Saturday, April 29, 2017

Eggs and Strawberries

Even though Easter was in April and not March, it still seemed to come out of no where and suddenly happen. The busyness of travel and other commitments kept us from enjoying some of our special Easter traditions, but we still made effort to enjoy a couple of them.
Rather than take our annual Easter Nature Scavenger Hunt with just our family, I organized an afternoon for a picnic and a scavenger hunt with our home school co-op. The more the merrier, and 30 kids hunting for nature items to tell the Easter story was a lot of fun.

I stuffed about 100 eggs with coins and Grady hid them around the yard for our kids to find Easter afternoon. Hunting for treasure never gets old - just as my older boys who are still die-hard about finding eggs.

Thankfully no one made a fuss about missing our neighborhood egg hunt - even if they didn't get baskets full of Easter candy. I decided they get candy and sweets from too many people too many times during the week and that coins was the way to go. My plan worked wondrously until I overheard Micah exclaim that he couldn't wait to buy M&Ms with some of his money.

Our Easter celebration service with church was wonderful - joyful praise and worship to our LIVING Savior. Because if Christ is not alive, then there is no hope, purpose, or value in life. Praise him that he is alive, offers hope, gives purpose, and creates value in life!
Another favorite spring tradition is picking strawberries. Lots and lots and lots of strawberries. With four fast-working pickers it doesn't take long before we have several pounds of red, juicy goodness.
Total side note, but notice this handsome young man in glasses?! His face matured about five years when he put those on and I almost cried in the middle of the optometrist. He doesn't need them all the time, but has been wearing them a lot initially to get used to them.

And to read signs. Every. Single. Sign.

All. The. Time. I can't even.
This 'lil man was a hot mess of red juice, sticky mud, and bug spray-scented sweat. But he was, by far, the cutest three-year old there and he was oh-so-proud of every big berry he picked so I decided to keep him and bring him home with me anyway.
No bugs, overcast sky, and we landed in a time between umpteen field trip buses. And, major plus, all kids picked actual ripe berries this year and I didn't end up paying for white berries, moldy berries, or the occasional rock thrown in for a collection at home. Win.
We may have spent more time playing and enjoying farm animals than actually picking strawberries. The older two were focused on continuous rounds of tether ball, and the younger two thought the grainery slide was the best thing ever.
Me? I personally went for the strawberry slushy and the funnel cake. In fact, I'm considering round two of picking later next week so that I can have another fabulous mid-morning snack. 

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