Easter

My blog posts are all over the place right now. We've just been busy and I still have some more of my Armenia photos to edit so now I'm attempting a blog post on my phone while sitting on the hammock and watching my boys play in the kiddy pool! So here are some events from Easter.

The day before Easter we found out that the Alpenrose dairy was doing a large Easter egg hunt. This was a tradition that Max did a lot when he was a kid but we had never taken our boys. I was nervous to attend a big event like this. We arrived right as they were counting down to start the hunt, we ended up on the outskirts where there were still tons of eggs and not as many children, so my kids were able to gather some just fine and I didn't see much fighting with other kids (or parents)!  Thank goodness, and my boys were happy with the stash they got. 

Then we had a little time before we needed to go to the Baertlein get together. Max needed to show a house on our property so I decided to take my boys by my red grandmas house where they were doing the first of two Easter get togethers since all the family wasn't able to come on Saturday or Sunday. We weren't planning on going to the Saturday one, but we ended up having a little bit of time and we wanted to see James and Elizabeth's family who were only there on Saturday. We ended up making it in time for another Easter egg hunt. 

A whole bunch of cousins! 

We then went on our way to Hillsboro to meet with Max's side of the family, we ended up needing to drive separately so Max could give his sister a ride




Notice Miles' decorations...yes, that is a whole bottle of sprinkles!


Max's dad (in the center) with two of his brothers....basically triplets.


Miles was throwing candy in his mouth by the handful...we had to move him away a couple times.



We stayed for quite awhile since this is a side of the family we really don't see very often. It was good to see Max's older half siblings and his niece and nephew that are basically our age. Miles went without a nap so I just enjoyed the brief cuddles when we got home around 5:30

It didn't take long for big brother to disturb the peace so we got right on with our egg dying. Charlie kept getting confused by the word dye! English is so weird and that is a random detail I wanted to throw in there.





I then went on a late night grocery store run and found this guy doing the same thing.



The Easter Bunny left some great gardening supplies for the boys, including a big bag of dirt. They each got a little shovel, gardening gloves, seed packets, bubbles, a football and some candy. We have since been gardening a lot and they love it!



Our Easter morning celebration was brief with a quick breakfast, basket check and Easter egg hunt. 



We then attended our regular church meetings. It is extra wonderful to be able to feel the spirit and take the sacrement on Easter Sunday. I had multiple discussions with the boys (mostly Charlie) about the Resurection and how Jesus got his body again and it was perfect and how we will recieve perfect bodies again and we won't even need glasses. It is still a beautiful concept that I don't think I can ever really grasp in this life so it seems difficult to teach my children sometimes but I do love their innocence and immediate trust and love for Jesus.

After church, Max had some meeting so we decided to put Miles down for a nap before heading over to my red Grandma's house again. When Max got home we were able to try and nap until Miles got up. Then we made our way over to Grandma's house. Where there was another Easter Egg hunt.

They were also celebrating the March birthdays (and Miles' early April birthday) so they got to blow out some candles on the Easter bunny cake.





We enjoyed the family time and eventually were ready to call it a night and get our kids in bed!