Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful, yet busy Easter weekend! Of course, we are always sad that we can't spend every holiday with our families, but friends are a great replacement for family, especially since our friends have been our family out here! Anyway, Saturday was filled with preparations and such around the house as well as a little fun! We dyed Easter eggs for the first time with Arden, and he had a blast. The perfectionist in me had a hard time letting him do it his way, and I was freaking out at every splash of dye that went flying as he dropped an egg into the cups, but we had fun too and made some pretty eggs that I later used as part of the table decorations. It was fun to do something that I did every year with my siblings with my own child. Sophia, our neighbor, came over to show off her eggs that she had dyed too and Arden had fun showing off his...of course, anything is fun when Sophia is around!

 It's pretty exciting!

Just hanging out!

Saturday night William babysat for the Ashtons and I stayed home and finished getting everything ready for Sunday. Sunday morning we all came downstairs together and were excited to find Easter baskets with a few goodies and some new toys! Arden got some new diggers and a new duck. Porter got a new dinosaur. Arden was very excited and opened up every egg that was in his basket and I'm pretty sure he ate half of the candy that was in there before breakfast (granted, it wasn't a lot to start with, but still, lots of sugar for a 2 1/2 year old!)

 Almost sitting up by himself!

After that we all got ready to go and the boys tried on their new suits, which fit perfectly and were so cute.

Our church does an Easter brunch, so we ate there and enjoyed visiting with friends and eating the delicious food. Church was a blur because of having to manage an infant and a 2 1/2 year old by myself, (William was head usher, so he wasn't sitting with us at the beginning) however, I made sure to be in there for Christ the Lord is Risen Today! That is one of my favorite hymns and I look forward to Easter because I know that it will be sung and I love it - especially when brass instruments are involved! I also sang along with the choir (no not in the choir loft) for the Hallelujah chorus, another favorite. We snapped a few pictures of the boys and us after church. It's like our once a year family picture!

 Pretty sure Owen just walked into sight

 Brotherly Love

Church friends!

After church we came home for a short nap and then got ready for lots of friends to come over. The Mischkes, Zoschkes, McGuires, Ashtons, and Bajans all came over for an Easter egg hunt and potluck dinner. The kids did an egg hunt out around our playground area and had a blast. Caelum Ashton, the youngest one involved in the hunt did the best job with it! It was hilarious how focused he was at finding those eggs!

 Again, I think he ate most of the candy before the hunt was over!

 Ashton Brothers

After the hunt, we all had dinner and visited. It was super loud with all the kids in our small town home, but it was fun. After dinner we did the resurrection eggs with everyone. It was chaotic, but I was still glad to do them. Everyone hung around for a while and had a good time just visiting while the kids played (and yelled and squealed, etc). Anyway, it was a fun filled weekend celebrating our Risen Lord!