Happy Easter!

We have had a wonderful week celebrating Easter with our family and friends! This week was Spring Break at Cal State so, although I was back at work, I had all my evenings and afternoons free to hang out with my girl!

We had two playdates with our friends. On Tuesday we took TJ and Katie with us too to meet our friends and have some frozen yogurt at Tiki Hut. The toppings bar was a big hit with the little ones (mini gummi bears on their yogurt!) as was climbing up and down the stairs and making faces at themselves in the store windows. On Thursday we went to Erin's house to have an Easter playdate where the kids made "stained glass" suncatchers out of tissue and sticky contact paper and little easter baskets out of milk cartons. They colored eggs too. Emma was very into that but does not have the most gentle of touches when plopping her eggs into the dye!

On Saturday Karen and I took Emma, TJ, and Kayla over to Tim and Jen's house. Tim wasn't there since he and Scott are currently remodeling our bathroom. But Karen, Jen, Katie, Lucy, Tim, Kayla, TJ, Emma, & I had a great time! We had a pizza party and decorated another 6 dozen eggs! Emma loves eating the hard boiled eggs too! I am hoping to make some deviled eggs but am not sure there will be enough left when I finally get to it! I also had extra craft materials left over from Thursday's playdate so we brought those along too. I had been a bit worried that the crafts would be too young for the older girls, but craft day is always a hit! They had fun making silly little baskets and helping the babies with theirs as well. We used to do a craft day at least 4 -5 times a year when the kids were littler (pre-Emma) and I think they have missed it. Definitely something I need to start up again now that Emma & TJ are big enough to participate.

Sunday morning we got up to see what the Easter Bunny had left us. The kids got quite a haul in their baskets. Emma loved the plastic eggs too, especially when she discovered they were filled with goodies and money! The kids also got tattoos, bubbles, colored pencils and notebooks, and lots of little trinkets. The microphones and punch balls were big hits with kids and grownups alike!

Then we went to church. The service was good. I was sorry that I had missed the Good Friday service but at least we made it on Sunday. And we were able to get a DVD of Friday's service so the girls and I could see it at home. Very powerful. How amazing is God and his love for us that He gave His Son to repay the debt of all the stupid sins I've done. And the power of the resurrection, to let us know we have eternal life with our One True God. He is risen indeed!

After church Karen and I took all the kids out for brunch at Hometown Buffet. Usually we would have had a family dinner here, but with the bathroom remodel, the house is kind of a construction zone. So off we went to enjoy a meal with no prepwork and no clean up! I sense a new tradition brewing.... Unfortunately Grandma couldn't join us as she was fighting off a migraine. Again. The food was pretty good though and, although the restaurant was busy, we only had to wait a couple minutes before we were seated. Kayla and Tim especially loved being able to go up and choose anything they wanted from the buffet. If I'm not mistaken, I think Tim had salad and a giant plate of nachos for lunch! Too funny. Emma didn't fare much better scarfing down salad and jello, then 2 servings of cantalope and macaroni and cheese. That girl loves her cheese! Then we came home, had a few egg hunts in the backyard and just hung out for the rest of the afternoon. We had a great time with our family!