Easter!

My favorite holiday!  I love that Easter does NOT have a whole 'season' around it, although one could argue that Lent is just that...but it's such a different feel...the whole lack of commercialization for 3 months leading up to it could have something to do with that.  I feel as though I can just sit back, rest, and enjoy the fact that He's risen, and all is well.

This year was relatively quiet.  We did a couple rounds of egg-coloring, once at the nanny house, and once at home by ourselves, but this time Daddy and I picked a theme...Minions.  I happened to run across them in some random online search, showed them to Daddy, and, as all the kids know what they are, we had to try them.  They were a tad repetitive and time-consuming, and somewhat boring to dye...but they turned out SO great!

 With the nanny family.  Brother Bear actually had more fun than it seems...You know how almost impossible it is to grab a group shot where *everyone* is looking their best...  He and Sister Bear had a TON of fun decorating them while the younger 2 were napping.

At our own home--

I decorated, she chose the eyes and the style/expression of each face.

We didn't do any extended family meet-ups this year, but we did enjoy a fun Saturday morning with some 'adopted' family, namely Big D and Little A's families.  And what, pray tell, did we all do?  The kiddos' very first Easter Egg Hunt!!  What memories that brings back for me...I never, to my knowledge, did any of the public hunts--mine were always confined to family gatherings--and how I loved them!  And boy did those kids love it too!  The hunt was held at a park close to Little A's home, and we were planning to go and expecting it for about 2 weeks.  The Munch could hardly stand the wait...even though she really had no idea what to expect!  Every day she wanted to know when we'd go egg-hunting.  Every.  Day.  :)

But the day finally came, and we all had our baskets and cameras and smiles as we headed for the park...The kids just RACED ahead of us.

When we got there, I was very happy to learn that this was not your average 'find and grab as many eggs as you can' type of hunt.  It was extremely small-child friendly, with 4 precise areas, and 2 precise types of eggs to be gathered in each section.  Everyone would essentially get the same thing, though of course colors and styles and whatnot would differ.  And there was no race, no tears or frustrations, no 'gimme' attitude at all.  Just pure, simple, 'find the egg you want' fun.  The way I think these hunts *should* be.

The Munch takes OFF across the field...there was no holding her back to wait for the others to catch up!  Egg hunts must be instinctive, because she hardly needed instruction.  :)

They all had a blast, and we got a pretty good photo op of the bunch of them too...although Daddy has photo proof of just what it took to GET this photo.  ;)  Such a sweet, sweet group of kids though.

After a short but fun time in a bouncy house and the park's playground, we headed back to Little A's house, where her daddy had gotten their grill going for lunch.  Their table just barely fit us all (with a card table extension), and there was enough food for about twice our number.  Good times with very good people.

Sunday morning, I did my Resurrection Surprise Rolls again...And for the first time, the Munch GOT it. She and I made them together, and it was so much fun seeing the surprise in her face as she opened a freshly baked roll to find the marshmallow she'd put in there totally gone!

We enjoyed our breakfast and its conversation very much.  Sadly though, it was only the Munch and I at church later that morning...Daddy had been trying valiantly to fight something off the whole week prior, but on Sunday it got the upper hand, and he had to stay in bed.  Which was a crying shame, because he missed a pretty amazing service.  I have never seen my church SO filled with people, not even on previous Easters!  Of course there were a ton of visitors on top of the usual attendees--out of town families of church attenders, friends of people getting baptized (we had 5 baptisms, 2 of them kids), and I'm sure plenty of others as well.  It was PACKED, and it was awesome.  That's the way to celebrate Easter, for sure!!  Even the church stage was filled with people.  An 8-person chorus doing special music, a group of string instruments--at least 3 or 4--as well as a relatively large 'regular' band of pianists, guitarists, bassists, drummer, lead and back up singers...

And then we had the glitter drums.  The Munch and I, despite running a tad late, amazingly enough managed to find seats in our usual second-from-the-front row, just a bit further in from the aisle, so we had literally front-row seats to those drums.  Essentially, they had installed lights under 4 drums, 2 on each side of the sanctuary, which they turned on whenever they were going to use them so they would shine up at the ceiling.  Then they poured a great deal of glitter on the top and hit them with enthusiasm at certain moments of the worship set.  Glitter went flying and sparkling everywhere.  Quite the sight.  :D  And yes, they had easy clean-up...the floor around them was covered with black plastic.  ;)

Thus passed the morning, and it was lovely.  I got the Munch home and in bed for a nap, and then I arranged a second egg hunt, this time just for her.  I hadn't sat down with her at all in the days leading up to Easter to go through the Resurrection Egg set that I have, so instead I hid them all in our yard, along with a bunch of eggs filled with candy, and a basket into which I put a new children's Bible--one that's slightly more grown up, though still easy reading--and some workbooks for her to start learning how to write--the next step for her ever-curious mind...She can already write hers and Tigger's names on her own, so why not learn the rest too?  :)  As soon as she woke up from naptime, she eagerly went out to the yard and began her hunt, and she did very well, too...but sadly that video is too large to post, nor is it easily trimmed down, so I must content myself with posting a picture I took instead.

We sat down in the grass together after that, and went through a simple version of the Resurrection Eggs, and after that just lazed around the whole rest of the day.  Which was just as lovely as the morning had been.  :)  It is GOOD to just stop every now and again.

And now the comparison pictures once more...though it almost seems redundant, this post coming so quickly on the heels of my St. Patrick's post...But I will anyway, because I have such a fun one from last year that I didn't share then.  :)

 Last year. I don't know WHY she did this, but isn't it hilariously cute???  And this is still one of my absolutely favorite dresses of hers.  

It just matches her so well.

This year.  So very lovely and ladylike.  ;)  The dress came to us in perfect time...my nanny mom was cleaning Sister Bear's closet out, and discovered this 4T dress hiding out in there!  And no, it's not as pink as the picture would make it seem--it was actually somewhere in between pink and purple, a rather fascinating color.

So that, in a very large nut-shell, was our Easter.  It was in many ways quite different from others we've celebrated recently, but I think it was just what we all needed this year.  It came in little bits, with each part giving us a different taste of what celebration really is.  A chance for fun, a chance to rejoice, and a chance to rest.