Easter 2014

I'm playing catch-up.... again.  Story of my life, I guess.  Last weekend was Easter.  We originally thought we would be spending Easter with our family of 3, but my parents had an unexpected change of plans, and were able to join us for church on Easter Sunday and then lunch at our house.

So anyway, Sundays are busy days for us.  Since Kevin is a pastor, he has to get to church on Sundays pretty early.  A lot of the time Kate and I go early with him, but sometimes we just meet him there.  Regardless, Sunday mornings are a rush and we don't have time for a lot of "extra" stuff before church. Because of that, we decided to do Kate's Easter basket after we got home from church.

We got home from church on Sunday and I left Kate outside with Kevin and my parents while I ran inside to put her Easter basket in front of our fireplace.  I told her that there was a surprise inside and she had to go find it.  She didn't have any problem locating the surprise.

The first thing she pulled out were jelly beans and of course she wanted to open them.  We let her have a few before I took them away since we were about to eat lunch.  She was not happy.  Note to self for next year: make sure she opens up her Easter basket when she can eat whatever is in there immediately and in its entirety. 

We've tried to let Kate know what the TRUE meaning of Easter is.  We talk about Jesus all the time, but we especially want her to understand that Easter is about Jesus' death and resurrection.  While the other stuff is a lot of fun, we don't want any of that "stuff" to overshadow the greatest gift of all and the foundation of our hope and faith.

Even though Easter is about Jesus, we still do an Easter basket for Kate.  It's a fun little tradition, and we like it, but we definitely don't go overboard at all.  We included a new Bible, since she has out-grown her baby Bible and has memorized all of the stories in it verbatim.  We also included in her basket a Veggie Tales DVD, a few coloring books, some play-doh and toddler scissors.  Oh, and a few pieces of candy.  Like I said, we don't go overboard on Easter baskets and gifts.   

After the whole Easter basket drama (seen in the picture above), it was time for lunch.  We'd decided to just eat lunch at our house (roast, carrots, potatoes, salad and rolls) instead of trying to go out to eat.  And we had an apple pie type of dessert.  Very good!  And it always seems that we get to spend more time with my parents when we eat at home instead of trying to eat at a restaurant.

After lunch we headed outside to get some pictures with the still-blooming azaleas.  It seems like they bloomed for 3 weeks this year.