Easter Adventures

Hi friends.  I hope you had a glorious Easter and made beautiful memories with your family and friends. We enjoyed quite a weekend!

Saturday evening, we told Cooper that when he woke up, there would be a surprise for him.  He couldn't wait!  When he woke up, he came out of his room with a huge smile and said, "Happy Valentine's Day!  Surprise?"  Hilarious!  Even though we'd been talking to him about Easter, the last time we said there would be a surprise for him in the morning was Valentine's Day.  The kid remembers!  The cutest.

Anyhoo, he enjoyed finding his basket and looking through a few special surprises.  What fun to see pure joy in a child's face!  We then enjoyed a powerful church service, a delicious dinner at my parents' house, birthday dessert in honor of my sister, and lots of conversation and giggles with our dear family.

One of the highlights of the day was the Easter egg hunt in my parents' backyard with Coop and the nieces and nephew.  Along with our little family of three, my brother and his fam, my sister and her love, along with B's folks (Nana and Papa), and my parents (G-Mama and Boppa) were all in attendance and getting the biggest hoot out of those wee ones running around looking for eggs!  The best!

For some reason, I didn't keep the camera close enough throughout the day...but we did manage to capture some Easter basket fun and egg hunt adventures.  Enjoy!

 

Found it!  So excited!

 

Love the morning hair.  "Me have one?" with the sweetest smile and googly eyes.  "Of course!"

 

                                    

The Little Engine that Could DVD ($6 at Target) and Alphabetica: Odes to the Alphabet

Cooper loves trains and especially loves this book.  The movie ended up having a really scary looking train that Coop was quite scared of (we had to fast forward, cover eyes, and mute a few times), so we might wait a while to watch again.  I wish I would have known that...bad "preparing" on my part, but overall, the movie has a great message for kids that can handle a scary looking train that is not very kind to the other characters.  Cooper is pretty sensitive to characters being scared or worried or in a scary situation.  Gotta love that guy.  Gotta protect that little mind!

The alphabet book is pretty cool.  Looking forward to digging right in with Coop.

 

Coop's umbrella from Walmart broke.  Go figure.  He'd been requesting a new frog one.  Done.

      

Just a few special treasures this year, along with candy and a few dollars tucked inside eggs!

First clue from G-Mama and Boppy to find his special Easter surprise.

Fun tradition in my house growing up!

A few more clues later, and he found it! 

Inside his Curious George pail, he found a Barrel of Monkeys, 

a marigold starter pot, some more special treasures, and a kite!

He's pretty excited to try his new kite.

      

Time to hunt for eggs.  Ready, set, go!

Coop was aiming for the yellow eggs!

 

He sees one more!

The minute we counted his eggs and told him he had found them all, he ran to

 the dirt and started digging.  He had been waiting all day to get down in that dirt!

What a joy to share special moments like this with my family.  

We encountered a few extra visitors throughout the day and a consistant full house of people.

Old and new friends and family alike, everyone knows they are welcome at my parents' house.

At times, all of us together are a little loud, a bit messy, and quite imperfect...

but in the end, it is always a perfect day because we spent it together.

As we begin a new week, I pray I will remember what Easter means for my life, that it is the foundation of my faith...and that I will be bold enough to share it.

Happy Monday to you all!

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