Happy Resurrection Day!

Those of you that keep up with my blog know that we hosted an Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday. It went off without a hitch! It took me almost all of last week to get ready for the party. All of the preparation paid off and things went very smoothly.

A few days before the party we "crafted" some Easter decorations. We blew up balloons and wrapped yarn (dipped in glue) around each balloon. We let them dry overnight and in the morning popped the balloons and removed them. What's left is this really cool looking string sculpture. I remembered making these with my mom when I was little and I loved it. I just had to try it with Hannah & Sam because I knew they would love it as well. They did! Sam liked being able to make a mess without any repercussions (and, yes, he made a mess). They both took it pretty seriously, though, and made beautiful sculptures. The only thing is, for some reason, only one of ours came out shaped like an egg and they all were supposed to. I still think they came out really cute. We'll definitely make them again.

Then we decorated the confetti eggs. I had so many ideas of different ways we were gonna decorate the eggs. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of time it was going to take with both Hannah and Sam "helping" me. It took two hours just to dip the eggs in dye. I made the executive decision that we would only decorate a few of them. We made carrots out of four of the orange dyed eggs. Hannah glued on green tissue and Sam cut the stems. (Don't tell him, but I didn't actually use the ones he cut out. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. His were barely recognizable as leaves. I'm pretty sure he didn't notice the switch because he was still really proud of the finished product. I didn't tell Hannah about the trickery either because then she might think back to all the crafts we've made and figure out that I may have done the same to her.)

On Saturday Hannah & Sam filled the Easter eggs while I made the goodies. I was gonna fill the eggs myself, of course, but Hannah saw all of the empty plastic eggs in our office and asked what was in them. I told her I hadn't filled them yet and she asked if she could help me. When Sam heard Hannah ask, he started asking me if he could help, too. I told them I wanted to do it so it could be a surprise for them when they opened the eggs. They both swore up & down that they didn't care about surprises, so I gave in. Anyway, while they were occupied I made cupcakes and rice krispy treats. I frosted them later that night. I also got the hamburgers all seasoned and formed into patties so I wouldn't be stressed out in the morning.

Sunday morning we got up early so Hannah & Sam had time to open their Easter baskets before church. They were so delighted. Hannah got some chapter books, modeling clay, pastel gel pens, some other little trinkets, and of course, candy! Sam got cool Hot Wheels that change colors when wet, bubbles, a DVD about dogs in space that he claimed he wanted, and egg shaped gum. (He loves gum!)

Church was really great. Sam stayed in the kids' church the whole time again. (Thank you, Jesus!) Once again, I kept thinking they were trying to page his number because the number 105 kept flashing. Sam's number was 561 but I thought maybe they thought it said 501 and then the person typing it in got it backwards and typed 105. Of course, Scott thought I was insane. I still think I got a lot out of the pastor's message. He talked about when Paul was traveling to Rome and his ship was about to be shipwrecked and he told the other people on the ship not to be afraid because God told him they would all live and he believed God. What an amazing life we would all have to believe the things God has promised us and not waste our time living in fear or with worries. I always feel like the messages are being preached just for me. I sometimes stress out rather than just believe God and be full of joy. I'm gonna have to definitely work on surrendering everything to God.

Wow, this blog entry is already getting long. I'll try to wrap it up. OK, after church we went home and our friends Gilberto, Melissa, and their two boys came over. Gilberto and Scott hid the eggs while Melissa & I kept the kids from going outside. (Behind our fence in the back there's a nice long grassy area perfect for Easter egg hiding.) When everybody else (Scott's friend Brad with his four sons, his friend Peter, and married couple Lee & Sinae) showed up we ate and then started the Easter Egg Hunt.

We decided to let the kids out of the backyard in order of youngest to oldest so the little ones had a chance at finding some of the eggs. We let them out two at a time and gave them about a 30 second head start. Hannah and James were the oldest (both 7) so they got let out last. There were still plenty of eggs to be found. They had a pretty big area to search through. Hannah & Sam each got a ton of eggs, everyone did.

After the hunt, I brought out the confetti eggs. That was easily Sam's favorite part of the day. Once he realized he had an excuse to hit someone on the head, he knew that was for him. He hoarded as many of the eggs as possible and cracked most of them on Hannah and Scott. He got a couple of the other kids, too.

Overall, everyone had a good time and we made a few more friends. I am so thankful that, even though we are far from our family, God has brought really good people into our lives for us to fellowship with.

God is good!