Sweet Reality

So last night as I am going to bed, I say to Mike "Sweet Dreams" and he says, "Why do I need sweet dreams when I have a sweet reality?" I've thought about that all day. That's kinda the season of life we are in. We've been thru hard times and we aren't naive enough to think that hard times won't come again, but for this moment in our life...it truly does feel like this sweet reality. Perhaps that's why I want to capture into words so much of our days. I want this sweet reality to live on forever. I don't want to forget the details. I'm also aware of how quickly these years with our girls are flying by! So here are the details of our Easter day:

So Easter morning begins before 6am...Sarah is wide awake with a huge smile and ready for Easter! By 6:20, her sister is also awake, so they crawl into our bed, full of excitement. Morgan says, "I like finding the chocolate eggs.: I reply,"oh really, what eggs? Better go see if there are any this year!". We lay in bed just listening to them search. Then the crying starts...you're finding too many, it's not fair...oh my, now I know why my mom had one of us find the eggs in the basement and the other found them upstairs. Note to self: Next year's egg hunt will be on both levels of the house. :) So finally after a little while, they inquire as to their baskets. After getting the first clue they are off on a treasure hunt for their baskets. They are so full of excitement and so giddy over every little thing in their baskets. They loved the nail clippers (when I got them, Mike said, "oh, that's just what I'd want for Easter!" I knew they would love them and they did.) They also really liked the aqua sand and spent a lot of time playing with it today. Yes, it made a mess everywhere, but messes clean up.

We then had our cinnamon rolls for breakfast and got ready for church. I took the time to put curls in the the girls' hair, something they just love! Morgan tried to curl her own hair and got a little burnt. :( They were also very excited that they got to wear dangly earrings today. I also got to wear a new outfit that I got shopping with my mom when she was here, so that was fun. We then paused to capture a few pictures.


We had a fun church service and enjoyed celebrating with others the Risen Christ! After church, we got ready for our picnic and went and had our Easter picnic by the creek. It was a perfect spring day...77, breezy, everything is flowering (forsythias bright yellow, brilliant white pears, beautiful pink tulip trees). We also went for a short walk. And on our walk, and throughout the day, I keep hearing Morgan sing my favorite Easter Song "Was it a Morning Like This?" by Sandi Patti. It was perfect.

We came home and tried to fly a kite, as really it wasn't just breezy, but quite windy. We were mildly successful. The girls just played awhile after that. I got a chance to talk with my mom and got tears in my eyes that we couldn't be there for Easter dinner. My sister also called and left a message, which was nice. We then made up some deviled eggs and had those for dinner, along with milkshakes. Then we decided to end the day geocaching. We found all 3 of the caches we went searching for! At bedtime, we completed the last 'egg'...we have Resurrection Eggs that tell the Easter story. In the past, I've just told them the story, this year, we actually took time and read all the scriptures that went with the eggs and had a deeper discussion. So at bed, I asked the girls their 2 favorite things about today and here is what they said:

Morgan's favorite 2 things today...going on a picnic and Jesus rising from the dead. And Finding chocolate Easter eggs first thing this morning. And wearing dangly earrings. (Think that's 4...but sometimes it's just so hard to choose!)

Sarah's favorite 2 things today...finding her Easter basket and going geocaching just before bed.