Happy Easter!

We had a very eventful Easter weekend.  On Friday evening, instead of an Easter service, our church set up various stations you would pass through that re-enacted Good Friday.  All the activities were kid friendly, which was great for us.  The first station we passed through was a low table that re-created the Passover Feast.

The kids enjoyed eating slices of apples, grapes, and pita bread.

There was another station where the kids were invited to wash their hands in a bowl, just like Pilate washed his hands...

And they set up a fake tomb outside, which was heavy plastic spray painted in grey hung over camping tent poles.  The kids (but not Gabriel) got to carry candles.  It was a good learning experience for all of us.

Saturday morning was our church Easter Egg hunt.  They divide the grounds into three sections, and the kids hunt by age.  The youngest crowd is the 0 -3 year olds, so Gabriel and Karina were together.  It was fun to see Karina as one of the biggest and on the top of the food chain, and she did quite well.  =)

You'll notice our kids are carrying Halloween plastic trick or treat buckets.  When we got the Easter baskets (natural wooden ones) out of the closet, the neon plastic Halloween baskets were sighted.  For Karina and Gabriel, it was no contest, they had to use the Halloween ones.  Eliana went with the Easter basket.  Gabriel found quite a few eggs too.

Eliana was in the 4 - 8 year old range, and they were out in a huge field.  The church purposely does not cut the grass before the hunt, so a lot of eggs are invisible until you are standing right on top of them.  The church put out over 4,500 eggs!  But there were a lot of kids too, so you had to really run!

Found one!

Once it was over, the girls gathered with some friends to check out the contents of the eggs.  Candy!!

Later that afternoon, we dyed Easter eggs.  Here the girls are watching the dye tablets fizz in the vinegar.  Pretty cool!

 Emily is demonstrating how it's done.

Gabriel woke up and decided to join in on the action.

He was more interested in peeling the freshly dyed eggs.

And chopping…and stirring…and mashing…  He eventually poured some of his milk into that measuring cup and came up with a concoction that was surprisingly similar to deviled eggs.

All the Easter baskets and eggs are ready for Sunday morning.  We traditionally do an Easter egg hunt inside our house on Sunday morning.  You'll notice that the girls have a book and a toy, and some Peeps and the like in their baskets.  Gabriel has…a new set of nylon kitchen knives that really cut food, but not fingers!  He was delighted!  Emily got a big canister of cotton candy, which the girls demanded she share.

Sunday morning they got their Easter baskets, got dressed, and then it was time for our Easter egg hunt.  It was funny watching them, they didn't just focus on finding eggs, they called each other to each new stash.  It was neat to see how they worked together.  Gabriel was designated the blue and green eggs, but was very slow, as he would stop to open each plastic egg when he found it.  In the end, the girls just started delivering all the blue and green ones to him.

 Found one!

By half way through the hunt, Gabriel was done with that activity, and decided to crack and peel some more hard boiled eggs.

Finding eggs never gets old...

After the hunt was over, the girls emptied out the contents of the eggs…more candy!  Karina basically ate candy for breakfast...

After church, and Gabey's nap, we went to a local tulip festival, and explored the grounds a bit.  Karina was quite impressed by how tall these tulips were.

And Gabriel was just running everywhere.  They had a nice path to walk through this garden, and all the children were walking on it…and Gabriel was off IN the garden.  We had to hover over him as his first instinct is to snap off all the flowers with one inch of stem.  It took all our vigilance and every ounce of willpower on his part to keep himself from doing that.

They had various varieties of flowers.  This variety was amazing…the colors were so vivid they seemed to be glowing.

They had a U-pick field, that the girls really enjoyed.  We did not let Gabriel see them picking the flowers, though!

 We let each girl pick five tulips.

Their "bouquets" from the U-pick field…Karina gave hers to Grandma, and Eliana gave hers to Abby and Millie!  Pretty generous, we thought!

We then went to Emily's parents house for dinner.  Emily's brother, Charles and his family were there, which means that the girl's favorite cousins, Abby and Millie were there.  So, they of course had to sit with them at dinner.

Abby and Gabriel…for some reason, Gabriel always lets these girls hold him.

 And, one MORE egg hunt, in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard!

The kids had a very fun weekend filled with eggs hunts and candy.  Here they are as our day draws to a close.  They are in their jammies (except for Gabriel) ready to go home at the end of a busy weekend!  We hope you also had a Happy Easter!