Easter

There's a song that's been stuck in my head since yesterday morning and it really sums up my thoughts on Easter. It's a song from Hillsong and this one line keeps playing in my head over and over....it says
"Author of salvation....He rose and conquered the grave..." As we celebrated Passover last week, E and I were in awe at how much of Passover points to Jesus. It's truly amazing. In Luke 22:19 (The Message), ^"19Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory."That had been the middle matzah that He had used. When He took the cup of wine and said in Luke 22:20 (The Message), ^"20He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you." That was with the Cup of Redemption. The stripes and holes in the matzah all point to the stripes (wounds) that Jesus endured from the beatings and the holes represent the hole that was pieced in his side by the Roman soldiers to make sure He was dead.
Having Passover earlier in the week really put us in an expectant mood the rest of the week and helped prepare our hearts and minds for Easter.

During March and April, we read books to Miss A each night about Passover and the true meaning of Easter. (One of the great things about Passover is that it's not commercialized so no need to go find a "true meaning of Passover" book!) The books we read were What Is Easter? and Hooray! It's Passover! 
Miss A asked for both of those books almost every night!

Sunday morning came bright and early like most mornings but this morning we took our children downstairs to look at their Easter baskets. We kept our baskets simple and Miss A enjoyed looking at her basket and also checking out baby brother's Easter basket too.

(That's a gnome on F's onesie...not Santa. Oh and yes I realize now that he only had one sock on in this photo!)
The day before Easter, we did a practice egg hunt in the backyard in preparation for the one at our church. E hid the eggs in the backyard and then she went out and collected them in her basket. She did such a great job and really liked it. Afterward, E and Miss A threw eggs into the basket and now Miss A thinks that you regularly just throw eggs.

Sunday morning after breakfast and showers, we got dressed and went to church early for their 2nd Easter Egg Hunt. They had thousands of stuffed plastic eggs and sent the kids out according to their ages. Miss A went out with the 1-2 year old group and took her time gathering her allotted 10 eggs.

After the egg hunt, we went back inside for some fun and games...Miss A looks like she stepped right out of the 50's in this photo-

After the egg hunt, our kiddos went to the nursery and we went to the church service which was wonderful and spiritually refreshing.
When church was over, we headed right over to Gramma's house for lunch and dying/coloring/painting Easter eggs. Gramma had the best idea-she hid items from Miss A's second Easter basket on her deck and Miss A had to search for them-

A photo op with Gramma-

Wandering down a path in Gramma's backyard-

E and F in the backyard-

Hanging out in Gramma's living room-

Dying Easter eggs...or just decorating them with stickers...(We put Miss A in one of Gramma's old tank tops so she wouldn't get any dye on her dress.)

Gramma with Miss A after she ate some delicious chocolate from her basket...Miss A is going to love going to Gramma's house because Gramma gives candy!

Our finished eggs-

We had beautiful weather for Easter and were so thankful to get to celebrate this most holy of holidays with 2 children this year!

This post wraps up most of what's been going on since I last posted in March.  Baby F turned 6 months on Good Friday. He has his checkup tomorrow so after that I will do a 6 month post that will include lots of cute pics!