Easter!

Here are the kids before church on Easter morning. 

And after. I didn't get a lot of detail in this photo, but we have a team of people who do a beautiful job decorating the church for Easter. 

In holidays past, we used to wait around at church to get a family photo; but with all Andy's greeting, talking, and pastor-duties, we'd typically be waiting around for quite a while. Now, the kids and I just head home and we utilize the self-timer on our phones to snap our own quick photo after Andy gets back. 

Some snacks to nourish us before our big meal. I mainly took a photo because I was proud of my pepperoni flower. 

It's time for the annual egg hunt! 

I believe we hid 96 eggs, which mean the kids each had 32 to find. Bella found hers first followed by Graydon shortly after. Andy and I ended up helping Curtis find his remaining eggs, but we still came up one short. Maybe we'll finally locate it over the summer. 

Bella emptied her eggs and separated her winnings into neat piles. The slips of paper all represented $1.

Even though Curtis didn't find all his eggs, he did manage to find the most valuable egg - the one containing the paper for a golden bunny and $5!

But wait. . . there's more! They still had baskets to hunt for! 

We ate the traditional Easter dishes: ham, green bean casserole, cheesy potato casserole, buttered-carrots, rolls, and washed it down with sparkling grape juice. Later, we ate some carrot cake. 

I realized this year that Easter is my favorite holiday. It's always been right up there with Christmas, but it really hit me this year that I actually enjoy it more than Christmas. For one thing, we are celebrating something so miraculous that gives our lives immeasurable hope. The other thing I enjoy is the simplicity of it. I guess Christmas can feel like a lot of pressure and a lot of busyness. Easter doesn't have as much of that and I really appreciated that this year.