Happy Easter!

This morning as Madison left the house in her beautiful Easter dress that Mommy had found, she immediately spied what she was looking for: Easter eggs! It was early, but about five or so were left in the front yard as a teaser - the real hunt would come later. Still, it was a nice surprise before church, and it made for a nice photo opportunity as well: Mommy snapped this shot of Madison before church.

But soon, it was time for the big day - and the two final performances of AD33. My goodness, church was filled this weekend. Every seat filled. Overflow was overflowing. Simply amazing!

Here's Madison with Jesus, just five minutes after he rose from the grave - for the fifth time! You can't keep this guy down. Something tells me, this time it's for good.

Daddy took Madison upstairs to see the final portions of AD33, as his terrible Pharisee character was no longer needed. Our good friend Javier was nearby, portraying the King of kings, so Daddy snapped a quick couple photos for Easter. I really wanted Madison to see just a glimpse of what Easter was really all about. Of course, she couldn't necessarily understand it all - but today's service (or at least the parts she saw) served well as an introduction to something greater than any bunny rabbit or eggs.

AD33 went rather well this weekend. We had an audience of over 20,000 through five services, but the last two services were the best.

Though we were pretty wiped out, we still made time to go to Ye-Ye and Nana's house for Easter. It's tradition! When we arrived there, we found a wonderful meal spread out across the table for us. Great Grandma was there, and Madison was able to give her the gift she was working on over the past few weeks, seen here and here.

Dinner was great, and so was the key lime pie that Great Grandma brought. But soon, it was time for the egg hunt! God blessed us mightily, as we were able to use a lot of the leftover eggs from the church: we're talking TONS OF EGGS.

Lots and lots of them across two front lawns, and all for Hannah and Madison. Talk about an egg-stravaganza! She had a great time looking for eggs with Hannah today. The weather was perfect, and so were the smiles. Both were quite excited to go on the hunt!

Even the boys were in the backyard, on the "advanced course," looking for those harder-to-find eggs (some even camouflaged). But Madison and Hannah were kept busy by all the eggs in the front yard, each one containing some little prize or candy.

It was quite some day. It took them a while to find all the eggs, and even afterwards it took a while to check out all the loot. Aunt Shain and the cousins made Madison a great basket: a rabbit hole filled with goodies, and a future entry in Madison's Book Club.

The basket was a rabbit hole, with a large stuffed rabbit inside. This was a great surprise for Madison, who pretty much spent the rest of the day playing with the dolls and reading her new book.

But she also had to check out Ye-Ye's bunny rabbit empire! Daddy and Mommy got this for Daddy as a joke several years ago: they had all of these pieces for sale at the dollar store, so the entire "bunny world" was extremely cheap. Daddy does like to look at the Christmas villages, so we thought it would be funny to get him this gaudy bunny village - with all the pieces. It's so cute that you cringe - and yet, to continue with the joke, Ye-Ye faithfully puts it out each year. This time though, it was sincerely appreciated: Madison loved looking at all those pieces and exploring Ye-Ye's Bunny Empire.

It was a wonderful day. But as it grew later, we all grew much more exhausted. Time was catching up with us from a hectic week. Tomorrow, I imagine we'll all be in a vegetative state! But until then, we've got enough energy and time to post here and say it was a wonderful Easter.

Happy Easter!