happy Easter!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter! 

Aidan woke up bright & early this morning to see what the 

Easter Bunny brought him!

After checking out all of his goodies in his basket, we made Resurrection rolls for breakfast!

What's a Resurrection roll you ask?

While the Easter Bunny is okay & all the candy & eggs are fun.. 

we want Aidan to know the real meaning of Easter, which is Jesus' Resurrection!

So.. we took a marshmallow, which represents Jesus' body.. dipped it in oil, cinnamon & sugar, which represents the oil & spices used to anoint Jesus' body after he died.. then we wrapped the marshmallow in a crescent roll, which represents the tomb that Jesus was put in after his death. 

When the rolls are done baking.. take a bite.. Jesus is gone! He is risen! 

Aidan was so fascinated with this..
love the picture below.. "where are you Jesus?" he was saying :)

After church, we went to my Dad's for a nice Easter dinner.

Aidan & Ava were patiently waiting all afternoon to start their annual egg hunt..

here they are scoping out all the eggs in the backyard!

GO!

I actually got to hide the eggs this year, it was fun to watch Aidan try to find them all!

Mommy's favorite picture:

Helping each other find all of the eggs..

CANDY time!!!

After the hunt, we had dessert.. 

creme brulee cupcakes,

& banana split cupcakes!

They were SOOOO good & so pretty I had to take a picture!

By the time we left at 7:30, Aidan was completely passed out!

I'd say it was a great Easter! :)

egg hunt!

On Saturday, we met up with family to go to an Easter egg hunt! 

We had lunch together & played at a park before heading to the hunt..

Aidan is a climber now, and he makes me nervous when he wants to try to 

get up in high places by himself.. "I do it!"

It was *finally* a nice day & Aidan & Hayley had fun playing.

Getting a push from Uncle Rob!

Making me nervous again! :)

Time for the Easter egg hunt!

The sign there said there were 11,000 eggs & I believe it.. they were everywhere! 

The poor kids had to wait awhile as more people kept coming to join.. 

here's Hayley making the best of her boredom!

FINALLY get to start! 

It was so fun to watch all of the kids racing for the eggs :)

Kinda busy, huh? 

Aidan showing off his eggs!

We had so much fun at the egg hunt! 

NOT happy.

So..I planned a trip to the fire station for our playgroup last Friday.. 

Aidan was SO excited all week when we talked about it..

..but it was a different story once we actually got there!

I had to practically beg Aidan to stand on the step of the firetruck to get a picture!

Isn't it hilarious? 

Looks like he was being tortured or something.. POOR Aidan! ;)

decorating eggs!

Time to dye Easter eggs!

Aidan was so excited all day for this :)

He was bugging me all day to get the "egg stuff" out, I loved seeing the excitement on his face.

I noticed that Aidan was much more independent with it this year, he is growing up so fast!

I found these new swab colorers that were a hit, Aidan loved them!

Ta-da!

Notice the tears?

Yeah.. Mommy accidentally dropped a decorated egg on the floor.. man, I felt like a jerk..
Sooo, Aidan had to make that egg all over again.. sheesh Mommy! ;)

Aidan picked out a dinosaur themed egg kit this year..

.. it was fun, but I still like the plain 'ol regular eggs..

..so pretty!

happy birthday to me!

Last Wednesday was my birthday & it was a beautiful day! 

I enjoyed spending most of it outdoors with Aidan!

We had lunch outdoors, watching Tony's cousin Art get the fields by us ready for planting..

Aidan was VERY happy to see the tractors out again!

After lunch, we had a nature scavenger hunt.. I found the idea for this online & changed some of the items to match what we have available in our yard.. Aidan loved it!

.. and he loved dumping it all out & playing with the items too :)

Later that night, we went to my Dad's for dinner, and birthday cake!

Aidan helped me blow out the candles..

..and enjoyed eating it too, yummy carrot cake!

We had a good time visiting, Aidan especially loved seeing Grandpa!

Last but certainly not least, my boys wanted to make me a birthday cake too! 

Here's my super-delicious homemade cake, Aidan even helped put the frosting on.. can you tell? ;)

Easter cookies!

I am so slow at posting new pictures, sorry Mom! 

2 weeks ago, we got together at my Mom's with my step-sister

 & her daughter Hayley to decorate Easter cookies!

Aidan was very excited all week waiting for that Saturday to come around.. 

here he is patiently waiting to get started!

LOVE the concentration on Hayley's face!

Aidan did a good job smearing the icing around.. 

Mommy did pretty good eating the icing too..

it was soooo good ;)

Time for a taste test!

A few cookies in & the kids were ready to make a mess,

 it was fun to watch them & even more fun that it wasn't a mess at our house! 

(Thanks Grammie!)

My mom pitched in to help..

..here's their colorful cookies!

I think my Mom made the prettiest cookie.. way to go Mom! :)

After cookies, Aidan & Hayley played while we all talked to eachother..

 ..and ate cookies!

Don'tcha just love that my boy has his fingers up his nose? 

He does this when he knows I'm about to take his picture.. stinker!

After awhile, we took the kids outside & chased some bubbles!

I loved watching Aidan chase the bubbles all over..

..and I LOVE this last picture I got of him!

We had such a nice time & it was fun to watch the kids have so much fun! :)