the roof of the car, and the other three were playing with the wagon. All four of them were in the backyard, and I was watching them through the kitchen window while I ironed some clothes. I watched as both Anna and Hadessa started to haul Kingston up the grassy hill in the little wagon, gleeful smiles on their faces. I thought, “They aren’t going to let him go.” They got a little higher up the hill, and I thought, “Hmmm…maybe they are going to let him go.” I went outside to tell them not to do that, and just as the words were leaving my mouth, both Hadessa and Anna dropped the handle and hopped into the wagon with Kingston, and they all beamed and screamed as they started down the hill. Thankfully I was there to stop them before they ran into the patio, but they did curve some and run into our holly bush. They never stopped laughing, even as I sternly warned them not to do that again! (They did obey, though.)
So, it was a good day, like I said. I was super tired, but the kids had fun. I would say something spiritual here to wrap it all up, but truth be told, my mind wasn’t on spiritual concepts during that day. My brain was just too tired for that kind of thinking. Instead, I just tried to help a friend out and hope that that brought glory to God.
If nothing else, it kept us all smiling.
I hope that your Easter was happy, too.
