Easter 2026

He is risen!

For Easter this year, Mrs. Rita {our Children's Director at church} gave us an egg-dying kit {along with some other fun Easter goodies}, so on Saturday we got to test it out. I'm not sure if the kids were more excited to dye the eggs or eat the hard-boiled eggs haha. 

Sunday was a long, full day {especially for Mike}. This year, the church had the sunrise service and 3 Easter services, and Mike was preaching. We are still doing Easter baskets for the kids, and they were excited to run downstairs to find the goodies waiting for them. They each got a chocolate bunny, a craft/creative item, a new book {or coloring books in Maddie's case}, and new Yoto cards. They also got a LEGO-compatible Resurrection Set from Bible Bricks to share.

We loved getting to worship and celebrate with our church family. We had family worship {so no Sunday School this week}, and it was great to have all the kids and families in the service together with all of our visitors as well. 

A quick photo before church...because I never know if we will be able to get one AT church ;)

I sure love them...and they're growing too fast...

We were able to get a family photo after all!

The rest of the day was spent resting, playing board games, and crafting with their new kits :)

We are so thankful for Jesus, and for the hope we have because He walked out of the tomb. 

Because He lives,

I can face tomorrow!

Because He lives,

All fear is gone.

Because I know

He holds the future,

And life is worth the living,

Just because He lives!

Bluebell Trail

We got to hike the Bluebell Trail this weekend! I first hiked the trail with our women when we first moved to CBC, and I have wanted the kids to see it. But we have just never hit the right timing. But we finally had some time during the peak bloom, so we headed out for a morning hike!

It had rained the day before, so the trail was a little muddy, but nothing too terrible. The good thing was that it was nice and cool, and not humid, which made for a very pleasant morning. Aiden wasn't a fan of the mud that we did encounter, even saying that "even broccoli would be better than this {the mud}." Haha- so now we know how mud and broccoli rank in his life :)

We also made it out early enough before there were too many people on the trail. I'm thankful for a schedule that allows us to {mostly} avoid weekend crowds, and for kiddos who {mostly} enjoy hikes :)

{iPhone Rewind} :: March

We got another round of snow to kick off the month!

Just a little mid-week Latin :)

A few Alka-Seltzer tabs make for some exciting science :)

Maddie and Aiden finished 2nd Grade Math, and Mommy rejoiced! On to 3rd Grade Math :)

Eli wrote his own short story and shared it with us

March 12th snowfall. Sure, why not?

We served at Generosity Feeds, and this time, we held it at a local elementary school, and we got to bring Grandma along too

Library day is a good day

My little dinner helper :)

Fun flowers :)

Our church hosted a Seder dinner, and it was great to get to walk through it together as a family. Maddie had a part to read during the dinner.

I'm going to miss when they don't sing in church anymore :)

When sweet neighbors drop off vegetables and poetry! :)

A Fun and Full Grandma Visit

Grandma came into town and spent almost 2 weeks with us! She came in to join us for our history field trip, and it worked out for her to join us for some extra time. Which means, she got to join us for all the day-to-day crazy life things! :)

It also meant that Grandma got the full gambit of crazy weather while she was here. Right before she arrived, we had a beautiful and warm sunshine day. As we were heading to the airport to pick her up, it starting snowing, and the flakes were HUGE! Haha. It was wild. So we definitely had cold weather, but then it also warmed up again, enough to have a tornado warning. So we spent an afternoon hanging out in the basement. Good times.

But other than that, we got to spend lots of fun time with Grandma. Grandma had promised Maddie a trip to the nail salon, so we found a place and she got to enjoy a girlie morning. Maddie and Eli had an appointment in the afternoon, so Aiden got to get some one-on-one time with Grandma and he chose to play games. 

Grandma joined us for Generosity Feeds, came to church with us, joined our library trip, babysat while I was at Bible study and Mike was at Elder meeting, and came to the consignment sale with me and Maddie. And when we weren't dragging her around to all the things {or on our history field trip}. we were reading books, watching movies, eating yummy food, coloring/doing crafts, and playing games. We introduced her to Ticket to Ride and just enjoyed lots of time with her.

We LOVED having Grandma here, especially for such an extended time. While it was fun to include her in our field trip, we loved just having her around for all the normal life things. {And hopefully we didn't exhaust her too much ;) } The only thing that we were missing was Papa. We are definitely looking forward to the next trip!