Easter 2015.

I suppose that my view has the possibility to change every year, but this may be my favorite Easter yet as a parent.

Saturday we decided to brave the Easter egg hunt scene again. We've been missing from Easter egg hunting since our last rodeo with the madness in 2011. If you've read my blog since then, then you may remember Drew swearing that we'd never grace an Easter egg hunt again with so much as a shadow. Parent egg hoarders are a real thing, y'all, and I'm still scared by that incident. Thankfully we found a much less stressful egg hunt, that was actually even Jesus-focused. The kids had a great time (although there was whining involved because trying to explain grand prizes to a 4 year old is rough) and everyone was mighty worn out by the time it ended.

This was Tyler's first egg hunt. He did so good... until he realized they had candy in them. Then he just wanted to eat the candy he already had (which was about 3 eggs worth). ha!

the age groups were all divided across the church campus, which was probably the only unfortunate thing about the event, because it made us have to divide and conquer. Connor went with Drew, who remembered to take pictures (brownie point for the man!)

Drew's stepdad came up for the day... the boys enjoyed having their Papaw here to see their exceptional egg hunting abilities ;)

For the past several years we've chosen to attend the Saturday night service at our church in lieu of traditional Sunday morning (we obviously have issues with large crowds, as I am noticing a pattern between this and our Easter egg hunt phobia). It has worked out really well for our family, so we continued that tradition this year as well.

Connor was the only one who cooperated long enough for me to take a picture of him at our home before we left. He's grown up so much in the past several months. My mom mentioned today that he looks like a school-boy now and not a toddler. I'm trying not to think about it too much, because I just can't even fathom having TWO boys in school (thankfully he won't be going to school for another year and a half).

I snapped a few pictures of the boys after the church service, and it was basically like trying to herd feral cats. I did manage to snap this beauty:

It's definitely not your prim and proper Southern Baptist Easter pic. But it is SO my boys. I love when I am able to capture each of their personalities so well. I've been told the boys need to recreate this when they're older. I'm game. I didn't even have the courage to ask someone to snap a pic of our whole family. It's just not happening, and I prefer my blood pressure to be on the normal side of the spectrum anyways.

(this is what we got when we told them to stand still. haha!)

Sunday the kids woke up early, made it to my bedside, and immediately asked me why their baskets were empty. Ha!

Don't worry, I didn't forget. I actually left them empty on purpose this year. Growing up, my mom made different Easter morning scavenger hunts for us, with little stations that had different symbols of Easter. It is a fond memory for me, and since the older two boys are old enough to really understand everything (and the concept of a scavenger hunt), I decided to do that this year. So instead of filling their baskets, I left a clue at their baskets and then they made their way through 5 clues in the house till they ended at the back porch where eggs were hidden and their easter basket goodies were waiting. The boys LOVED the scavenger hunt, I loved that it slowed things down and made them really focus on the WHY of Easter, and it even gave us time as a family to stop and pray together before they tore into eggs and goodies. Like I mentioned, there were 5 clues, and each clue was given only if the kids answered the question on the outside of the envelope correctly (because we had done Resurrection eggs so much leading up to Easter, I knew they would know the answers easily). So it went like:
clue #1: what did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on?
clue #2: how many coins did Judas get when he betrayed Jesus? (they each received 3 quarters in this envelope, then were lead to the next clue).
clue #3: What did Jesus do with his friends before he was betrayed? (they were given Peeps, because Jesus hung with his "peeps" on the night he was betrayed.
clue #4: Why did Jesus die? (we talked about why Jesus had to die on the cross for us, and they were each given a chocolate cross)
clue #5: Why do we celebrate Easter? (we talked about the real reason we were celebrating, Drew prayed for our family, and the kids were told to go to the back door, where they each received a few small gifts and were able to hunt for a few eggs).

We will definitely do the scavenger hunt again. It was a big hit all the way around. As was the starburst, as evidenced by the 5 that Tyler shoved in his mouth in about 3 minutes flat. Happy Easter, indeed!