'Twas the Night Before Easter.

I have decided that Easter is my second most favorite time of year.

Jeff and I have abandoned much of the commercial Easter traditions. Our children do not get Easter baskets - I rebelled there starting last year. I told Jeff that I wanted to spend more time on the family and religion, and less on the Easter bunny and her counterparts. Besides, our kids have more than enough STUFF!

I DO still participate in buying the children beautiful new outfits. Because, come on, any reason to dress them up and make them more adorable than they already are, is a beautiful reason indeed. They also get a little bit of candy - because it's abundant this time of year. I carefully filled their eggs with exactly three candy corns or 4 jelly beans each. They will hunt and discover tomorrow after nap time. Bet your bottom dollar that half that stuff will end up in the trash, though. With these kids three-quarters of the fun is finding the candy. Not eating it.

The holiday started yesterday. Janna and JR made wonderful crafts at their daycare, and Janna came home with the fabulous story about "the soldiers" that were "mean to Jesus." She knows all about how "Jesus died on the cross." She also knows that the soldiers "put sticks in his hands." Clearly, she doesn't totally grasp the ramifications of all this history - and quite frankly I am glad. I'm really not ready to get into the brutal murder of Christ. Suffice to say she has "memorized" the story and will be able to fall back on the knowledge when she is ready to internalize its meaning.

So, since she knew the words that pertained to the crucifixion, I decided to take her to the Good Friday Service. To me, Good Friday is equally as important as Easter itself. I mean, with no crucifixion how could there have been a Resurrection? Besides, the somber nature of Good Friday makes the glory of Easter that much more glorious.

Janna did as well as could be expected at a 7:30 PM service. I actually didn't need to take her into the cry room at all - although I did have to bust out my "mommy look" a couple of times. By the end, when I had a sneezing fit, she was telling ME to be quiet.

This morning, we got up and headed off to church for round two. I went early to help set up for our church's Easter Outreach. I came home to find (drum roll) 1/2 an inch of water in my laundry room! Hooray

So, Jeff and I scrambled to clean the water up (don't buy a KitchenAid washer - this is flood number 4 in as many years), while Janna was dressing herself and getting VERY irritated that we were cleaning when we were supposed to be going to church. HELLLLLLLLOOOO!

So, we finally got there. I was so busy chasing my three year old around that we got no pictures of Janna. Oops. Here are a couple of JR.

Forever trying to be my big boy.

Playing ring toss.

So, then we went home and got the little one to bed and gave the bigger little one "quiet time" - sound familiar Mom and Dad?

When JR woke up, we fed the natives, and colored EASTER EGGS! Thank you Paas who accidentally included two kits for Easter Eggs! We had an argument free time!

I just adore these last two pictures.

Anyhow. Tomorrow is Easter morn. I will get the kids all dressed up, Janna will go to Sunday School, and JR will come with his Dad and I to service. Jeff has to usher tomorrow, so it will be just Janna and I in church. I am tempted to try JR - we'll see who wakes up tomorrow to assess. Janna seems to have a little ear infection (unconfirmed, but based on the symptoms Dr. prescribed an antibiotic anyway, which is unlike them so I think they were concerned). She may or may not be crankified.

After nap(s) will be the Easter Egg Hunt, then dinner. In our new-found vegetarianism, we have planned Quiche, Cheesy Potatoes, Deviled Eggs, Bread, Spinach Salad and Carrot Cake!

I will try to post the rest of the pictures tomorrow.