Easter 2013

Life with kids is so great...and it just keeps getting better!

Since Afton is getting older and actually understands a few things, we get to teach her about all the holidays.  I wanted her to understand the True Meaning of Easter.
Teaching a child is fascinating to me.  I realize that Afton won't be able to understand the entire story of Easter at age three but figuring out what to teach her has been an amazing experience- it has forced me to really ponder about the story of Easter and what it means for me- and for her.
We ended up teaching her that Jesus died for us so that we might live with him, our Heavenly Father, and our family in Heaven (next year we will teach her that Jesus died for us so that we might repent of our sins and live with him, our Heavenly Father and our family in Heaven).  We taught her that Jesus died and his body was put in a tomb and a rock was rolled in front of the tomb.  On Easter, the rock was rolled away from the tomb and Jesus was alive again.  I worked REALLY hard to teach her this, all month long we talked about it.  I don't think she really even understands what death is so I wasn't quite sure she was getting it.  But, the day before Easter, I was trying to teach her again.  I asked her if she knew what happened on Easter morning.  She said, "the rock rolled away and Jesus was alive!  I love him!"
I cried.  The simple moments of motherhood.  I LIVE for those moments.

Here is how we celebrated!

Our AMAZING friends Meghan and Pat invited us over to dye Easter eggs!  We had SO much fun!
They were dog sitting for Meghan's sister so we were partying at their house.  We couldn't find the vinegar so Meghan came up with a concoction that sounded like it would work.  Some eggs were bright- others were dull- it only added to the fun of it all!

 Taylee was Emme's age last Easter so this was her first "real" egg dying experience.  She handled it like a champ!

 We got talking, as we always do with Meghan and Pat, and didn't see that Afton was EATING the egg she was dying!  Egg shell and all!

 Someone was a little obsessed with candy land! 

 An Easter tradition in our house...a line of Easter eggs from her door to the basket. 

 The Easter bunny did some awesome late night shopping Friday night while I put the girls to bed.  This bib is my favorite- the Easter Bunny must know I am a little obsessed with Penguins!

 The Easter Bunny brings the name brand Dora fruit snacks instead of the cheap ones we usually get!  He is SO cool!

 We tried to get some cute sister-sister pics before the Easter egg hunt.  This is the best we could manage!

This was the most BRILLIANT Easter egg hunt we have ever been to.  The kids stood in a circle, a woman came a dumped a huge pile of Easter eggs in the middle, and the kids picked them up!  It was SO fun for the kids (no pressure to move quickly and they felt like they could have as many as they wanted) and it was even more fun for the parents because you got to just stand back and watch your kid with no worries of helping them move from egg to egg.  Even better, no candy!  Each egg had a coupon for the toy store that hosted the event.  Afton ended up with three dollars- we went inside and picked out a purse and lip gloss.  The whole event was brilliant I tell you!  Just brilliant! 

 The toy shop that hosted the Easter egg hunt has this FREE coin op horse machine.  Afton rides it as much as possible! 

 And then we headed to Pearl street.  It was a beautiful day and it felt so nice to sit at the play yard of boulders (yep, just boulder the kids climb on- they are a big hit actually!).  There were even some teenagers just behind us playing some amazing live music.  Oh, we are going to miss the easy going Saturdays on Pearl street!