Easter Weekend

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  Christ's resurrection from the dead, and thus sealing the deal on his perfect atonement for our sins, is indeed why we celebrate Easter.  We enjoyed celebrating Easter all weekend with various family and friends, beginning with Good Friday service, which so prepares our hearts for the excitement that Easter Sunday brings!

On Saturday of Easter weekend, we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa K, Auntie Kristin, Uncle Eric, and Teddy.  It was a "double" celebration, celebrating both Easter, and Grandma K's birthday which fell on Easter this year!  We went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse and then came back to her house for dessert, and Easter egg hunt/baskets, and opening her birthday presents.

At Outback

Grandma K made a fun "clue" Easter hunt where the kids ran all over the house looking for clues, and then answering questions about the Easter story and other family memories in order to "earn" their baskets.

Summer played Happy Birthday on the piano for Grandma

Larkyn colored Grandma a picture for her birthday

Summer chose a gold necklace and chocolate

Colton also picked out chocolate :)

Grandma's dessert of choice was a super chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!

 After dessert, the kids had a BLAST playing with the new bubble fans they got in their Easter basket.

After a good night's sleep, we woke up ready to celebrate Easter again on Easter Sunday!  We started the day by reading the Easter story straight from the source.

Then we headed off to church for brunch.  We were so excited that a neighborhood friend as well as our neighbor met us there!

It was a sunny, windy, day so this was the best we could get for a family picture!

I love this one!

 After church, we went to Auntie Madison and Uncle Jordan's house for a delicious Easter lunch!

The kids had fun making a tent!

Auntie Madison and her friend hid eggs for the kids!

In place of Easter baskets, Grandma and Grandpa T gave the kids gift cards to Lifeway, our Christian bookstore.  The kids had SO much fun later that week looking around and picking out fun books, CDs, and a DVD with great Christian values!  What a fantastic idea to keep Christ the center of Easter.

After we got home, we visited one of our favorite neighbors, Mr. Ken!  He had come to church with us in the morning, and he asked us to stop by so he could give the kids some Easter treats.  He spoils them :-).  He asked to take a picture with the kids on his camera, and when he developed it, he gave us a copy.  Didn't it turn out cute!?

Mr. Ken also took a picture of our family and gave us a copy :) 

 After celebrating with both sides of the family, we returned to have a mini celebration with just us 5.  We do our own color coded egg hunt, where each kid looks for their own color eggs.  Daddy hides them at age appropriate levels so the kids all have fun looking :).  As usual, the kids found loose change in their eggs.

We finished off the day with Daddy's Easter bunny pancakes :):):)

P.S.  We had a memorable time coloring Easter eggs on the Wednesday before Easter...including Larkyn "dropping" the eggs into the dye and using the eggs as "cymbals" (whoops!) and Colton tipping a mug full of dye ALL OVER Summer's finished and drying eggs (which actually turned out cool that way!).  Oh my!  Memorable family fun ;).