Happy Easter!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Maggie had a great time making and decorating cookies and then coloring eggs last Friday (3/26). She wanted to eat all the hard-boiled eggs right away after they were colored, but I explained that we would make some egg-salad sandwiches to eat with Daddy later that weekend.
I ended up decorating most of the cookies, she got bored after two. Had to make a chocolate bunny. Sugar cookies with frosting are Tyler's favorites!
Wednesday I kept Maggie's friends, Savannah and baby sister Sidney. To keep the big girls entertained, they got to decorate Easter buckets. There was an Easter egg hunt at Mother's Day Out the next day, so I knew they'd need a collection device. The girls worked on their buckets for over an hour! I neglected to bring my camera for this party. Oops!
A local church threw an Easter Egg Hunt at the park near our house on Saturday. It was a little chilly and had rained in the morning, but we just layered up and put Maggie in boots in case there was mud. Here she is with her first cotton candy. She loved it!

There was a magician there, too (you can see him the background). She had so much fun watching his tricks. It was geared toward younger kids, and everyone was laughing and shocked at all his little tricks. Watching her scoot a little closer every couple of minutes to watch was so much fun for Tyler and I to see!
She was VERY excited to sit with the bunny. The church that put on the event will be emailing me their photo. After her turn was done, she was so happy!
I didn't get her face, but I promise there was a huge grin the entire time she was in the moon walk. As soon as she saw the moon walk at the park, that's all she wanted to do.
Waiting for the race to start.
Maggie and this little girl were on the end, they had a big amount to themselves to pick up... but Maggie passed over lots because they weren't the right colors.
Posing with her haul. She had so much fun looking at all the eggs on the ground that she didn't collect as many as, say, my brothers and I would've gotten when we were kids. =) But the point is to have fun, right?
This is the second year we did an Easter Mountain. I am not organized enough to go through the whole week leading up to Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, but we do paint the mountain, and on Friday morning we put a paper Jesus on the cross, then when we got home from Mom's group we put Him in the tomb. Sunday morning Maggie woke up to the stone rolled away from the empty tomb. She knows that on Sunday we celebrate the resurrection, but she was still surprised to see that the tomb was empty. It was very sweet. "He is not here, He has risen!"Her basket waiting for her in the morning.
Having so much fun with the eggs hidden in the house on Sunday morning. She LOVED finding them all over.
The basket devastation. Maybe I should send Tyler to the store next year to do her basket - he would not go overboard. It's just so hard when there is so much cute stuff! Did everyone notice how hard it was to find SMALL packages of peeps? She loved peeps, but really doesn't need the whole box. So we have to work at keeping her out of her candy. She ate SO MUCH CANDY!!! on Saturday and Sunday, I am surprised she didn't have an upset tummy!
Maggie and Zayli at church in their Easter dresses. Best of friends!
Sunday evening we had Dixie, Seth, Zayli and Grandma Phyllis over for Easter dinner (we kept hoping they wouldn't come because Dixie was in labor, no luck). I got to use my new dining room table (for the first time!!!) and broke out the china (which is so easy to get to now that I have a china hutch where I can get to it!). I neglected to take a picture of our meal - it was probably the best meal I've ever cooked for guests (it was easy and turned out perfect)- darn! I made ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise, spinach and strawberry salad, and Dixie brought her awesome homemade rolls. For dessert we had strawberries and angel food cake.
After dinner we went for a walk on the trail in our neighborhood at dusk. Had to try to get Dixie to go into labor, right? She didn't, but it was still a fun walk! The girls had a great time running ahead of us. Here they are, enjoying themselves as the sun goes down.
Maggie got a second set of Resurrection Eggs from Gramma Amron, so she gave her old set to Zayli. Here she is going through each egg with her, telling her the Easter story. She knows each item this year, and can tell the story behind 11 of the 12 symbols. We went through the eggs at least 2 times every day this past week leading up to Resurrection Sunday, at Maggie's request. Tyler and I pray that these lessons about Jesus' resurrection will bury themselves in her heart and that she will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus!