We started Easter with church and ended with lots and lots of prayers! We woke up Sunday morning at around 6AM. We were very excited about the bunny this year for some reason. It is always exciting, don't get me wrong, but this year they had really talked it up and were VERY excited-I am surprised they were able to sleep. We had an interesting church service-we did not have children's church during church despite the fact that the kids were dismissed- then caught in the hall and sent back into church. Great mass confusion!!After church, we went to Erik's cousin's house for grandma's dinner and egg hunt). Grandma's house has definitely shrunk now that there are so many of us. Lots of kids + small house = afternoon of headaches and stress for grandma. She may still deal with those anyway, but I know she enjoys the sanctuary of her home afterward! Then we were off to my moms for another dinner (we don't eat at this one-desserts maybe ( : ) and egg hunt. My mom has the kids wrapped around her little finger since she has a gold egg ($10) and a silver egg ($5) Erika, the lucky, found both one time and had to give one away (I did make her do that!) This year she only found the silver egg-so she got to keep it. [This reminds me that I completely left out the details of our Girl Scout egg hunt-Erika found both the gold eggs($5 and $3) and almost all of the $1 eggs as well(I did not make her give one away-but she did share some with a few of the girls not so lucky). We had everyone put at least a quarter in the eggs because they voted money not candy. Erika was rich! KAyla was not and very angry once she knew what Erika had. Before that she was feeling good and sharing her eggs with others who did not have as many eggs as her. Having a lucky sister is a real downer.] Anyway, the kids had a great time at both egg hunts and we got home just in time to make pasta salad for our care group and then leave again. We had a wonderful lesson together with much debate on unity or more specifically the lack of unity of believers today. During our meal, Erik got a call on his cell phone-it is important to point out here that we do not get calls on our cell phones unless it is from each other-it was his mom and his dad was down with a severe nosebleed from both nostrils that would not stop. He and Randy rushed over and took him to the ER. We prayed and chatted while playing the waiting game. VERY scary...there are lots of heart issues where papaw is concerned. God is faithful and heard our prayers because Erik and pawpa got home about midnight and hopefully all is well. Please keep him in your payers(Jerry is his name). Me and the girls prayed when we got home and before bed and I prayed again before going to bed. I am so thankful we have a God we can petition with prayer!! AND a God who can answer those prayers!! So it was an exciting Easter finale!



Staurday we had an egg hunt, egg dying and a birthday party at the skating rink followed by a visit to see the play "The Promise" which my sister and her kids were in. It was a great play with a wonderful message. It showed Satan at work in every scene- manipulating the pharisees and befriending Judas. Lilly was fascinated with him!! She told her Sunday school class how much she loved the devil...put that right up there with things you thought you would never hear from your child-epecially on Easter! I used it as a teachable moment-I told the kids all about his costume(it was very cool) and that when the devil is around, he doesn't always look "bad and scary"-he tempts us to do bad things-he looks alot like a fight with your brother or sister, not sharing, or not obeying your parents. I think they got it. Even though we got home very late from the play, it was an exciting visual for the story of Christ-it begins in a manger and leads all the way to the resurrrection and finishes with "I Can Only Imagine"- a heaven scene with Jesus crowned king. VERY POWERFUL!

Today I have promised my kids we would google egg hunts and find out why we do it. Should be fun! Later we will scrapbook at scouts. I'm tired!!