Easter 2012

Easter felt a little crazy this year! With three little ones the days are just flying by and the days leading up to Easter were no exception. We ended up doing a fun Easter egg hunt the weekend before Easter with our friends from church and their kids. It was a fun chaos of little people who did not even really know what they were looking for, which actually made it quite funny! My friend Jen who hosted the party provided each kiddo with a little basket to put all their eggs.

Then of course we had to attempt a group photo

 during which at some point Elise looks over and notices that Joie dropped a few eggs 

So she makes her way over

and proceeds to take them back to her spot

which I did not even notice because I was talking 

(thanks Catie for getting this all on camera..ha ha)

and poor Joie just realized what happened.

So after a re-distribution of the eggs everyone was happy again.

It was my first day back at work the Saturday before Easter and Russ had a cold

so our Easter Sunday was pretty low key

We let the girls have a few special things out of their baskets before church

attempted to get a picture of the girls and North all dressed up for church

this picture of Russ and North just melts my heart every time I see it! 

after church we spent the rest of the day relaxing as a family

the girls got balloons, sunglasses, a very small bag of candy :) 

purses and necklaces (which they got in the morning) 

Twas the Night Before Easter Veggie Tales DVD, and the books

  Tell Me About Easter and What is Easter 

Both books and the DVD did a great job of showing that while there are fun things associated with the holiday Easter (egg hunts, baskets of toys and candy, etc) 

what we are truly celebrating is the Lord's resurrection! 

We talk every holiday about what we want to try and incorporate into our personal family traditions

and I found some of these great ideas online for when the girls are older and can comprehend the concept of life and death a little more. 

1. Make Good Friday Cross Buns and talk about how the cross is a reminder of Jesus sacrifice for our sins

2. Make a mini resurrection garden to help illustrate the concept

3. Read the Easter story in the Bible on Friday evening

and first thing Easter morning

4. Read The Parable of the Lily and plant or buy a lily

(Lilly would especially love this! )

5. Take an Easter meal with someone who might spend it alone

Hope you had a great Easter!