My favorite day of the year!

I know I am late on posting about Easter, things leading up to Easter and all the other things that go along with such a wonderful and joyous day, but my philosophy in life (as many of you know) is better late than never. =) So, here are some pictures working backwards in time...so the first pics are from Sunday afternoon and then we move to the morning when the kids received their baskets and goodies.

The first picture is of the kids lined up in front of the door to commence the Easter Egg Hunt. Paul filled too many eggs with candy and even some with coins and a few with dollars...can you believe it?! So, we invited our pastor, his wife and family over to enjoy the bounty. They live two streets down from us, in the same neighborhood! I can't say enough what a blessing it is to have a godly woman just around the corner to talk with and be encouraged by (the Pastor's wife, of course). She also homeschools and also joins us for our monthly (or so) homeschool field trips with a local homeschool fellowship we are involved with. Anyway, back to Easter....the kids had SO much fun searching for eggs, and Paul did a good job of hiding them, especially for the younger of our children.

Calvin finding some eggs near a tree.

Adele pulling TWO from a pipe (with Mommy's help, of course!)

Just a quick snapshot of PJ in the midst of all the fun.

And, here we've jumped to Easter morning. Adele is opening her gift from Paul and I. We decided to get the kids Bibles for Easter. We felt like PJ was ready and Calvin and Adele were given pocket New Testaments. They LOVED having a Bible to take to church...and all three of them were found "reading" them during the sermon...and the younger two also used their Bibles as hymnals! =) It's really wonderful to see them participating in worship, no matter how small it might be. Perhaps one of my most favorite times of worship (this is very man centered, so forgive me!)... is when we sing the doxology and I hear all three of my children singing! It's a tremendous blessing to me...of course, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are woshipping God but also showing some musical interest.

And these next two pics are of Paul and the kids just before leaving for church. We got the boys some new church clothes and they looked so sharp and nice. So, I had to take some pictures! Well, and I know the grandparents want to see them too!

Anyone notice the friend on PJ's finger? Yep, he's still catching lizards, and he's getting quite good at it too. He has trained Simba to bring them the lizards he (Simba) catches to him and then he puts them in their "cage."

PJ with his new NIV Adventure Bible.

Calvin with his pocket Bible. I might add to this post that this Bible also was transformed into an airplane during worship...so it has its good points and its bad points!!! =)

All in all, Easter was wonderful. We did miss our families but God has been good to give us family here in our church. We thank God for this provision. We wanted to have some neighbors here to eat with us, but they already had plans. God knows and He is working all things out for His glory. We hope your Easter was blessed and joyful.