Easter in the Capital

My husband's need for the laptop has resulted in my being behind on blogging, yet again. So, in an effort to save time and not make myself crazy, I am going to give you an Easter Recap List, followed by my 32 favorite pictures of the day.

I know. It's a lot of pictures. But, I want them for my blog book, so they must make it here first. You are not required to look at all of them by any means. However, you might miss a cute kid or something, so you ought to, at least, skim through all 32 shots. I'm leaving it entirely up to you.

Here it goes:

1.) Thanks to Noni and Poppy's willingness to stay home and listen out for the babies, Danny and I were able to attend the most beautiful Easter Sunrise Service I've ever been a part of.

We woke up at 5 a.m., got ourselves ready, and headed downtown to our nation's capital to celebrate our Risen Savior at the Lincoln Memorial. "Breathtaking" is an understatement. It was so wonderful to hear a preacher on a microphone declaring "He is Risen!" loud enough for all to hear, and, then, to witness nearly 5,000 believers respond, "He is Risen, Indeed!" It was almost too much for my heart to handle.

2.) We stopped at McDonald's for biscuits to take home to our crew.

3.) We returned home, hugged and kissed our babies, ate breakfast, and went through the Resurrection Eggs. That served as our family church service because both babies had snotty noses and Lydie has been suffering from a wheezy cough. We opted to keep them out of the nursery and away from the allergens.

Ty and Lydie both loved the Resurrection Eggs, but they weren't too patient with Mommy reading through the Easter story as we went along. Ty, especially, just wanted to open all the eggs to see what was in them; then, he was done. We tried.

4.) Next, we dyed Easter eggs, thanks to Noni's expertise. This project took more patience than I had, so it didn't last too long.

5.) After dyeing eggs, we opened Easter baskets. Both kids thoroughly enjoyed their treats. The adults thoroughly enjoyed the new toys, too.

6.) All the fun made us hungry, and Noni's lunch was enough to satisfy a king. We had ham, potato salad, carrot souffle, green beans, strawberry pie, and pineapple upside down cake. Delicious.

7.) Naps. For almost everyone.

8.) The grand finale of the day was the "big" Easter gift for each of the kiddos. Tyler got a scooter and helmet and Lydie got a ball pit with 50 balls (all of which I have picked up about 32,000 times).

We went outside to ride/push the scooter and hide our dyed eggs while Lydie finished her nap. She joined us once she woke up and scooted all over the sidewalk. Her p.j.s will never be the same.

Ty gave me a dandelion for the very first time, which was enough to make my year, and he ate a hard boiled egg for the very first time, too. He was only a partial fan.

9.) The sneezes and wheezes drove us back indoors to play in the ball pit. I'm so glad we got one large enough for two kids because two kids were most definitely in it (and out of it) a whole lot. It was (and continues to be) a hit.

10.) We ate leftovers from lunch for dinner, had baths, and hit our beds like a ton of bricks. We fell asleep thanking God for a wonderful Easter Sunday and for sending His son to die on the cross for our sins.

We are so blessed.