Eggs galore!

The church where our kids go to Upward basketball had a Road to the Resurrection event a couple of weeks ago that we planned to take the kids to, but ended up skipping. Our church included a similar thing prior to their egg hunt today, but we skipped that one as well. I considered volunteering to be one of the teachers at one of the stations (Last Supper, Garden of Gethsemane, crucifixion, resurrection, etc.), but in the end decided just to go to egg hunts really close to our house. The reason I was tempted was naturally I want my kids to focus on the true meaning of Easter, but I know we've been discussing that every day at home lately. Next  year hopefully it will work out to take them to one of those. This morning our first egg hunt was at 10:00 at our local library (which is not the library we usually visit). The attendance was lower than usual at the event, which meant the kids picked up OODLES of eggs. And by OODLES I mean that my three kids put together picked up more than 250 eggs! Each egg contained a piece of candy, a penny, and a small

paper with a letter on it. The reason I know how many eggs they picked up was because we counted the pennies at home so we could divide them between the three kids equally. There were two eggs with "golden coins" instead of pennies. We didn't pick up either of those prize eggs. Then you could use your letters to spell the words "basket" "candy" and each word earned you an entry. It took us so long to open 250+ eggs that we didn't have time to make many words with the 250 letters. We made a few which earned Nadia and Ian a few entries into the drawings for the prizes. Ian won a prize bucket that contained a coloring book, swimming goggles, a small stuffed animal, and a few other small items.

Our next stop was about 5 minutes from the library (across from where the kids go to AWANA). The younger divisions primarily pick up eggs that have either a ticket (for a prize) or a piece of candy; they don't have very many hard boiled eggs on their fields. Nadia's age group picked up mostly hard boiled eggs, and

their plastic eggs only had prize tickets (no candy for them). Nadia picked up about 9 hard boiled eggs and one prize egg (black knit hat), Oliver picked up 2 hard boiled eggs and a bunch of eggs with candy in them. Ian definitely collected the most eggs of the three kids at this particular egg hunt, but he didn't get any prize eggs. The kids definitely picked up fewer prize eggs this year than most years. At the end of this egg hunt everyone can have a free hot dog. After eating our hot dogs, we came home and ate some fruit and spent some time at home before heading out to the third egg hunt. The third one actually involves hardly any eggs. They lay out lots of candy in the grass (of varying sizes - some are large chocolate bunnies) and just a few prize eggs. The kids picked up a fair amount of candy. Oliver could have picked up a LOT more if had wanted to. While we were at the third egg hunt Paul's parents arrived at our house. They joined the kids and I at the final egg hunt at the playground closest to our house. This egg hunt involves plastic eggs with either a prize number or candy

inside. Nadia was the only one who got a prize egg. She won a really large pen this time that writes in different colors. The weather was so pretty today. It was SUNNY the whole day, and it got up to the high 50's in the afternoon. It was so much nicer out than yesterday.

Paul's parents took Nadia shopping for new shoes, and then we had dinner together before heading to church. So many people come to our church on Easter that they don't all fit in the two services on Sunday morning so they added a third service on Saturday night two years ago. The attendance at the Saturday evening service keeps growing. I was quite amazed at how many were here this evening! Between the three services there have been around 2,700 people in the past. I'm not sure if the bigger attendance tonight means it won't be as crowded tomorrow of if the total will be higher. We shall see tomorrow! The choir is singing in all three services. Paul and his parents were only attending tonight. Paul's parents will go to their church tomorrow. The kids and I will be there again

tomorrow. They'll attend Sunday School one service and choir rehearsal the other. I will attend one worship service and one Sunday School class. He is RISEN! We don't usually have a big orchestra, but we have a much bigger one for Easter (timpanis, cello, violin, French horn, etc.). We're headed to Paul's parents' house after church tomorrow. Aunt Millie is doing most of the cooking. I was asked to provide the dessert so today Nadia and I made lemon bars and brownies. I don't make lemon bars very often, but they are one of my favorites, and it seemed a good choice for Easter.  The fact that I knew we were headed to church tonight for the first Easter service was part of the reason I didn't want to attend our church's Easter walk and egg hunt. Because I figured they'd be getting SO much candy, I didn't buy them any candy or any Easter gifts. I told them on Monday I will take them to the CVS in our town (once everything is at least 50% off) and let them each pick one thing such as some jelly beans or a chocolate bunny or whatever. It's not that they *need* any more candy, but I

think I'd feel guilty if I didn't get them anything. I have fond memories of getting a chocolate bunny or something like that from my parents when I was growing up.

Beside the egg hunts and worship service today I also cleaned the bathrooms (with some help from Nadia), vacuumed the downstairs, did two loads of laundry (including washing all the sheets and towels), made sure the kids each got a bath or shower, and wrote a letter of recommendation for one of my student teachers. I also took some pictures. Ian hadn't changed into his "Sunday" clothes before I left for church. I left first as I had to be there 45 minutes early to rehearse with the choir. I discovered while taking the picture of Oliver that his size 5 dress shirt was too small for him. Later this evening I tried on a size 6 shirt (long sleeve) and it fit him perfectly. That's what he'll be wearing tomorrow. My baby is growing up so fast!