Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.  I know it is two days past and I am just now putting this up, but life with a two-year-old and a five-month-old is exhausting.  Ann Elizabeth is sleeping 6 to 8 hour stretches at night, but I am still worn out.  I am blaming it on the breastfeeding.  I don't remember it being this tiring with Sterling, but then again I could sleep whenever he did if needed.  So, I have had to take advantage of nap time.

Here's my review of the Easter season.

First of all, it is still Easter around here.  Sterling still wants to hunt eggs and still says things like, "It's Easter time!!" I don't have the heart to tell him that it is over and as long as we celebrate it puts stressing the events of Easter in the forefront of my mind.  So, "It's Easter time!"

Thursday, we headed to the park to have an Easter party with some of our friends' children.  The kids died Easter Eggs, took pictures with baby chicks, decorated Easter cookies, and "listened" to the mommies tell about the Resurrection Eggs.  And had a blast playing in the water surrounding the playground.  It was like a lake under the playground equipment, and most of the kids were soaking wet.  Our Sterling, staying true to his cautious character did not participate in swimming under the slide, but he had fun watching the other kids do so.  Unfortunately, I took my camera without the card. :(  But one of our friends is a professional photographer and took plenty of pictures, so when I get them from her I will have to add them in!

Friday, my mom headed to Birmingham to do some last minute Easter shopping.  Apparently the whole city decided to do the same thing, because it was a bit reminiscent of the week before Christmas.  I was so glad to get out and Ann Elizabeth and I met mom to just tag along and have some girl time.

That night we attended a Tenebrae service at our church.  It was so good to be reminded of the seriousness of our sin and what it cost Christ.  That night and the following night we read through the events of Thursday and Friday.  I had a lot of plans to do different activities with Sterling to help illustrate Christ's death and resurrection, but unfortunately I didn't get materials together in time to do those things.  But I have a list of things that I want to do with him next year, and having a one-year-old lends itself to being able to do more stuff like that.  Things like a predictable nap time will make me more productive.

However, we did discuss what Easter is about over and over.  And while it is almost impossible to get a two-year-old to understand the concept of being beaten and death, he does know why we celebrate Easter.  We used the Resurrection Eggs, which are great because they give tangible objects to help tell the story.

Saturday we enjoyed the outdoors.  We got out sidewalk chalk, and even went for a walk to see the new horses at the end of our road.

 Sterling kept saying, "No cameras, get outta here"  It's from his favorite movie Cars.  It was so funny.  He would hear the camera click and say that over and over.

 He always has his tongue out!

 Then we had a picnic outside.

 I decided to do Easter baskets Saturday night.  We go to early service, and I didn't want to be any more rushed than I knew we already would be.

My favorite moment with Sterling this weekend had nothing to do with Easter.  He was throwing a fit because he wasn't getting something he wanted (something that has become common these days).  I took him to his room to discipline him and after we prayed for God to help him with his attitude and he told Jesus he was sorry for not being kind.  Sterling looked at me and said "I want to SEE God."  It touched a mother's heart.  While I mentioned before that he doesn't understand the concept of death.  I explained that when we are done living our life here we will be able to see God because Jesus paid for our sins on the cross.  He nodded his head and smiled, it reminded me that I should be that excited about getting to see God.

Here are pics from Easter

Every year we have some kind of theme.  My grandmother used to make us all matching dresses (even my mom).  But as we have gotten older we have started coordinating instead of matching.  We all picked a dress from a color in my mom's dress.

 Look at that cute couple on the end!

The siblings

 The big kids

 The Vaughns

 Sterling wanted to go play and Ann Elizabeth was starving, but we got a few good pictures.

 Sterling kept taking time to open the eggs to see what was inside.

 The girls

 Aunt Tori