Easter

Our Easter Festivities started off with egg dying on Good Friday. At first Ben only wanted to use three of the colors, but finally decided to use most of them. I was really impressed when he wanted to dye some eggs red. His reasoning? He said the red dye represented the blood of Jesus. I guess he has been paying attention at church! We started the egg coloring after Sophie was in bed. I feel a bit bad about it, but we were all exhausted from two house showings (aka cleanings), and I just didn't want to deal with any more messes than I had too. She'll have here chance next year.

Our eggs turned out great, although of course we couldn't get Ben to try one.

The next morning was the St. Xavier egg hunt. Grandma and Big Pa were able to join us and see the kids hunting for eggs before they headed home to Michigan. Since our church hosted the event at a local park, there were a lot of familiar faces and kids from Ben's school. Of course Ben's best friend Nicky was there, and as usual they never left each others sides. Ben managed to pick up lots of eggs and treats and even won a kite in the raffle following the hunt. He can't wait for a warm and windy day to fly it!

It didn't take Sophie long to master the art of picking up eggs. Nick helped her a little at first, but then she got the hang of it. It was so cute watching the under three crowd searching for eggs. There was more than enough to go around, and the parents had to help the kids pick up the last bits of candy.

After the egg hunt, Sophie enjoyed a Tootsie Pop. She was very pleased with her stash of candy.

On Easter Sunday Sophie arose first which is unusual, so we decided to wake Ben so the two could hunt for eggs together. The Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate treats as well as a few small toys and books. We tried to keep the focus more on Jesus and less on the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny even brought chocolate crosses instead of chocolate bunnies! Ben is absolutely infatuated with the two eggs of silly putty he received. Sophie just loves her new marker set and wants to color all of the time.

After our fun egg hunting, we cleaned up for church. The kids both wore their new Easter clothes which they also wore to have their pictures taken a few weeks ago. (Those photos will go out with the birth announcements.... sometime!). Ben helped pick out their matching duds on a trip to Topeka earlier in the spring. He insisted that we buy him the tie that matched his dress shirt. It is the first time he has ever had a tie, and to our complete surprise, he actually wore it and didn't complain one bit!



Later in the afternoon, we joined our friends Jennifer and Christian, and their daughter Taylor for a great dinner at their house. We dined on smoked brisket and lots of other yummy things, and the kids had a great time playing together.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter!