April

Events from April included a scrapbook retreat for me, and a farm field trip for the Bean. I have pics from neither, so onto April's main event - Easter! These pics are all out of order, but we celebrated Easter w/ my family the weekend before Easter with a yummy dinner and traditional egg hunt for the kids. The kids and I did Resurrection Rolls and the Resurrection Eggs during the week before Easter. We had lunch on Easter Sunday with some good friends from our Sunday School class.

How's that for a quick Easter wrap-up??

Sweet friends at our Easter lunch...
We enjoyed probably the best carrot cake I've ever had at our Easter lunch, courtesy of Green Eggs in the 'Ham.

The kids table at our Easter lunch

I forgot my camera Easter morning (who does that???), so here are our two lone family pics. :)

I think I was 7 months pregnant in this pic??

We did Easter baskets the night before to cut down on the Easter Sunday morning madness...

The biggest hit in the Easter baskets were probably the princess socks for the Bean, and Cars socks for Bubs.

Resurrection Rolls...tasty!

My sweet sticky-fingered helpers. One marshmallow for the helpers, one for the rolls...

Fun at Mimi and Grandpaw's nearby park while we were there celebrating Easter. Puddles and sticks...fun times for a boy!

The daredevils riding down the ramp at the park...

Bubs actually has a big boy bike now...he was way too tall for the tricycle!

Examining the loot...candy and cold-hard cash! (Coins, but that's big time for a piggy bank, of course.)

Cousins

Pretending to be shepherds...a little more Christmas than Easter, but it's all Biblical!

Easter

Opening her Easter basket...she was psyched about her princess panties! (I need to relish these days when underwear is still a fun gift!)

Bubs looked at his basket, picked up the toy car in it, walked off and started playing w/ the car, and that was pretty much the end of his interest in the basket.

Her silly face

What a precious picture!

This is what Bubs wanted to do the whole time during out photo session, which is why I don't have one pic of his knee socks actually up on his knees.

The best shot we got of Bubs

The Bean never looked up at the camera for the family pics...not even once!

Here are a few Easter pics. We had a great morning at church celebrating, then went out for lunch and had a relaxing afternoon at home (or as relaxing as it gets w/ two pre-schoolers). During Holy Week, RR and I used our church's devotional guide that you can find here. It was really good and thought-provoking, and Wednesday's devotional stood out to me in particular. You should check it out. I am so thankful to have a risen Savior who has conquered sin and death. And who, "for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame." Happy Easter, everyone!

Easter '09

The kids cooperated fairly well to take this pic! Just couldn't get Bubs to smile.

We had a great time for Easter! My family came over on Easter Sunday for dinner, & we had a ball just hanging out w/ them. We sort of did the resurrection eggs w/ the Bean this year, although her attention span wouldn't last for the whole devotion. Mostly she'd just play w/ the eggs while I told her what the things inside the eggs meant and we tried to keep Bubs from eating the things that went inside the eggs. Again, that kid will eat anything except the food I feed him. :) My family stayed the night, and we all went to the zoo the next day and had a great time! Hope you all in Bloggyland had a happy Easter too!

Easter outfits

Can I please get a rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus???? The kids' Easter outfits are done!!! And two weeks early, too! I will admit, I had some help w/ the Bean's bishop dress. I smocked it, but my friend April put it together for me. The initial idea was for her to teach me how to put a bishop dress together, but instead I am doing some monogramming for her in exchange for putting the dress together, and she'll teach me on the next go-round. (Right, April???) But I did do all of Bub's outfit. I am going to get my friend Jessica to take their pics in these outfits soon. Anyway, I am really pleased w/ the way they both turned out.

Easter Ideas

I've been trying to think of some easy Easter crafts/activities to do w/ the Bean this season, and I'm having a hard time coming up w/ anything meaningful besides the Empty Tomb Cookies. I've also heard of the Resurrection Eggs, but I don't have any of those yet. I want to teach her about the resurrection, obviously...anybody have any ideas? Wooing My Flock, Blue Hutch...I'm counting on you two especially!!!

Happy Easter!

Well, I finished the Bean's Easter dress in plenty of time and it fit great. Yea! We had a crazy Easter b/c my mom came down w/ the stomach flu (she was sick for a week), so we couldn't spend time w/ my family like normal. And we were too last minute to make plans w/ anybody, so we ended up going to Logan's Steakhouse after church w/ another couple in our Sunday School class who had no plans either. :) The church service was great, and we are so thankful that we serve a risen Savior. Next year I think I'll try the resurrection eggs. I think the Bean was too young for them this time. And I may try an Easter baking project next year too in order to explain the resurrection to the Bean. Again, a little too young this year. If anybody has any good ideas, I'd love to hear them!



Here's a pic of the Bean in her Easter dress that we took b/f church. (She is doing her "toothy grin.") It's a good thing we took a pic b/f church too, b/c after church she got ketchup all over her dress at lunch. (It did come out!) No family pics, b/c there was nobody around to take a pic of all 3 of us.



Hope all of you had a wonderful Easter!

An Easter Challenge

I have, in fear and trepidation, decided to smock/sew the Bean an Easter outfit. I went to Thimbles today and selected a smocking plate (it's this plate, but I'm doing the lamb, which for some reason isn't shown here), and this pattern (the one on the left). It's one of those dresses that has the smocking just in the middle, not all across the front. (This is less work!!) The dress will be in done in a pale pink w/ a white collar. I had a hard time finding a smocking plate that wasn't a bunny or eggs. No offense to anybody who is planning on dressing their kiddos in those things for Easter, b/c I think they are adorable, but I'd rather use something more related to the real reason for Easter if I can find it. But believe me, they don't really make "Christ is risen, He is risen indeed" smocking plates or appliques. And a smocked cross seemed more like a Baptismal or Christening outfit to me. So I went w/ the lamb. And as a bonus, she can wear the outfit anytime...it's not one she can wear just around Easter. I am blogging about this so that all of you know about it and will be expecting me to post a picture when it's done. I need the accountability!!! This dress has a collar AND smocking AND sleeves AND buttons all down the back. This will put my sewing skills to the test! If any of you would-be seamstresses like me want to take on an Easter challenge w/ me, let me know and maybe we can work on our outfits together!