Grandparents, Easter and more!

The kids and I headed to my parents for a weekend when Brian was away. Lots of fun as always. Not sure why it's so blurry but we went to IHOP for breakfast one morning... Kids Eat Free!

Splashing in Grandma's bubble bath!

Coloring Easter Eggs

Aunt Katherine and Grandpa helped make some beautiful eggs.

Egg Hunt in the basement.

(somehow i'm missing a few more pics of the weekend but it's a pain to add them back in... just move on to our MOPS Easter Egg Hunt... :)

Exploring their loot.

The kids had SO much fun playing with our plastic eggs and Easter things... see everything in the window? Hours of fun!

Easter!

Trying for a pic of all of them after church... not so great.

Brian's Dad and sister came over for the afternoon.

Yummy Easter Meal.

We walked/rode bikes on a walk and to the playground.

Aunt Bethany and Evan

Poppa helping Blake

We got to meet my mom for lunch at McDonald's one day as she was driving through PA.

We love Grandma.

City Serve

Every spring, our church cancels all it's services for the weekend and encourages everyone to go out and "be the church" by volunteering to help in a variety of service projects around the community. Our LifeGroup chose to mulch (well, wood chip) a playground for a church's dayschool. It was a lot of fun and great to get the kids involved in serving too. Loading up the wheelbarrows...

...and dumping them out...

... for the kids to help spread. The kids had little shovels and rakes and did a great job!

Except for the fact that it was freezing out!

We went in the building for a little bit to warm up and have a snack. I felt like I was teaching pre-school again. :)

Melinda and Alayna

Natalie especially impressed us... she worked hard!

The pile's almost gone!

Way to Go everyone... it looks great. I know it will be a blessing to the church and the school.

Resurrection Rolls

This Easter, the kids are finally "old enough" to understand things a little more. We've been having so much fun doing different activities to learn about the real meaning of Easter and it's awesome to see their little hearts and minds grasping that Jesus is alive and loves them!

We made these Resurrection Rolls and I think we've found a new Easter tradition!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dip a large marshmallow in melted butter and then in cinnamon sugar.

Carefully wrap one crescent roll triangle (we used homemade dough instead) around the marshmallow. Pinch the seams together very tightly to seal in the marshmallow as it melts. (Even if it does melt out a little due to kid's craftmanship, it's okay-it still works! :)

Bake on a lightly greased baking sheet for about 15 minutes until golden brown.

IT'S AN EMPTY TOMB! JESUS IS ALIVE!

We're going to make these Easter Story Cookies tonight. Enjoy!

Natalie and Blake have been singing this song all week:

(sung to Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Jesus is alive today,

Alive today,

Alive today!

Jesus is alive today,

Alive forevermore!

HAPPY EASTER!