Easter and Birthday Celebrations

We had such a wonderful day on Sunday. We had a full day of celebrating both Easter and Jim's birthday. To begin, we had a great morning at church celebrating Jesus' resurrection. They had some of the neatest activities for the kids (including a "real" tomb that was empty), and it was special to watch Anna Lee learn about Easter in such a real and meaningful way. Thank you to all of you who put so much work into making the morning so great for our kids!

This picture is of Anna Lee with one of my favorite ladies at church, Mrs. Mary Anne. I have had the honor of getting to teach with Mary Anne for the past year or so and she is amazing. She has written curriculum for little ones at our church and has invested a huge part of her life to teaching kids about Jesus. I loved watching her teach Anna Lee about Him on Sunday. GranDee and Pops got to come spend the day with us!

This was the best we did at a family photo for the day. Not necessarily a framer, but at least it is a picture of all 4 of us!

Kasey and Nathan were there with us. Aren't they a good looking couple?!

After church, we made some attempts to get a few pictures of the kids. It just seems impossible with a 3 and almost one year old to get both of them to sit still and look happily at the camera!

We took a couple of pictures after we got home...

J.D. was already tuckered out from the morning. But he looked so handsome there in the carseat, I had to take his picture too.

Jim and I even got a picture together. I don't remember the last time we got a picture together. Sad, isn't it? (Please excuse the crazy hair from the humid weather)

At lunch, we got to sing Happy Birthday to Jim. Anna Lee loved that she was getting to celebrate Easter and his birthday in the same day. It felt like it was a party all day long!

Jim loves Great American Cookie Company. He has gotten the same birthday cake many years in a row. But it is eaten so fast!

We went to an Easter egg hunt at church in the afternoon and the kids had a great time. Both of them seemed to enjoy hunting for eggs. These next two pictures are so typical of their relationship:

Typical Anna Lee being silly to get J.D. to laugh

Typical J.D. response- Thinking she is funny and he loves her more than any person in the world, but not going to over-react...just not his personality.

I love these two pictures of Pops and J.D. I love the first one of Pops and how much fun they were having, and I love the second one of J.D.'s sweet face.

Both the kids had a fun time hunting Easter eggs. J.D. was joining in on the fun too!

Looking at their collection of eggs

The Easter Bunny came to visit during naptime.

J.D. got a dancing bunny in his basket. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Anna Lee, however, loved it and has forced him to become friends with it. :)

At the end of the night, we had our last birthday celebration for Jim. Anna Lee helped me pick out several presents for Jim, so she was excited to watch him open them.

What a fun and special day!