Easter

We are spending this Easter, likely our last in the States for quite some time, visiting dear friends in Michigan.  After a wonderful two weeks of catching up with our CBC family in Illinois, we took this opportunity to venture up a little further into northern America to my best friend's parents' house.  They moved away from the great state of SC not long after Jonathan and I were married and we haven't had a chance to visit them since.  I practically lived at their house when I was in high school; I kept a toothbrush in the bathroom, there were always bottles of my favorite soda in the fridge.... One day as Mama P was making the grocery list, she walked in and asked if there was a specific kind of shampoo I preferred.  Yep.  It was great!  I cherish those memories and am thankful for this opportunity to make new ones during my "new life" as a wife and mother.

Being on the giving end of Easter baskets is a new treat for me.  I had a blast picking out a few things for Kyle's first.  Sure, he was around last Easter, but at a little over a month old he was oblivious to what was going on.  Now, at a little over a year old, he is still oblivious but he has figured out how to eat candy.  So, I picked out a few of my his favorites like Reese's pieces, Peeps and Mini Robins Eggs along with a pack of bubbles and bath fizz dye (probably toxic but fun none-the-less).  Mama P got Kyle all the healthy fun stuff in this basket: shoes, ball, a fuzzy book and car.  Kyle racked up this year.  Lucky little bunny!

One might think I used to work at a basket making gift shop..... Oh wait, I did!

I smocked Kyle's Easter outfit with blue and gray bunnies.  After hunting around town for green seersucker fabric, I finally had to order some online to complete the picture I had in my mind for this outfit.  I wanted a button-on suit but, the pattern I we used for this one isn't nearly as straight forward as the other we have been using.  For his next smocked outfit, I'll be trying a more simple pattern.  Of course, he makes it look perfect and that's all I care about anyways.  Edible?  I'd say so.

Marley came over to see what all the commotion was about.

A carton of Mini Robin's eggs doubles as a rattle.

"Okay, um, Dad, enough with the pictures.... Can we tear into this candy already?!"

As fun as the baskets, outfits and candies are, the meaning of Easter is far more important;  He is risen!  We have hope.  We have joy.  We have life.  I am always amazed that in His death, I have life because He rose!  Blossoms on the trees and bright, warm sunshine remind me that He makes all things new.  I cherish my precious family, which God so gracious blessed me with, as well as my dear friends.

Happy Easter!

~Abby