Easter 2011

Easter is so many things, and I’m thankful for all of them…the celebration of our risen Savior and our Ultimate Hope,  the eggs (even though you couldn’t pay me to eat one), the baskets and bunnies, the new Sunday clothes, the songs, the family time…all of it was so good this year.

As far as the family time, ours started a few days early this year. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew, Garrett got to my parents’ late Thursday evening. Garrett just celebrated his 2nd birthday a few weeks ago, and since we weren’t in Georgia for his party, we had one here! Cupcakes at 9:00 p.m.? Certainly! What better way to celebrate a sweet boy?!?!

Annabelle was so excited that Garrett was finally here. Bless his heart, she must have tried to give him at least a hundred hugs and kisses over the weekend!

On Saturday, we took our first dip of the year in Pappy’s pool. What’s the next best thing to having a pool yourself? Having a pool next door at your in-laws’! :)  

That afternoon, my parents came over and brought Garrett. (Beau was in his best friend from high school’s wedding this weekend, so he and  Kristy had to do all the wedding stuff.) We had a little Easter egg  dying party with the kids on our back sunroom. We bought the “Egg Spinner” this year, and it was a success. But we had to do some old school egg dying, too!

We played in the yard and DW smoked some ribs for supper.

I took the kids on a golf cart ride, and I don’t know when I’ve seen Garrett more excited. He was moo-ing like nobody’s business at all the cows. In between “moo’s” he’d yell, “Hey Cows!” Precious.

Sunday the bunny stopped by our house, and AB was pleased to see he’d left her some “Gummies” and “Choc-it” in her basket. These were two of the four things she requested. The other two? Cake and Sweet Tea. Bunny didn’t leave any cake or tea this year. Maybe next.

We stopped by my in-laws and got Pappy to take a picture of the three of us. (And Finally AB would look AT the camera.) :) She loved that everyone had “tink” (pink) on. (Even Daddy’s tie).

 

At church this year, at the end of the service, the kids released butterflies. We were all encouraged to bring some flowers from our yard to put on the flower cross before church started. We cut three roses from one of the bushes in our back yard. Devin’s grandparents planted the bushes years ago, so it was neat to use those flowers.

After church, we headed over to my Granny’s for lunch. My uncle smoked a ham and Mom made everything else, and it was all “adicious” (as AB would say).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hid eggs, played with lizards, and petted a “mongoose”. It was like reliving my childhood.

Uncle Beau, the Lizard, Garrett, the stick, & AB

My girl petting the lizard…

AB, Pop & The Lizard.. ha.. at one point I announced how redneck the whole thing was, to which my Mom replied, “This is educational.” :) We DID see the lizard change from brown to green to blue. So that HAD to be educational. Right?

Me & My Granny

Beau, Kristy & Garrett

 

The Great Egg Hunt of 2011..

 

That evening, we had dinner at DW’s moms with the brothers & SILs, but the only picture I have is of the onions she brought everyone from Georgia (some of the family there are farmers, and they live right outside of Vidalia. So just GUESS what kind of onions they grow…) :) and of my nephew decked out in sunglasses, a sword and tighty-whiteys. (Not going to post that one on my blog, but I will be saving it for his high school yearbook one day). :)

Hope your Easter was great!

~amw~

Hippity Hoppity…

What do you get when you have:

- new Children’s ministry kick-off / ribbon cutting at church

- Easter egg hunt & bonnet parade after church

- a trip to see THE Bunny himself

&

- an Easter tea

all within three days of each other?

 

One tired little girl, that’s what!

(One tired big girl (& boy), too!) :) DW & I are so looking forward to some weekends when we have nothing to do.

Here’s what we’ve been up to this week!

 

I’m the children’s director at our church, and this past Sunday, we dedicated our new children’s ministry area. We’ve been working on it for about six weeks. We did a complete overhaul on our church’s basement and made a space specifically for the kids! We’ve named the space KOW Town (Kids of Williston), and are so excited about the new area, and the program as a whole! Lots of people put so much time and energy into this project and it was so much fun to be a part of. The center part of the space is like our worship area. It’s even got prayer rails on each side, like a real church. The children have the most darling pews their size that they sit on during our large group worship time. Our “Construction Crew” hasn’t finished building all of the pews yet, so that’s why there are only four so far, and we had to use some of the old chairs for the kick off…

Each side of the “stage” area was designed to look like storefronts in a town. Each store was decorated by a different family/families. It was so fun to see everyone get so creative!

Sunday was a big day at our church. After the KOW Town kickoff and worship service that morning, we had lunch and then all went to the parsonage for the kids’ Easter egg hunt. The committee who planned to Egg hunt this year did such a great job. They had so many cute things planned including a bonnet parade for the girls. I ordered AB’s bonnet from Etsy and LOVED it!

The girls all took their turns walking the “runway.” As they walked down, their name, age and favorite thing about Easter was read off. So cute.

There was no way baby sister was walking the cat-walk alone…so momma had to join her.

After the bonnet parade, it was game and egg hunt time!

Our girl had lots of help finding eggs… Daddy & Aunt Kels stayed close by to help her spot them.

And she had a crew of papparazzi making sure we got some pictures of her! I laughed because we had four cameras snapping that afternoon! Pappy had his big lens out, her Granny had another camera, Aunt Nen had hers and I had mine…

 

With cousin Warren…

That evening, my parents came over and we all took AB to see the Bunny at the mall.

Me, AB & Pop

I didn’t have my heart set on a picture of her with him, after what happened last year. But surprisingly, she was glad to see our old friend this year. The only thing was, she just wasn’t interested in sitting in his lap or beside him ALONE. Which means that I, at nearly 30 years old, had to have my picture made with Peter Cottontail, too, this year.

My momma was the one to try to get her to sit with him first, but then suggested that since she didn’t want to do it alone, I be the one to have my picture made with her. Thanks, Mom.

So here’s our 2011 way overly-priced Bunny portrait…

This year, our $20.00 not only got us 2 5x7’s (SO glad there’s two, because I know someone else will want a copy of this picture), but we also got a sheep mask, a bunny “crown” as AB calls it, and an egg with a Tootsie Roll in it. I am sure if we’d called within the first 10 minutes there would have been even more.

Wednesday, the little music class that meets each week at our local library had an Easter tea and egg hunt. It was too cute. I was terrible at taking pictures, though.

Every table was decorated darling and there were so many different tea pots and tea cups. ALL REAL, which made for lots of nervous mommas. Nothing got broken, at least at our table anyway, so we all left feeling quite accomplished. Ha. After the tea, they had a little egg hunt and AB got to practice her hunting skills one more time before Sunday. 

Some of her friends that were at the tea… Cousin Willie, Madelyn, AB & Cori. Michael was running from his Momma, so he didn’t make it in the pic! Ha…

We’ve had such a busy and fun week, and the weekend is going to be the same, I’m sure!

 

~amw~