Easter for the Twinners

I figured our Easter posts would end with the Twinners since, let's face it, they are the main attraction. They have been so excited about "Easter time" - as they called it - arriving. Mostly because I was in charge of the church Easter Egg hunt and they saw the plastic eggs and bags of candy every day for about a week (yes, I hid them...they kept finding the spots...). For them, Easter meant candy. And since they had JUST eaten the last of the Valentine's candy earlier in the week, this was big.

I'm going to start earlier in the week because this year I really wanted to start telling the twins what Easter was about. On Thursday, our church always does a Maundy Thursday service. Every day, we talk about Jesus' love and showing it to others. So, I asked them if they knew why this day was special, and then told them it was because this day Jesus had his last meal with his best friends. He told them He was going to have to leave them, and wouldn't be there to show everyone His love in person. He gave them a new commandment (or mandate...where the word Maundy comes from) to love everyone like He had loved them. I told them that is why it is so important for us to show people Jesus' love. He asked us to especially because He can't physically be here to love them Himself.

On Friday, we missed the Good Friday service because I had to take them to the pediatrician. Ear infections. Lovely. But we did talk about why this day was special. I know that they have no real concept of death at the moment, so it was tricky. I simply told them that this day was important because it was the day when Jesus rescued the whole world. I said it was a sad day because his best friends thought He was gone forever. I said that Jesus knew what was going to happen, but everyone else was very confused. It wouldn't be until Easter Sunday that it would make sense. Then we read the story from the Jesus Storybook Bible. I'm telling you, best Bible ever. Seriously, get it. Even for yourself!

Saturday morning was the community egg hunt. You may remember last year, when they ended up filling their buckets with dirt instead of eggs...this year was COMPLETELY different! They almost filled their buckets. There was a bit of a snag when Allie accidentally popped one open and discovered there was candy inside. She looked around like "why are we picking up he eggs when we could just be gathering the candy?" But we got her back on track!

Part of our entourage. Nana made it! She hasn't missed an Easter yet!

Gathering the eggs!

Holding up their plunder!

Checking them out.

They spent the rest of Saturday with Nana and Little Grandma, who were helping us out by watching the kids so we could go to the wedding and really get to spend time with all of our friends there. Sunday morning we got them ready for church. And then headed off bright and early to church for our traditional Easter breakfast. I didn't get any pictures because I was busy chatting and meeting people. This year our church sent out invitations to our Easter festivities to about 3200 homes. So there were some new faces to meet (not 3200, but enough to make it worth the effort!). I was in charge of the post-service Easter Egg Hunt, so during the service I left Ry-guy with Nana and Allie with Auntie Becca and went out to hide the eggs. I missed the majority of the service (it took longer to hide 460 eggs than I thought it would!), but Stina took this beautiful picture of Lucas doing the children's message:

As I was hiding the eggs, I noticed that it was a bit windy. A beautiful day whenever the wind wasn't blowing, but a bit chilly when it was. My concern at the time was the wind moving some of my eggs (I hid a few in low hanging tree branches). When we unleashed the kids and they ran outside, I realized I should have had a very different concern. We happened to go out right when there was a huge gust of wind. And when I say huge, I mean blowing the children over. It reminded me of Nor'easters when we lived in MA. It was strong. Allie fell over and started crying. Kids were fighting the wind to get to the eggs. This picture below is my favorite that shows the wind (note: because she was a visitor and I don't even know her mom's name to ask for permission to post, I blurred her face...in case you were wondering):

The wind died down a bit, and the kids were able to continue the hunt and find all the eggs...including a few that had been hidden in past years and were never found...they were pretty disgusting in side, if you can imagine! And if you are curious to see how different the twins look from last year, you can see them at the church egg hunt last year here.

This Easter was so special because we got to enjoy it with so many friends and family. In fact, we had so many guests that we ventured away from our traditional Easter meal (pizza), and I made food that was a little more common (ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, rolls, salad, etc.). It was the prefect way to celebrate the resurrection! He is risen!