Easter Celebrations

I love Easter!  Where we live the weather is usually gorgeous, the flowers and trees are blooming and there is an excitement in the air, a feeling of relief that winter is over. (Although, this winter has pretty much been a "no-show". We never really had any frigid temperatures.) There are also the traditions that go along with Easter. I love Easter Eggs hunts. When Beth and John were little, we'd go to my parents, and Dad would always hide eggs for the little ones and the big one. Most years he would do such a good job hiding a couple of them that we would never find them.

This year Abbey and Elijah got to participate in two Easter Egg hunts.  The first one was with the kids from our small group. I say small group, but with all of our kids, we are a large group. We have 13 kids under 6 and four more are on the way! We love our small group. Having been together for several years, we have made some pretty close bonds.

The small group gang

Last year Elijah didn't quite know what to do with the egg hunting business.

Not a problem this year. He jumped right in.

Abbey was a pro from last year...

To this year...

Yes, their baskets were Halloween and Sand buckets, that's all we had.

The best part of the morning was...

Being with good, good friends!

Easter morning, thanks to Nana and Grandaddy, my two were decked out in Easter finery.  I took their pictures in front of the "Isaiah bushes", as Abbey calls them.

Mr. GQ, gotta work on the smile.

My youngest pretty girl.

One day, I'm going to get a good "posed" smile from Elijah.

The older "Mr. GQ"

Then, it was back to "Egg huntin'"

Look at the loot!

This year, Abbey has really taken hold of the real reason for Easter. She has asked to read that story several nights as her bedtime story. She's fascinated by the details. We've shared many times about Jesus dying and coming back to life. It's such a privilege to help her know the Lord Jesus more and more!