Easter 2014

We had a very casual and relaxing Easter celebration this year.  I think, primarily because although I was prepared spiritually for Easter, the whole basket, eggs and that part of Easter sort of snuck up on me.  But it's also because that's how I like to have my holidays these days.  I'm more focused on the meaning of the holidays being celebrated, people and the quality time together than stressing about the presentation. 

My boys love holiday traditions, so we dye eggs every year.  This year life was really busy the week before Easter (my boys did not have Spring Break but Grace did) so we waited until the last minute and dyed our eggs on Saturday.  I asked the boys to get dressed and for John to do his hair first and they refused.  So here they are dying eggs in their pjs...

I buy the cheapest dozen eggs I can find to use for our Easter eggs because I buy the commercially available dye kits and I don't want to eat eggs that have been soaked in vinegar and whatever chemicals make up Easter egg dye. 

The boys each dye six eggs.  This year we tried to get fancy and made spiderman eggs (1/2 blue and 1/2 red).  But otherwise they don't like to get too decorative.  The eggs then sit in the fridge until I remember to toss them.  I think every year I should investigate natural egg dyes so I could use my pasture raised eggs but I'm the only one who eats hard boiled eggs and 12 in a week is just too much for me.

Easter morning the boys get up and look for their Easter baskets and the eggs.  Here they are waiting for me to get my first cup of coffee and again they are in pjs and John didn't comb his hair (even though I tell them before I take the picture that they will be posted on my blog which is read by at least 10 people).

 

A few years ago I hid the eggs without Mark's help and then couldn't remember where the last ones were.  Seriously, how pathetic is that.  So now I wait for Mark and we do it together, so there's a witness.  This is where Mark hides eggs.

After the egg hunt, we went to a great Easter service at church.  When I went to pick Luke and Grace up from their room, Luke showed me how loose his front tooth was.  It was so crooked and sideways it started to freak him out.  So I got a tissue and pulled it, right there in church.  Well, I was holding Grace's hand and trying to calm Luke down so I could pull his tooth.  Grace decided she had had enough of being at church and dropped my hand.  In the split second it took me to pull Luke's tooth, Grace disappeared.  I mean really, she was gone.  I lost her.  The lobby was so full and she was just gone.  I told Luke and John to come with me and we began to look for her.  It was crazy.  No one could find her.  All of the sudden Mark said, we got her.  She was outside.  Grace had walked out the door and was headed to the parking lot when a sweet friend's daughter caught up to her.  I don't have many parenting fears but this is my biggest one regarding Grace.  I fear that I will loose her in public and because she looks so typical, she will get lost or injured because she walked away from me.  Thankfully, she was okay but I was pretty shaken up about it.

Here's Luke's new gap toothed smile.  He is so happy to finally have lost another tooth.  He kept it to show one of my friends because she hates loose and wiggly teeth.

After church we went to my parents house and had Easter dinner.  My parents still live in the house I was raised in and I just love going 'home' for holidays.  My mom and dad hid eggs in  their back yard for the kids to find and as a result of all the candy, my boys didn't really eat anything for lunch.  I tried to get a cousins picture, even though there were only 4 out of 6 cousins present.  It didn't really work out.  Here's the best of the bunch, if you can believe it.

However, I did get a super sweet one of my three after church before lunch.  Even though Grace is the only one who is smiling her real smile, I love it.

I hope you and your family had a blessed Easter and that you were able to keep these words from the gospel of Mark in mind as you celebrated this day. 

 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, 

who was crucified.  He has risen! He is not here.  See the place where they laid him.   

But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. 

There you will see him, just as he told you.’”