Happy Easter!!

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We went to the 8:30 service at our church and took a few family pictures afterward. It seems like every year Easter is more meaningful to me; fully entering into and remembering Jesus' death on the cross means fully celebrating His glorious resurrection a few days later. The lows and highs can be as extreme as you want them to be. This year, we participated in our church's Seder dinner on Maunday Thursday as a family. It was a very interesting experience with so much meaning behind every single aspect of the meal. It was neat to do it together as a family. Charlie was participating in all of the readings, and Molly and Alanna's favorite part was drinking from the cup. We also all attended the Good Friday service, one of my favorite services at EFree because it is so packed with music. It is a really beautiful service. And then we celebrated Jesus' resurrection on Easter morning! 

*I wore this dress for my dad's FFFD retirement party nearly two years ago. Alanna and Molly were wearing the matching coral dresses for the same party. Now it's Molly and Hattie's turn to wear matching dresses! 

 What a great, great picture of Grandma, Grandpa, and four of their grandchildren!

 Matt put a turkey on the grill for a big noon meal, and while we were waiting for it to get done, Matt hid the kids' Easter baskets for them to find. Charlie got a drawing book, a few Lego guys, a watch, a Minions chapter book, an I Survived chapter book, a mini basketball, emoji bandages, and a pack of gum. I'm maybe forgetting one or two things, but that was about what he received.

 Alanna got bubbles, play doh, Trolls bandages, a preschool book about numbers, two Pete the Cat books, a watch, a water toy (the kind where you have to get the rings around things), and a pack of gum.

Hattie's basket had bubbles, a squeaky book, a few sand toys, and a fruit pouch.

 Molly's basket had underwear, a paint with water book, a Dory board book, a Pinkilicious book, Trolls bandages, a Dory water toy like Alanna's, bubbles, a watch, and a little LalaLoopsy doll.

 Later in the afternoon, Matt set up an indoor Easter egg hunt. He filled the eggs with jellybeans and Robin eggs. We gave Hattie and Molly a head start before releasing Charlie and Alanna to hunt for eggs. I think Matt filled 80+ eggs so there was plenty for everyone.

 Easter egg hunts for toddlers involves setting eggs in very obvious spots (like the middle of the room on the floor) and hoping that they notice them!

 This might be my new favorite picture of Charlie, Alanna, Molly, and Hattie! They all have nice, natural smiles!! We are so very grateful for these children of ours.

 Grandma and Grandpa got the kids a little Easter goodie as well. The real gift was spending time with them at our house!!

Easter Egg Hunts

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Home Depot had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning. Since it's so close to our house, we grabbed the kids and some Easter buckets and went to check it out. Boy, did the kids find eggs! They each heaped eggs into their buckets and there were still hundreds left for other kids. SO MANY EGGS!! Home Depot had signs that instructed people to find 15 eggs per person, but when they saw the small turn-out, the employees were encouraging kids to take as many as they could! The girls were in the 0-5 section with me while Matt took Charlie to the 6-9-year-olds section. We had a blast! When we came home, Charlie, Alanna, Molly, and I grabbed a few handfuls of eggs and sprinkled them in our neighbor's yard to share the fun. 

 Look at the amount of eggs in the grass! And now look at how many people were around Hattie...

 Bajillions of eggs.

 BAJILLIONS.

 Our full buckets!

There was an Easter egg hunt in Florence at 10am that same morning, which gave us just enough time to go home and empty our buckets before going to the next egg hunt. Not like we needed more candy, but it's so fun for kids of all ages to find eggs so we went for it. The kids each found a handful of candy and eggs.

And the BEST part of the day - Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit!!!!

Back to Spring!

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Hattie is in the big girl booster seat! She LOVES being up to the table with everyone else. I have also used the high chair as a booster to the table by lowering the seat a few notches so it fits under the table. Works like a charm! I will say that one day while I did that, Hattie stood up in her high chair and leaned over the table to grab a crayon. I heard the high chair sliding so when I turned around from my meal prep at the counter, I saw Hattie stretched out almost horizontal to the ground! Her hands were gripping onto the edge of the table and her feet were in the seat of the high chair that was not about 18 inches away from the table. Yikes! Baby plank! That happened once, thankfully, and not since. (Yet?)

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One Saturday morning, I took our kids down to the new mini-pier at the duck pond. We checked it out, played at the park, and threw a few rocks in the river for a bit. 

 4-14

Charlie had Good Friday off from school. As usual, I felt self-induced pressure to do something fun and out of the norm on a day off of school. Instead of setting us up for complete failure, we stuck close to home and did a few little projects. Charlie, Alanna, and Molly helped decorate dipped pretzels while Hattie was napping. They were such great little sprinklers! 

Matt came home and got some bread started. Joining the fun this time was our tiniest baker, Hattie Elizabeth! Can you zoom in on this picture and see the pure joy on Hattie's face? She's wearing an apron, sitting standing in the booster seat, and kneading bread just like Daddy. If that isn't a recipe for a happy toddler, I don't know what is! Oh, these girls and their Daddy will have such wonderful memories of all of the bread they have made together.

 Molly's turn to knead the bread...

 Then Alanna's turn...

 And finally, Daddy got the dough ready for Hattie's turn.

 Way to go, Hattie!

Spring Snowfall

4-4

We got about five inches of wet spring snow so the girls and I decided to go out and build a snowman. We were completely soaked but we had a blast! We tried to use chalk to draw on our snowpeople with marginal success. :)

 Hattie was napping while the girls and I were out with the snow people. She woke up all smiles!