We had a really fun week! We went to the zoo, the children’s museum, and we worked on some projects at the house. Spring Break 2012 was a success! Hudson was always devastated to leave the zoo, the children’s museum or the mall carousel (epic meltdowns), but he loved it while he was there! We ended up getting a museum membership and renewed our zoo membership. I’m excited that we can just go when we need a little “field trip” this summer.

On Saturday morning Todd and I had a date day. We went to Gourmet Shop for brunch while Todd’s parents played with Hudson and Hayes. The boys have lots of fun outdoor toys at their grandparents’ house, so it always such a fun adventure to go over there.

After brunch, we went on our big Easter grocery shopping run and then went to look at a couple of houses. We brought the boys home and then I cooked while they napped. I watched a couple of movies in the kitchen while I made hash brown casserole, 7-layer salad, and a yummy strawberry trifle that I found on Pinterest.

After naps, we dyed Easter eggs! I love doing this with Hudson. He loves all the colors and likes spinning the eggs around in the cups of dye. It’s potentially messy, but I always just put a splat mat down on the table and let him just go to town. We wrote names on the eggs and he liked saying, “This is Mommy’s eggg and this is Hayes’s egg!”

Hayes sat in his high chair and supervised the egg dyeing process.

After the boys went to bed, Todd and I played Easter bunny, which is always so much fun. The boys got some little toys and books. Hudson got some little animal and Sesame Street figurines, coloring books, sticker books, colors, bubbles and a beach towel. Santa Claus had gotten Hudson a sleeping bag for Christmas, but it wasn’t delivered on time. So the Easter Bunny dropped it off, too. Hayes got books, a sweet little Jelly Cats stuffed bunny, some sunglasses, his own little dinosaur, some new cups, snacks, and a toy phone.

And then we set the table for Easter lunch so we could just come in from church and be ready to eat! Todd’s parents joined us for lunch and brought a delicious ham and deviled eggs. I just love Easter lunch! Todd’s grandmother couldn’t be with us yesterday because she wasn’t feeling well. We really missed having Nana there!

We went to church and Sunday school on Sunday morning. The service was wonderful and powerful, and exactly the way I love to worship on Easter sunday. We visited with friends and came home to have lunch with Todd’s family.

We hunted Easter eggs and then gave the boys their Easter baskets after that. We didn’t want to give Hudson his basket before church because we knew he would not be happy about having to leave everything for us to run to church. So we didn’t even do it until we got home.

I always forget how much fun Easter egg hunts are. Hudson absolutely loves it. I think we hid too many eggs, though, because his basket was overflowing and every time he’d put a new egg in the basket, another one would fall out.

Hayes woke up from his nap and was excited to find his Easter basket. I just love this funny little boy so much! His big bear crawl just makes me laugh.

He loved his little toy phone and he didn’t even resist when I put the fun bunny ears on him that were in his basket.

And, of course, his sunglasses went straight in his mouth! Where else?

At the end of all the celebrating, Todd and I were worn slap out. We had such a wonderful day and couldn’t wait to just finish watching the Master’s and get a good nap on the couch.

Hudson was really starting to understand a lot of the Easter story this year. He was talking about how “they rolled the stone away and Jesus wasn’t there because Jesus is Risen.” I’m very excited about all that his little mind understands and I’m really thankful for the people in our lives that help us reinforce all of the important things we want to teach our children.

How was your Easter?

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Because it is Easter and this is the most important time of year for Christians, I have something really special I want to share with all of you today.

The kind folks at Zondervan publishing contacted me a few weeks ago about doing a giveaway for their new collection of Bibles for this spring. The Bloom Collection is so great! These Bibles are made from soft leather and have these great White Lilies and Red Poppies designs. The designs are bold and stylish. The Bibles are in a great size to fit in your purse, diaper bag, or work bag so you can easily take it with you when you’re on-the-go.

The texture is so soft and the  colors will make people on the street or your friends stop and ask what you’re reading.

These Bibles are affordable and can be found at booksellers everywhere.

The Bloom Collection Bibles are in the NIV translation, which is the translation that I read daily. I’m excited about having a new, small size that I can take with me. It weighs less than the Bible that I read at home and is much smaller, so it fits in my bag nicely.

Zondervan is going to give away one White Lilies Bible and one Red Poppies Bible to lucky Blue-Eyed Bride readers. So there will be two winners! This is their Easter gift to you.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. You may know someone in your life that you’d love to give this to. I can’t think of a better gift!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter tomorrow and celebrate our Risen Lord and thank Him for the sacrifice He made for us.

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

We attended the Maundy Thursday dinner and service last night at church. We brought both boys with us and weren’t really sure how that would go as they needed to be quiet while our pastor spoke. Fortunately, they did great! They made the occasional peep, but they were entertained by pens and Cheerios.

I, on the other hand, came home hungry.

Dinner was wonderful. The buffet had carrots, shepherd’s pie and a couple of yummy desserts. I need to point out that this wasn’t your typical “fellowship hall” church shepherd’s pie. I had never actually eaten shepherd’s pie before. I’m not sure how that is even possible, but the description of it always gave me the willies.

But this shepherd’s pie was absolutely delicious. A great big pile of peas, corn, beef, and mashed potato goodness. What’s better than that? (Other than Rachel’s trifle/shepherd’s pie mixture on Friends, perhaps? “Beef? Good!”)

I digress.

But seriously this shepherd’s pie was delicious. Unfortunately, to keep Hudson quiet, I shared some of my shepherd’s pie with him. Because we were in a church buffet line, I didn’t put a whole lot on my plate to begin with. You know how it is when you don’t want people to think you eat too much based on how much food you put on your plate in a buffet line. And I didn’t eat lunch yesterday, so I was just hungry.

Well between Hudson and me, we ate that shepherd’s pie. Quickly. And I wanted seconds. But you can’t go back for seconds at a church Maundy Thursday dinner.

Especially when the point of the service is to prepare your heart for fasting on Good Friday.

So I didn’t go back for seconds. I didn’t get more shepherd’s pie. But you better believe I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when I got home. Because fasting didn’t start until today.

*More seriously, I pray that you all take time to reflect in your own way about what Good Friday means and the sacrifices that were made for us when God sacrificed his Son for us.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed

1 Peter 2:24