Easter 2016

Madison set up the Empire this weekend, the land of bunnies and carrots and Easter eggs.  This village above stretches to other furniture as well, each piece meticulously set up by Madison to make a nice display.

With all the setting up yesterday, we were all ready for Easter Sunday!  This morning, we started as we do each Sunday:  at church.  KidPak was just wonderful this morning, as we closed out our "Roughin' It" series in fine fashion.  The closing skit wrapped up things in a hilarious way, and tied it to our message afterwards, which was powerful.  It is Easter Sunday, so we allotted more time to spend talking about the story of the crucifixion and resurrection.  From worship to the fun to the message, it was a really strong service.  Madison loved it.

But soon after, it was time to get home.  And that's where the baskets were!  You can see the Kylo Ren theme here above - Aunt Shain made Madison a Kylo Ren themed basket, which was hilarious.  There's a felt covering that is shaped like the helmet (this worn by a stuffed bunny), and then there's the basket, candy lightsabers, and of course a Disney Infinity figure in there of... Kylo Ren.

Speaking of Disney Infinity, the cousins each got a figure.  But that wasn't the end of the Disney Infinity fun for the guys.  Daddy spent a lot of time working on a 'virtual' Easter egg hunt, creating a world where the boys could be Ultron and Hulkbuster Iron Man to go around finding twenty eggs.  While battling a lot of bad guys.  This they happily did, while the girls went out and hunted for literal Easter eggs.

But before we go there, a few more baskets.  This tasteful basket above was all a ruse!  It was a nice looking egg and presentation for Nana and Ye-Ye.  But sure enough, when opened, that nice golden egg had inside it... our creepy clown!  This is that same gift that keeps going from family to family here, seen at Christmas and other holidays.  We all forget about it, until a gift is opened or that clown is stuck in a basket or something.  It's been going around here a few years now, and always a big laugh.

Mommy got a basket from Daddy too.  Since it is a day that you look for eggs, why not look for an egg-spaceship?    Mommy got a "Mork & Mindy" series, and you can see the rainbow suspenders Daddy put on the basket as well.  And yes, there's that plastic egg spaceship too.

Hannah and Aunt Shain got baskets with Thor and Cinderella - and Mommy and Daddy got a fun basket too:  look at what Aunt Shain did again.  It's an ant hill, with ants made out of black Easter eggs.  Inside the basket are lots of chocolate Easter candies, but also a copy of ... "Ant-Man."  Well played!

The day was organized well.  We actually ate before the baskets, a Honey Baked Ham along with all sorts of other foods that Mommy has been preparing this weekend.  In between the meal and dessert, we did the baskets, and then looked for eggs.  The boys were checking out their new figures, and looking for eggs on Disney Infinity.  But in the meantime, Madison was out with Hannah outside looking for a whole lot of eggs.  I mean, a whole lot of eggs.  Aunt Shain, Jonathan, David and Daddy were hiding eggs all over the front and back yard, and it took a good long time to find them all.  As it was drizzling a little bit earlier, Madison and Hannah put on rain boots before going out - Madison looks great in her Easter dress with rain boots on!

Here they are with Ye-Ye in the back yard, looking around for the eggs, and filling up their bags and baskets.  Inside the plastic eggs, of course, were jelly beans and candies.  So you know that we have all kinds of sugar in the house now!  But the fun isn't the candy so much as it is the hunt for the eggs, which is always lots of fun.

Everyone had dessert afterwards, which was very nice.  We sat and talked for a while, a great, restful Easter afternoon.  Eventually, it was time to go home for the family though, where things probably got even more restful!

We were pretty tired, so we looked into the basket that Mommy and Daddy got for Madison.  This basket has a dinosaur theme to it, with dinosaur eggs, dinosaur marshmallow candies, and a copy of "The Good Dinosaur," along with Spot, a character for Disney Infinity from the movie.  We popped in that movie tonight, sitting down in the living room to watch.  Visually, this movie is simply amazing to look at.  We've never seen better animation on landscapes and realism.  Plus, the movie is fun too, especially the T-Rex posse.

Anyway, it was a great, great Easter.  And as you might suspect, we went to bed just on time.  We read from "Mary Poppins," where we met - and said goodbye to - Euphemia Andrew, a fun chapter in book number two of the Mary Poppins books.  This character plays a much more significant role in the Mary Poppins play, and it was neat to read the source material for this character.  Brimstone and treacle indeed!

Tonight, we're going to bed early.  Easter is fun for the kids after church, but it's a lot of work setting up.  Everyone is pretty tired, as you might suspect.  In fact, Daddy is nearly falling asleep typing this!  So, Happy Easter one and all, and good night!