Easter Weekend

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a great Easter weekend! Ours was busy but peaceful...and really fun. My camera battery was dead during a lot of the festivities, but here are a few memories that did actually get captured:

Ellie bought some finger paints with her birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma Balfour and we used them to paint Easter pictures for friends. The one in this photo isn't an Easter picture, but it's the only one where Ellie was smiling for me...sort of. She was too busy concentrating! I hardly heard a peep from her for an hour - finger paints are a new best friend in our home! (Grandpa and Grandma, check your mailbox this week!)

Friday we celebrated Easter dinner with my family. My sister Dana made this cheesecake that I not only ate but ENJOYED immensely...changing my opinion about cheesecake entirely! I can now see why it can be a weakness for some people. Like my brother-in-law, Jon, for instance. :)

(I appreciate this guy. He never lets me down when I make him pose for the camera.)

We had a friend from church, Charon, join us, and the girls quickly warmed up to her (anyone willing to read a story is a dear dear friend!)

Ellie and Auntie Dana enjoying a moment:

Dad barbequed his best chicken breasts and thighs EVER (mouth is watering all over again):

Speaking of mouths watering, Joshua drooled and teethed the whole weekend, as always (2 more teeth and we should get a break until the 2 year molars start...we hope!)After supper the kids got to search for the sweet treasures Nana had hid for them in the basement (Ellie's first ever Easter hunt) and it was awesome to see the girls' eyes bulging at the mass quantities of chocolate eggs that were laid out for us adults.

Saturday I worked all day. And watched a movie with Rob in the evening.

Then on Sunday morning we had an incredibly amazing time at church. The morning started off with Calvary Kids Praise doing their Easter dances. The older kids were amazing but for the sake of time I have left them out of the video. Here's Ellie and her class doing their dance (note how 'out of it' Ellie is until she sees me and her teacher motioning her to put her ribbons down. :) She gets a bit mesmerized by the crowds.)



The best part about the service was all the baptisms that took place. Just three people were slated to get baptized, and ELEVEN ended up getting baptized instead! There weren't many dry eyes in the house. There's no better way, in my opinion, to celebrate that fact that Jesus was raised to life than witnessing others doing the same thing symbolically!

When we got home from church I ran inside and made a trail of paper Easter eggs (that Rob and I had colored while watching our movie the night before) that led the kids to their Easter presents:
New placemats! Boy that sounds lame whenever I say it, but they are truly great placemats. :) The kids love them. (And they're not loaded with sugar!)

Do you see what I mean? I no longer have to rush to get food on the table. They're too busy being entertained by their placemats to notice if there's food or not. :)

Sunday evening we had our friends Tyler and Doris over for supper which was wonderful...and that brought us to the end of a very busy, very fun weekend.

So like I asked at Valentines day...what was YOUR favourite part of Easter this year? Did anyone come up with any brilliant ideas for teaching your children the true meaning of Easter while the chocolate and bunnies were dribbling down their chins? Do tell!