Easter 2015

I love Easter. I'll be honest though, it stresses me out. I fret over getting everyone coordinated and with matching outfits. It has to be just right. My boys are more difficult because they are not your average sized boys and everything has to be altered. I try to do the alterations myself to save money. I'm not real talented in that area, but the more I do the better I'm getting. 

Then, once I get them dressed I worry about them staying clean until we can get pictures and make it through church without any crazy accidents. 

So as soon as church is over and the egg hunts and pictures are done, I finally can relax. 

Why am I like that?

I remember almost crying one year because I thought I forgot to pack their matching socks to go with their outfits. I felt condemned after I ended up finding them though. 

We started our Easter celebration by going to an egg hunt on Saturday at the fairgrounds. Maynard went off with the boys and I took Amelia to her age group. I forgot to remind Maynard to take pictures so I only got pictures of Amelia.  It's been nice having Maynard home on Saturdays.  Last year I had to take the kids everywhere by myself and I am so thankful he can be with us now for special fun Saturdays. 

She found so many eggs that she couldn't fit anymore in her bucket. Even after the hunt was over she kept walking the field to make sure there wasn't any straggler eggs. 

The Easter Bunny made his grand appearance, but he at least sang a song about the resurrection. They also told the story about the crucifix and resurrection to the crowd before they started the egg hunt. I was horrified at how rude the people were during the story. No one was listening and they were all talking. It was so rude and I felt sorry for the speaker. No one wanted to hear about Jesus. They were just there for the free food, prizes, and the egg hunt. It bothered me. Actually, it bothered me so much that I walked up to the pastor's wife and apologized after the hunt. According to her it happens every year. 

Later that day the kids had fun dying eggs. 

They were begging to eat the eggs before the dye was even dry yet. Well, Amelia wasn't. Me and her are the only ones who don't like boiled eggs. 

And because y'all love my "blonde moments" here's one for you:

I had went to Krogers to buy eggs for them to dye. I was gonna get a carton of 18 eggs thinking that would be plenty. Almost all of them we're gone except for maybe 6 cartons. I opened all of them and each carton had 2 or 3 cracked eggs in them. As I was looking, another man started going through them too. I explained to him that each had cracked eggs in them and I would just have to get a dozen carton. I walked away and as I rounded the corner I noticed the man doing something brilliant. He exchanged the cracked eggs for good eggs out of the other cartons. Then I got tickled at myself. I never ever would have thought to do that and I thought he was a pure genius. He on the other hand probably thought I was an idiot.Ha ha 

Saturday evening the boys got haircuts and we started baths. They were so dirty from playing outside all day. Plus they kept forgetting to use the egg dipper and kept sticking their hands in the dye. They were finally clean and sent off to bed while I started all the ironing and panicking when I realized the boy's new shirts were made irregular. They just wasn't going to work, so we had to pull out their matching white shirts instead. I was so thankful we had something they could wear instead. 

Easter morning the kids woke up to finding their baskets in their bed. 

We all got dressed and took some pictures outside before we left. 

Silly boys. 

Can y'all believe I wore a dress?  It's been years since I wore a dress. I fell in love with this one though. 

We made it to church and Amelia passed out treats in her classroom we all had made at home. 

It was a group effort, but we all had a lot of fun and it turned out cute. The boys took some to share at school too. 

Church seemed to be a blur because we had Sunday School and then I taught children's church. All too soon church was over and it was time for the egg hunt. 

I think this was the only 2nd time my kids got to have an egg hunt at church. 

Once again Amelia scoured the field for any eggs that may have been missed. She had no problem wearing her heels so all her worrying was in vain. Lol

Josiah was rolling them sleeves up getting ready for action. 

The kids got tons more candy and Josiah  even found 3 prize eggs. 

We took a few more pictures. 

I am so happy for Amelia's new little friends. She's never had anyone close to her age before and she truly doesn't know how to act!!  Lacie is 4 months older than Amelia, but look how big Amelia is compared to them. 

I'm also happy for my new friend Heather. When I was so lonely and my heart was broken, God sent me a friend to help keep my chin up and heal those wounds. 

After church we went home to change clothes and do some last minute cooking for our Easter dinner at Maynard's brother's house. 

Some of the Parker cousins ready for their final egg hunt. 

We enjoyed the evening spending time with family and the kids had a blast going on 4 wheeler rides with Uncle Frankie and Daddy. They loved everything about it. The weather was perfect for it. 

Maynard rode Amelia and Titus and Josiah rode with Uncle Frankie. 

Here are some collages I made from all the Easters years back when we first started our little family. 

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!  

We played a resurrection game in children's church. I put a blanket over a table and the children took turns playing Jesus. They would sneak out the back of the table and then I would jerk the blanket off and the "tomb" would be empty. One child, in particular, had pure joy on his face every time the tomb was empty. Over and over again we played until every child had a turn. Every single time David squealed with joy and amazement when Jesus was gone from the tomb. I don't ever want to lose the awe and amazement of the crucifix and resurrection. I want it to be as real and fresh as it was to a 3 year old  in children's church.