Easter

The Saturday before Easter was an absolutely beautiful day here at the coast. Jeff had been invited to go bottom fishing out on the ocean with a friend, and I took the boys over to the city park in Rockaway for an Easter Egg Hunt put on the by the city fire department. It is silly to call it an Easter Egg Hunt when in reality it is more like a free-for-all gathering of eggs that are just laying in the grass, but even so, it was fun for the boys, and not nearly as chaotic as some of the other bigger venues down in Tillamook. The park was divided into sections for different age groups, the youngest being 0-3, and there were definitely some people there with babies that couldn't even sit up yet, but were going on an Easter egg hunt...and those "babies" got more Easter eggs than my two boys combined. I just thought it was silly that some parents so desperately wanted to take part in this event, probably just so they could get pictures of their kid wearing a cute Easter outfit with their a cute Easter basket. And to make it worse, the plastic eggs had cheap little trinkets inside that a little kid could easily choke on (Levi tried to put a little, purple, egg shaped eraser in his mouth, thinking it was candy...so just imagine what a 6 month old would do), so there was really no reason why those parents should have been gathering eggs for those babies anyway.

In spite of all that, the boys had fun. We got to the hunt about 20 minutes early because I knew there wasn't much parking around the park and I didn't want to walk a mile to get there. The "hunt" lasted about 40 seconds (literally), and then we sat in the sun, opened all the eggs, climbed on a fire truck, picked daisies, and just enjoyed a warm day at the park! :)

It is almost impossible to get pictures of my boys both looking and smiling at the camera these days, as you can see below, so here are some photos from our day that don't really capture how much fun they were actually having. :)

Waiting for the hunt to begin. Trying to get them to look at the camera.

Nope. Still not looking.

And, once again, not looking...or smiling (although Daniel is saying "cheese").

Almost ready for the hunt to begin!

Daniel examining his loot.

Levi loves picking daisies and wearing them on his ear, just like mommy :)

The boys loved looking a the fire truck up close. 

When we got home later that afternoon Levi was ready for a nap but Daniel wasn't very tired so he and I sat on the couch to read stories. I had been talking to the boys about the real reason we celebrate Easter for a few days, (since we want to make sure that this holiday is never just about colorful eggs and bunnies) so I was glad when Daniel grabbed a picture book about Jesus' life off the shelf. I turned it to a story of the last supper and we read all the stories from there to Jesus' ascension to Heaven. When we were done reading I asked Daniel why Jesus was a special person and he said "Because he died because the bad mens hurt him but then he was alive and the mens were happy and he (Jesus) went (insert little boy superhero whooshing noises here) up to heaven with God." That sweet little explanation brought tears to my eyes. This Easter I felt an incredible amount of joy when I thought about Jesus' love for us and the miracle of his resurrection. I am so glad that Daniel seemed to catch a glimpse of that incredible gift, and I hope that we can build on his understand more this year so that by next Easter he will have an even deeper connection with Jesus' love.

On Sunday went to the "sunrise service " (8:00 AM is not exactly sunrise, but that's fine by me), had a great potluck breakfast with our church family, attended the regular service at 10:10, played outside, then headed home for lunch and naps. 

 

Good friends and good food at church!

After naps the boys opened their Easter baskets, and went on a mini egg hunt around the house. Then we went to our friend's, the Troyer's, house for dinner and another egg hunt. :) 

Daniel found an egg!

Levi found an egg!

I thought it was hard to get two boys to look at the camera and smile, but then I tried to get three boys to smile and look at the camera while they had buckets full jelly beans. So, here is the result of about 2 minutes of continuous shooting.

 It was a fun and blessed Easter weekend!