easter 2017

Easter morning started with the traditional hunt for their baskets.  They had requested them to be hidden really well so we obliged.  

After church we drove to Matt and Leslie's for our lunch.  I love our traditions with them.  As we each have no family in the area, and it is a little too far to be traveling home on Easter Sunday afternoons if we did go visit, we always lunch and hunt together.  Friends who may as well be family are pretty awesome!

After a yummy lunch and a fun egg hunt for the kiddos we were able to relax and chat a bit before heading home.  This was the first Easter in over a decade that we have not been in church together to celebrate and worship.  It was both parts hard and good.  Hard for your heart as it misses those near and dear, good as you see God's hand as he has directed each family to specific places with specific needs.  

We each continue to trust that His hand is over all of it, as part of the Kingdom we are never truly separated.

easter eggs

There was a time I thought that the older the boys got the less they would be into things like dyeing Easter eggs.  After this year, the opposite seems to be true.  This was the most creative, careful, and fun year dyeing them yet.  They were seriously dedicated to the task and created lots of fun mixed color blocked styles.  So fun! 

anatomy of an easter photo

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

easter basket hunt

When two people married their individual traditions intersect and mash up and become new with the sweet traces of old.

I love watching Zach hide the boys' Easter baskets because I can think about when his mom and dad did it for him and I love watching the boys scurry around the house hunting for then because I think about little Zach doing the same thing.

Our new home opens itself up to some much more fun hiding places although we did have to move over because apparently Zach had hidden a bucket behind the brown chair ever year!  

When their buckets are found they are filled with a few favorite items individually picked for that person, a tradition from my family, and then at the top is a book or Bible meant to point them towards the Lord and grow their hearts in a new way, a tradition we started on our own.  

This year Micah received The Case for Grace: for Kids, Connor got The Action Bible, and Logan got two Psalty Kid's Praise Albums which we have all already listened to no less than five times each and have initiated several really good conversations in the car. 

Happy heart indeed.