Easter 2015

Happy Easter! 

As usual we celebrated at home. First just the 3 of us in the morning. The Easter Bunny did as Ally asked and left her a something. A basket and eggs to find. 

Happy girl.

I thought maybe she would feel she was too old for the Easter Bunny and I asked that about getting her picture taken but she said she wanted to do it. So we did with her friend Willow as is their tradition now for 4 years:

And this year Ally left the bunny a note:

So she was pleased that he did.

Her own personal egg hunt

There was even one in a ukulele 

Ohhh a pretty silver one

I loved how the basket handle framed her face with her crazy morning hair.

Mommy and Ally

After the Easter basket and egg fun Ally watched her 2 shows and ate ate freshly baked blueberry mini muffins, thanks to Mama for making them. 

It's not the weekend without a craft project. Ally worked on a tissue paper craft today.

Then it was time to make sandwiches for the outdoor church. The first Sunday of every month the church school makes sandwiches for lunches for the Outdoor (homeless) church. Since today is the first Sunday and its Easter the church asked for volunteers to bring lunches to church because no one was going to miss this service.  We volunteered and brought 4 lunches with us to church as well as a change box full of coins to support the Mission.

Ally always helps make PBJ at church so we made those at home.

Then it was time for bath and getting dressed for Church. We needed to be there early because Ally was going to lead the prayer at church along with 3 other students. 

We had picked out another outfit, a cute purple skirt with bunnyappliqués on it, with a blue sweater the color of a bunny and tights. But after she got dressed and hair dried Ally looked in the mirror and said "it doesn't feel right" and started to cry. Turns out clothes help 8 year olds with nerves too. It was a new outfit and Ally didn't feel like herself. So she got changed into something else and was good to go!

It was cold today about 40 degrees so warm clothes were a requirement. 

At church Ally's name was in the bulletin 

And they practiced before the service started. 

It's a tradition at our church on Easter Sunday for the children to parade into the sanctuary at the beginning of the service, some times they carry flowers, this year it was paper butterflies and flowers. 

Ally did a fantastic job at the prayer, they all did. At the end of the service we sang the Hallejuia Chorus which is another tradition for us. Such a wonderful celebration of the true meaning of Easter.

After church it was time to finish preparations for our party. 

We put up some yard decorations this year.

210 plastic eggs. 13 hard boiled.

The dining room

After school one day Ally and I decorated more paper eggs. I did Becky and Ally faces and s Ally did a Julie face. She is a much better artist than me.

But I am excellent at food crafts! Butterfly cupcakes and Peep Krispie pops.

Can you spot the eggs in the snow? First Easter I can ever remember snow. 

The gang this year: Liem, River, Mia, Lila, Khai and Ally.

Hunting for eggs. She found 40! 

The girls ate picnic style in Ally's room. It was a great time. The kids played for a long time and the adults sat and talked. 

Ally was pretty tired after they left and complained of not feeling well. She went to bed early with a low grade fever and we hope she feels better tomorrow. I think it's just the excitement of the day.