Easter weekend 2016

I always look forward to Easter for months, mostly because it signifies the beginning of spring and spring is hands down my favorite season. For the past two years I think, I've observed Lent in some capacity which is a relatively new experience for me and I've realized it makes Easter much more special and meaningful. Last year Deric and I gave up extra sugar and this year, Whole30 was kind of our Lent (but ended up being a major distraction, unfortunately). Still though, sacrificing in some way makes Easter something to really really look forward to-- both on a spiritual level and a chocolate level. ;)

I feel like this year we celebrated Easter all weekend long rather than just on Sunday. We didn't plan to make the whole weekend anything special, but the weekend began on Thursday night with the Seder supper at church. Its one of my favorite traditions and each year I worry if Jake will make it through a rather long dinner, but he's always done great. This year he got to drink the juice with us and break the crackers, and I love seeing his involvement in such a time-honored tradition.

On Friday Jake and I used plastic eggs to paint (for a whole five minutes, but you know). Later we went on a family date to a nearby restaurant and sat outside enjoying the sunny and warm weather. It wasn't anything too fancy but just marking it as a 'family date' (plus the gorgeous weather) made it more special.

We dyed eggs on Saturday morning which was quite the adventure and involved a million mini heart attacks on my part each time Jake narrowly missed dumping dye all over the place. But he had a good time and really got into trying different colors on the eggs and combining the colors as well.

That afternoon, we had the Easter egg hunt at church. I love that the egg hunt is actually the last part of the event and the majority of the time is spent helping the kids interact with the resurrection story in some way. We had ribs cooking away in the crockpot all day so dinner on Saturday was exceptional and easy, my favorite kind of dinner!

^showing me his basket

On Sunday morning, we all woke up nice and early with Jake. I pulled him into bed with us and to give myself a few extra minutes before starting the day, we watched the Bible for Kids app on my phone. It narrates a story from the Bible and the kids can touch various things on the screen to make people move or talk. We listened to the story of Jesus' death and then the Resurrection. In that story, Jake could touch the stone and roll it in front of the tomb and as I talked to him on the way home from lunch, I could tell that it helped solidify his understanding of that part of the story.

Speaking of, Jake was telling me about Jesus dying on the cross while we were winding down for his nap and he started it by saying, "Jesus died on the cross. Yeah and he took off his pants!" So I'm guessing that at some point he saw a picture of Jesus wearing just the loincloth deal?? Shortly after this little tidbit, he told me he was going to sing the song about Jesus on the cross. He's been really into songs lately but usually changes the lyrics to include trucks or whatnot, so I was definitely interested to hear his song. He starts to sing to the tune of Jesus Loves Me but instead of singing the lyrics, his version went: "Jesus loves dying on the crossssss..." I laughed out loud, and still do each time we talk about it. I'm pretty sure Jesus did not enjoy dying on the cross, but he does love you buddy. ;)

Anyways, church on Sunday was followed by lunch with plenty of friends and a small egg hunt for the kids. Jake got to jump on their trampoline with some big kids and had the time of his life. After a delicious lunch we all napped hard, woke up for a simple dinner and then gave Jake his Easter basket from us. Bubble bath, fresh chalk for the summer and a giant jar of bubbles sets us up well for a fun spring and summer, and we headed right outside to break in the chalk and bubbles on the driveway.






Soon after, Sarah and Joel got here and will be with us for the week! My parents are on their way today so the fun is gonna last all week around here. Bring on the cousin and grandparent love!