Awesome Easter

It's official. I love Easter. After debating with Dean the merits of the various holidays, I have determined that Easter is my favorite. It has all the best qualities...a religious basis celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, at least a weeks worth of festivities (or more if you attend an easter egg hunt two weeks prior to Easter as Dean and the boys did), tons of time spent with friends and family, lots of great worship and music (kind of goes along with the first point of having a religious basis, but the church services this week--Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and of course, Easter--were so great they bear mentioning again), the anticipation of the arrival of a fantastic character (we love the Easter bunny), lots of great goodies for the kids, and way too much awesome food and candy. It doesn't get much better than that folks. I feel very confident in my declaration that Easter is, in deed, the greatest holiday.

Mallory spent the day with us on Thursday and she and Ben enjoyed decorating easter eggs. They made sports eggs and glitter eggs and though the kitchen was demolished, a good time was had by all.

Easter morning dawned bright and early in our house. Ben had to be at church at 8:10 a.m. to sing with the children's choir. I set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. and Ben was up shortly thereafter. He enjoyed searching for easter eggs and finding his basket. He was thrilled with his goodies and couldn't wait to wake up Joey. Joe was overwhelmed by all the excitement upon his awakening. He had the biggest grin on his face when Ben brought him his basket and he realized he was getting presents and candy...just for getting out of bed!!! He was so cute.

The church service was awesome. Ben sang beautifully and the church was packed, which is always a nice feeling...to be surrounded in fellowship with so many friends and loved ones. Ben and Dean stayed for Sunday School and the 10:30 service so Ben could sing again. Joey and I headed home (after a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some flowers for the grandmas and great grandma). Joe napped and I did some cooking and we all headed to my parents at about 11:45 a.m.

Nana had once again out done herself. The boys were thrilled upon pulling into their driveway to see the yard filled with brightly colored eggs. Ben said "are those all for me?!" There were eggs hidden throughout the house as well. The boys found their baskets and completed the indoor egg hunt while lunch preparations were completed. We had a huge, amazing meal with Nana, Bampaw, Aunt Mal-Mal, and Great Grandma. We missed Uncle Craig, Aunt Sissy, and Uncle Clint and look forward to all of us being together, hopefully, next year...and mostly look forward to having our little niece/cousin there too!

After lunch the boys eagerly raced outside to hunt eggs. Ben was all over them and Joey was a little more tentative. He was quite content to just pick up one egg and be done! We all had a great time watching them.

The boys then headed to the backyard to play with Ben's new bubble gun and Mallorys bubble wand and to do some swinging with Nana. We then headed inside for a great dessert prepared by Chefer Ben...Berry Cheesecake Parfait. Yummy! Joey had had it by the end of dessert and started bawling and begging to go night night. We took his display to mean that the first family Easter celebration had come to an end. Exhausted, we all headed home at about 2:30 p.m. where Joey and I promptly passed out and poor Dean had to head to the funeral home to attend the calling for a good friend/coworker's mother. The boys and I awoke and Dean came home at 4:30 p.m., just in time to pack up and head to Omas. There the boys were spoiled again and spent the rest of the afternoon/early evening playing with Oma, Aunt Barbie, Uncle Rich, and cousins Kevin and Casey.

We had a tiring, but perfect day. We are so very, very blessed. As Dean said tonight, this was by far the best Easter ever...but stick around because it just keeps getting better and better and I know the best is yet to come. God bless all our friends and family and Happy Easter.