Easter 2011

This year, Easter started on Saturday, April 23rd, for us. The Silves boys were in Lynden for soccer, Trisha and her girls were out and about, so we all gathered at our house for Grammy to give all of the kiddos their Easter "baskets".

The kids were all so excited for their special treats. We caught two 5-year olds trying to peak before Grammy had a chance to pull everything out.

 It's been awhile since we've been able to get a picture of Grammy and all of the grandkids. So, we took advantage of the situation and told the kids that once we had a picture of everyone with Grammy they could then have their treats. Not too bad of a picture. It's a little hard to get 8 kids all looking and smiling at the same time.

 

Everyone was so excited to finally get their bags with treats in them. My mom, for the past couple of years, gets each of the kids a t-shirt/muscle shirt (for the boys) and a pair of flip-flops. The rest of their bag was candy and other fun non-candy treats. They all had such a great time together!

Once all of the cousins left, our kids were ready to color eggs. It was fun to watch them all show their own creative sides.

These are only a few of the eggs. We had picked up a set that made your eggs look crackled and speckled. The eggs were looking very cool!

Because this day was also my birthday, Emily came to hang out with the kids while Jason and I went to dinner. We didn't do much else because we had two batches of rolls to make. So, we came home after dinner but asked Emily to hang out for awhile. She colored a couple of eggs with the kids (yes, we colored eggs twice) and had birthday cake with us. We told her that we were celebrating her birthday also because her birthday was earlier in the month and we hadn't been able to do anything for her until then. It was fun to have Emily just hanging out with us. The kids all love to spend time with her.

Easter Sunday was a busy day but we all survived. We started out at church very early and then enjoyed a wonderful brunch at church. After church, we spent some time at Tyler and Tanya's before heading to Grandma Silves'. (Saved us a trip to Lynden and back...church and Grandma's are both in Everson.)

Thankfully the rain let up so the kids could do the big Easter Egg hunt! My aunts do an amazing job each year. Each child was allowed to find 19 eggs. These eggs are filled with candy, little toys and coins.

Ready to go!

I'm not sure what's going on here but I remember thinking that they were too close to the busy road for my comfort!

This year, there were specially marked eggs and anyone finding one of those eggs received a special prize at the end...we ended up with two of those specially marked eggs.

We eventually made it home for a little down and to give the kids got their Easter baskets from us before gearing up to head out to the next family gathering.

I love how they, Ethan especially, try to hide their eyes and wait so patiently. Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling going on while waiting. The anticipation was killing them.

We kept it simple this year. We found miniature sock monkeys for the kids with a few other little items and of course, jelly beans!

It really was a great weekend! As much as we had fun with the coloring of eggs, Easter baskets and egg hunts, I am so thankful that our kids know the real reason we have Easter. To think we have a God who loves us so much that he sent His son to die for our/my sins and then to have him raise from the dead. I am forever grateful!