Easter!

He is RISEN! He is risen, indeed!!!

Love how this exchange punctuated the entire service Sunday morning. Also fun to sing the  Hallelujah chorus at the end of service (LaSalle's annual tradition). It was a wonderful Easter - the sun was shining, the good news was proclaimed (the hope and power we have in Christ), fellowship was shared. Yes, and pretty dresses were worn and eggs found.

And candy. This year I felt like it was almost worse than Halloween! Apparently Noemi protested very, very loudly when she was only allowed to eat one of the chocolates from her Easter findings during Sunday School hour. We're working on that.

The Saturday before Easter was quite chilly...fortunately, the park district hunt was indoors. Unfortunately, we were ten minutes late and missed the hunt! We stayed for the balloon show. And they were nice enough to let us stay for the next hunt (there were three times that morning - you needed free tickets). 

I have to say, I'm not in favor of all this candy and all these eggs strewn all over the astroturf. I'm very much a proponent of actually needing to hunt for hidden eggs. Not to worry, this has been a favorite game in our house for the last two weeks. Simone loves to take turns hiding and searching for eggs.

Our friend, Christen, joined us. She and her husband Don also came over for an Easter dinner potluck at our place. We're thankful for new friends. They are expecting their first (a boy!) this August.

We finally broke out the long-awaited Veggie Tales Easter Egg dying kit. It was a rainbow of eggy goodness. But alas, all that newspaper did not prevent my tablecloth from getting a stain after a cup was tipped over.

Did I mention Veggie Tales?

We only had a dozen so we did two of each color, a few plain, a few with stickers, wraps, and the classic white crayon design.

Noemi enjoyed watching us put the wraps on the eggs. And she enjoyed cracking them against the table.

Unfortunately, I did not insist on a family photo (think we were running late) but here is one of the girls Easter morning.

Hope it was a blessed Easter for you and that it is Easter in your heart year-round!