Hunting Easter Eggs

Saturday, we enjoyed a local church's Easter Egg Hunt and fun. It had poured rain hours before it was set to start, but it turned out to be a beautiful day for Eli's first Egg Hunt with other children. He took it slowly at first, showing off his first egg....

while others quickly hunted and gathered around him. Then he got the hang of it and took off!

Eventually, he had had his fill. He and his buddy, Mabry, had a conversation amid the madness. It cracked me up.

Eli was incredibly proud his eggs, and then he realized that there was candy inside of them. We don't do a lot of candy on Easter, so all the chocolate and surprises inside were super exciting to him. He had to use his will power to not eat the candy bars, as he has given them up for Lent.

.....a little back story here:

Early in Lent, Eli offered me a bite of his cookie (such a sweet boy!), and I politely turned it down, explaining that I had given up treats for Lent. His little brow furrowed with worry. He was concerned that he hadn't given anything up. That is when his eyes filled up with tears. "I like treats too much! I don't want to give them up." Of course this led us to a conversation about sacrifices and the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus' death on the cross. We also talked about how Eli could maybe just give up one kind of treat....like cake, cookies, or pie. "I will give up pie because I do not prefer pie." The little goof....or should I say smartie? Haha! So, it was decided that he would give up pie and candy bars. We added the candy bars because even though we don't have them often, Eli really likes them, so it harder to give them up than pie. This egg hunt was his first true test as he was faced with many candy bars inside his eggs that could not be eaten until Easter. It was hard, but he didn't eat any.

In addition to the egg hunt, there were pony rides,



an amazing BBQ lunch, face painting,

Hello, Batman!

and bouncies.

Eli had a blast, and our baby bunny enjoyed being outside all morning; taking in all that was going on around him.

We are in the middle of Holy Week with today being Holy Thursday. I have several activities planned for the remainder of the week for Eli and I to do as we remember what Easter is all about. Hope your Easter is joyous and blessed!