Easter Sunday

Yesterday, our family celebrated Easter. On Saturday night, after the kids were in bed, I ventured out to the local pharmacy to scrounge around for some candy for our Easter egg hunt. I hung my head in shame as I hurriedly rummaged through the clearance Easter candy, knowing that I deserved the "Lame Mom" Award for waiting until the very last minute to buy our Easter goodies. I spied one small bag of plastic easter eggs hidden beneath a large basket and quickly grabbed a couple of bags of half price Easter candy. I was happy to have purchased the only remaining plastic eggs, but realized that so few eggs would make for a very short hunt. I made my way across the street to another pharmacy to find more plastic eggs. I flew out of that store with the eggs just as they were locking up the doors for the night. Whew!

The next morning, Josh made breakfast for the family. While we ate, he talked with the kids about the reason that we celebrate Easter. Later, Mary Alice asked me why in the world we hunt eggs if we are supposed to be celebrating Jesus rising from the dead? I tried to explain the whole symbolism between new life, eggs, etc. and finally just told her that we just hunt eggs to be fun, that it is just something fun to do on Easter.

I don't think the egg explanation made much sense to her. She did understand when I finally told her that "We just hunt eggs for fun." I think she gets confused by the whole "Easter bunny" thing. We don't really do the "Easter bunny" at our house. The kids know that we hide the eggs and they find them. Mary Alice must have heard her friends talking about the "Easter bunny" . How do I explain this to her? Frankly, Easter is sometimes confusing to me. Bunnies+eggs+Resurrection = confusion.

Mary Alice is starting to ask questions for which I don't always have a good answer. For example, when I tried to explain the "new life" concept about eggs and chicks, she said, "Okay, so you're saying that you and Daddy have a new life that Jesus gave you....."

"When you decided that you wanted to follow Jesus?"

"Yes." I said.

"And be baptized?"

"Yes."

"....And you can have eternal life because of Jesus?"


"Yes." I said.

"When will I be baptized?" she said.

"Some day when you are old enough." I responded.

Then, with a pitiful face that looked like she was about to cry she said, "So you mean that I don't have a new life and I don't have eternal life with Jesus because I'm not old enough?"

What do you say to that? I told her that Jesus tells adults that he wants us to have hearts like children. I told her that because she is a child who loves and wants to serve Jesus, I believe that she does have eternal life. UGH!!! Yikes!!! Mary Alice and her questions wear me out sometimes!! What do you tell your children when they ask you things like this??? Anyone???

(By the way, I'm not trying to offend anyone who does do the "Easter bunny" at their house. We choose not do the Easter bunny for no reason other than that it is something that we don't really care about, not because of any religious beliefs on the subject. Just thought I'd make that clear.)

Mary Alice on the night before Easter

Easter morning before church (Isn't Josh handsome?)

After church, we ate lunch and hunted for eggs in our front yard. Major would hand his eggs to Mary Alice when he found ones that were pink or purple, explaining that they were "girl eggs". Notice the tacky gift bags. I do this every year. I never want to spend money on an Easter basket that I will have to store all year, so I just have the kids grab a gift bag from storage. They don't seem to mind. The kids came inside after the egg hunt and played tackle football. We all ate some of their candy and then laid down for a Sunday afternoon nap! This was my kind of Easter Sunday...being with my sweet family all day, church, chocolate, and a Sunday afternooon nap! Perfect!

Major hunting eggs

Hunting for eggs

The girl and her Easter bag

Off goes the Easter dress...Time for a game of tackle football!

My crazy girl