Easter Weekend 2014

While it was different from any I remember in the past...we had such a wonderful and memorable Easter weekend this year.  Hannah had early dismissal at school on Thursday for an Easter egg hunt and picnic with her classmates. I also had a conference with her teacher that afternoon and received glowing reports about our big girl.

Hannah and Natalie searching the playground for the eggs labeled with Hannah's name.

Special, sweet friends!

I had the opportunity to be a part of the Good Friday service at church. It was a wonderful night of remembering and worshiping.  You can find me in the front 

On Saturday morning we packed our tents and sleeping bags and headed to Palmetto State Park to join some precious friends for camping the rest of the weekend. The kids had lots of fun doing an Easter egg hunt around our campsites that afternoon.

It was Mary's birthday on Saturday. Love her and her whole family!

She's 33 years young now. One of my favorite people in the world!

Here are our kiddos together on Easter morning. It was so lush and beautiful.
The weather couldn't have been more perfect for camping.

The kids planned a "church service" and even invited our camping neighbors on two different sides.
And they came and worshiped with us.  Hannah led us in singing. ;-)
Loved it!!!

Grammie, Mary's mother, was camping with us also and took time during our "church service" to do Resurrection Baskets with the kids. They were filled with about 15 small objects (ex: palm branch, coins, nail, cross, stone, linen cloth,) - each representing a different part of the Easter story. It was so special and meaningful.  A perfect hands-on way for them to go through the entire Easter story. She even had a special book about Easter for us to take home with the girls' Resurrection Baskets.