Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter Sunday! And what a happy, crazy, fun-packed day it was! From the time we woke up to the time everyone crashed in their beds, we were going full-speed. There was Easter basket hunting after breakfast, Mass at 9am, home for a short "break" in which cleaning, cooking, and prepping for the rest of day occurred, one Easter potluck attended in the afternoon, and an Easter dinner hosted in the evening. Oh, and throw in two egg hunts in there somewhere! I definitely feel that sometimes more is just more, and probably won't try to cram that much into one holiday again. But there is no doubt that the girls, Ben, and I had a wonderful day celebrating Easter - the part with the bunny and candy AND the part celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Favorite part of the day, however, had to be the first Easter egg hunt the girls did. The potluck we attended was hosted by the Carlson family, our friends we've made from church who have "adopted" us and include my girls in their "grandkids" count. It seems there has been a LONG tradition (over 20 years) of Easter egg hiding and hunting at their potluck, but as the years have gone on the kids have all grown up, and for the last year of two there was no hunt because there were no kids young enough. Everyone kept saying they were so very excited to have kids to put eggs out for this year - and they weren't kidding! They FILLED a Target plastic bag with eggs, all just for my three little girls!! When the girls headed outside to look for them, it was the total opposite of a typical egg hunt. There was no mad dash to get the eggs first - there were so many the girls had to empty their baskets to refill them all over again! It was fun to see the girls enjoying themselves, and just as fun to see the joy they were bringing all the adults present just by being themselves. I had so many people come and thank us for sharing our family with them today. I think in the end we were the lucky ones - we made new friends and began what I hope to be a fun new tradition for many Easters to come.

Molly finding an egg

Daddy held Jocelyn's basket while she collected eggs

Ava checking out the loot

Why look for eggs when you can just sit in a box of them!?!

Our family with "Miss" Katy and "Mr." Chris Carlson :)