Easter

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful holiday, minus a few hiccups (normal life stuff). 

We had a feast on Friday night with some friends, had a huge turkey, cheesy potatoes, pasta salad, and more. It was all delicious and nice to spend time with friends. 

Then on Saturday we went with friends to the Zoo. It was a beautiful day: sunny and 75 degrees. This will sound crazy but it was almost too hot for me...guess my body is used to the cool Oregon weather so I was sweating at 75. Haha. We've gone every year and hyped it up to our friends, but this year was hands down the most crowded I've ever seen it. The egg hunt didn't have enough candy to go around, so both boys ended up in tears for not getting an egg. :( Actually while the hunt went on, I was taking pictures from afar and actually captured a parent lunging for an egg (with another egg already in her hand). I was appalled when I saw this. We will be trying another egg hunt next year. 

On Sunday we went to church, the boys in their matching ties from Grandma Jones. They looked adorable (I'm a dunce and totally forgot to take pictures with everyone dressed up).

Here are some highlights:

Grandma and the boys made some eggs to decorate the house and surprised me. (then some of our friends kids added to our egg collection.) I love it.

The egg hunt

Waiting patiently (with our friends kids: the Muhammad's)

So cute

Getting ready

Horrible example of parenting...stealing eggs from little kids.

Aftermath of getting nothing....

 It took us a while, but the boys calmed down after hearing what animals we would see and that we are going to ride the train. They were okay after that. Then it dawned on me that we need to have our own egg hunt.

Weston right in front of the sea lion. So cool! 

The elephants were pacing, I felt sad for them.

The mama with her new baby.

Climbing animal area

Lions

Hippos

 This is the most I have ever seen the hippos, they are usually illusive and hanging out in the water. Guess it was warm enough for them to sun bathe.

Gazelles (or whatever type they are)

 These are some of Van's favorites

Zebras are another of Van's favorites

 Giraffes. Spring was in the air in the giraffe pen....

 We went on the zoo train too, but I didn't get pictures. 

Sand pit (our last stop)

When we got home, we dyed eggs, then the boys went to bed and the Easter bunny came.

 On Sunday after church we came home to find that Grandma the Easter Bunny had set up an Easter egg hunt in our front yard. It was fantastic, there was plenty to go around and the boys were even working together to help each other find eggs and sharing eggs. So nice to see.

Sharing..

Helping

The loot

They were so happy about it :) 

 No tears at this egg hunt.

 We love you and hope you had a wonderful Easter too.

I've realized that the true meaning of Easter is a hard concept for little ones to grasp. We watched Easter videos and I made a puzzle out of a picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, put it in Easter eggs and we played a sort of game of opening them and putting the puzzle together. At the end we discussed the meaning of Easter, but it was still hard for them to understand. We also have a kid Easter book that I like, but other than that I'm pretty stumped at making this an easy to understand religious holiday. Anyone have any good ideas that I might use next year?