Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful morning of worship at church and I'm immensely thankful for several things. First, sweet friends to make my princess smile.

Our morning began nothing like I expected. Easter is my absolute favorite day of the year, so I woke up with a great big smile on my face...Alison did not. The poptart was too crumbly, the dress was too hot, the shoes were too wiggly, the curls were too hot, the fingernail polish was too smelly and the clippy was too scratchy.

Second, a slightly blurry picture to mask the animal cracker that is smeared all over Eli's white Easter shirt. I was really looking forward to a great shot of the kids, but this is what life is-not always perfect.

Tim, Abby and Alex came over for the afternoon. We munched on appetizers while prepping the big dinner and doing fun Easter activities. We gave the kids Easter baskets and went on an egg hunt.

Eli took an extra long nap and then enjoyed some snuggles with daddy while the girls were hunting for eggs.

The kids played great together all afternoon and it was nice to have some relaxing time with friends.

Of course no Easter is complete without the traditional peep taste test. Alison's made funny faces every year-this year she politely ate it, but we all knew she wanted to spit it out. Eli devoured it. He would have eaten the whole package if I let him.

I learned several lessons this year and I'm already planning for a better Easter next year. First lesson: prep food the day before and don't try new recipes. Second lesson: organize activities.
I tried a new potato casserole recipe from a friend at church. I didn't have enough sour cream, so I had to use some of our appetizer basil dip as a substitute. I got everything mixed up and realized it made a HUGE patch and then it took forever to cook, which threw off all of our other dishes. Then, I started to make the zwiebach and realized we had just ran out of yeast the night before while making pizza. So, we crossed bread off the menu and had some slightly crunchy, basil filled potatoes. Which brings me to the second lesson. I wish I thought out the day a little better. I had planned on making Easter cookies with Alison and that never happened. I had hoped to play outside with the kids and maybe play some fun games-also never happened. Dinner was much later than we anticipated and some kids never got naps.
But, through all the imperfections, I knew there was a reason for all of them. My focus for the day shouldn't be food and activities and how clean my kids are.
Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.
And that's all the matters.