easter festivites

In a time where Easter has become all about bunnies, baskets, eggs...and yes, candy....Nick and I want to make sure we are teaching our children what it's really all about. Jesus Christ. His sacrifice--dying on the cross. The awesome miracle of his resurrection. The fact he did it willingly...for you and for me....so that we can have the opportunity--in our sinfulness--to live forever with him.
How cool.
We didn't do easter baskets growing up. We did the occasional easter egg hunt...but we never felt deprived :) Nick had them and said it was fun waking up to a fun-filled basket :) I totally get that!
Friday before easter, I was reading one of the too many blogs I follow, and she was talking about a tradition they started last year where they tie in Jesus' story with the easter baskets. SO COOL.
I decided it was perfect...so that's what we did. Saturday night, we went through the Resurrection Eggs with Adelyn {hopefully next year, she'll pay more attention to the story...this year she just wanted to open all the eggs!}

Then we wrote down sins on rocks and put them in her and Mason's easter baskets. We covered them with a red towel to represent Jesus' blood, his dying on the cross for our sins and explained we had to wait until morning to see what would happen.

The next morning, she took off the towel, and we had put  "Jesus" basket between theirs and it had all of their "sins" in it and we talked {briefly} about the last Resurrection Egg.

They had a few toys in their baskets (no candy....she got PLENTY at the church candy grab easter egg hunt on Saturday morning!
Anyway...it was fun and I think it's a tradition we will keep up. Thank you for the idea, Christy! :)
We went for lunch on Sunday to Steve and Cindy's. It was a blast. My kids ADORE them. I forgot my camera. Boo.
Thank you, for having us over! We love you guys! :)
Okay, so the church egg hunt was Saturday morning.
It's huge.

her face says it all :)

Hundreds of people...but the kids had so much fun! Our neighbor brought her younger 3...so we had fun with them.

Top: Zander, Trinity, Adelyn and Uriah

 We sang songs and did door prizes first in the auditorium, then they split up the age groups.

singing "Father Abraham"

 Nick took Mason, Alex took her youngest and her 5 year old.  I took Trinity and Adelyn with me. They were hilarious. Lazer focus. They subconsciously were working together. They would block off a section and just clear it. I was cracking up!

Waiting for the "GO!"

LAZER FOCUS. Seriously.

Adelyn with Trinity and her friend, Haley....

displaying their spoils ;)

We had a fun Easter and are so thankful for the friendships we have been blessed with!

Happy Easter!