Easter Weekend

 Our school district always gets Friday and Monday off from school around Easter. I have a tradition with the girls to take them to the mall egg "hunt" each year. And each year I get a bit smarter...I know where to park so we can arrive close to start time and still get a good spot in line. Analise was too old to hunt, but she was a good sport for the others.  I was a mean mom though and told the girls only a few eggs and five pieces of candy. I don't like having lots of candy in the house.

 Friday night we met up at church with family and participated in my favorite service of the year. Worshiping with people from 12 other churches is a bit like heaven. We even sang my favorite new song, "Forever," by Kari Jobe.

Saturday morning Brandon went turkey hunting, and the girls and I had fun things planned. That is until I took Maisie's temp; poor girl was running a pretty high fever and had a case of the stomach flu. She looked like this most of the day.

 Maisie was too tired to color eggs, but I had two volunteers to help color eggs for Grandma.

 Since we had to forgo the big egg hunt with friends, I tried to make the most of it by hiding eggs in our back yard.  They loved it!

 Jump Sadie, Jump!

 Maisie found enough energy to look for about three minutes.

 Caramel with her own "egg."

 Saturday night tired Brandon stayed home with Maisie while "needing socialization" mom took Analise and Sadie over to the Luke house for a birthday party for Dave.

Sunday morning Maisie woke up with a bounce in her step and twinkle in her eye. She colored rest of the eggs even before her sisters were awake.

 We took all three girls to church; we figured Maisie was sitting with us anyway.

 I snuck into a picture, and I am glad I did since we failed to get a family picture. :(

I took the camera to church so I could get a picture of all the cousins.

 After church Brandon stayed home with Maisie for the lunch meal while the other two went with me back to the parent's for Easter lunch.

This crew enjoyed searching for their baskets.

 Dave and Sarena (pregnant with boy #2.)

By dinner time, Maisie had been fever free for 24 hours, so she and Brandon came over for the Easter dinner. So glad we could all be together!

We always enjoy celebrating Christ's resurrection, and we try so hard to teach the girls the importance of this. This year we continued using the Resurrection Eggs. However, we added our daily Bible reading with the scriptures that went along with the Easter message. (Yep, we jumped around in our one year Bible!)