Easter Celebration

It's fun at the end of a great weekend to review the pictures in the digital camera and remember the great memories we made. Friday and Saturday morning we got a lot accomplished around the house (in addition to getting the kids' photos taken), but somehow there were also some great candid shots captured: Natalie playing "turtle" with the laundry basket...she loves crawling around with it on her back; me reading to Natalie and Konrad...Konrad is finally paying attention to the books and even hitting on them to touch the pictures (before he would just look away from the book).

For our family Easter celebration, we went to a restaurant on Saturday and then went to Tom's parents' home for dessert and to celebrate Grandma's 85th birthday (it's a month early, but hey, let's combine celebrations!) Konrad was all smiles as he met a few relatives for the first time; cousin Drew with Grandma; Grandma blowing out candles (Lukas is always nearby any time there's a birthday cake, and he actually helped Grandma blow out some of the candles). It was a WONDERFUL family celebration, and definitely easier on everyone than having someone host the whole meal for all those people. Hey, we just want to get together to talk, and we can do that over dessert!

Today we prepped Lukas to say, "He is risen indeed" after the elder said, "He is risen," and he smiled and actually participated! We've been working with him on the meaning of the day, but anytime he hears "Easter" he thinks of the Easter egg hunt with the relatives every year...it's not what we want to emphasize, but we have some ideas we'll have to start earlier on next year. After church and lunch, we pulled out the hose sprinkler and Lukas and Natalie donned their bathing suits (it was 87 degrees at our house). We haven't unpacked the inflatable pool yet (much to Lukas' chagrin), but anytime there's water involved, the kids have a blast. Lukas likes sitting on the sprinkler, as you can see, and Tom captured some quite funny pictures of him with the sprinkler (use your imagination). Konrad stayed cool in the shade in a bib and diaper. I commented to Tom that it didn't feel as hot as 87 degrees, but it must be because it hasn't been hot for several weeks in a row yet, so our house isn't heated through and through.

A beautiful weekend to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. We hope yours was special too.