Saturday before Easter!

Easter is a big event in the Astin household. My feeling is that it should be the second largest celebrated holiday besides Christmas. I know this feeling is not shared with all, as most of the time it comes in after to Thanksgiving. Easter was always such a big deal in my family. My parents had a unique and wonderful way of celebrating the holiday that I plan on doing with my children. We always talked about Christ and the resurrection, but it was more a celebration of all he did for us, a celebration of his life. We also viewed Easter as a time to celebrate life in general, the idea of spring with the plants growing and seeds germinating... it was probably because my Dad is a biology teacher... but that was always a big thing with Easter.

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Easter party. Their was a few sprinkles, but mostly it was just gloomy weather ( better than Mr. Weatherman predicted). Jake's favorite part was the blow-up slides. I lost count how many times that boy when on them. Dan took Derek on the taller slide, which I don't think Derek was too fond of. I went on the small slide with Jake, then he decided he had a good understanding of the slide he wanted to do it by himself, again and again.
The egg hunt was perfect for small children, and Jacob was the oldest in his group. I don't think it would be worth it for older kids, simply dumping a bunch of eggs on a big grass field, but it was perfect for the little ones. Here is Derek just chilling in the stroller eating a snack before the egg hunt started.
They had a few random wood cutouts for kids to stand next to for pictures, I only made Jake sit next to one. Yes it is a weird triangle shaped chicken, but hey, it is festive!
Later that night we went over to the Brainerds and colored Easter eggs. Jake had fun just plopping them in. He has yet to learn the truly amazing art of coloring eggs. I didn't mind this because I figured we would color eggs again on Sunday, so I joined in and simply plopped eggs in and out of the egg die. Okay yes, I did draw an Ankylosauraus on an egg, but that was at Jake's request.When we got home and put the kids to bed, Dan and I got the Easter baskets ready. Okay, it really was just me, but Dan had lots of fun getting Jake's Dino Robot working. We had to play with it to make sure it worked. Lets us say that our Dog is now mortified of this toy.