Tuesday, April 26, 2011

An Easter Celebration...personally.

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A 6:40 am Easter Bunny wake up call
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Zach started right in on his new legos,
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Roman on his new train,
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and Lily ignored her gifts for a while and started right in on the candy.
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After church we had an Easter Dinner and egg hunt where Zachary ditched his church clothes for some of Auntie Anna's clothes.
(he will kill me in about 8 years for posting this picture)
We gave Anna a hard time because her shorts were even short on a 6 year old...haha.
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Roman was a patient egg gatherer,
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And Lily (per usual) wins the prize for most enthusiastic egg finder!

It was a great weekend.
I love preparing for all the festivities.
Shopping for Easter basket goodies and new Easter clothes,
making casseroles and pies for Easter Dinner, it's fun.
And always worth the effort it takes.

Despite all the time spent in preparations,
two separate experiences the week prior really helped me feel ready for an Easter celebration.
The first one happened while waiting in a long line for the restroom.
Two ladies behind me struck up a conversation about looking forward to their respective Easter services.
One woman explained that her favorite part from last year was when her preacher,
at a pivotal moment during his speech,
began to pour blood over all of the white lilies.
That was all I heard, because it was my turn for the bathroom.
Second, David came home one day and told me he had seen quite a sight on the highway.
While driving down Hwy 152 on Friday, there was a man walking down the shoulder of the road
carrying a huge wooden cross (with a wheel on the back end...haha).
Wow. Can you imagine? (does this stuff only happen in Missouri?:)

Without getting too personal, I will say this...
I couldn't stop thinking about how drastically different those sorts of
visual stunts are from my own experiences with Easter.
I really do respect their desire to worship how they see fit,
and in fact, seeing how obviously moved some people are with that part of the story
(the blood, the cross, the death)
it helped me formulate more clearly what part of Easter is really personal to me.
Namely, the reality of an empty tomb and the resurrection.

11 comments:

Tiff and Dave said...

Looks like a fun filled Easter weekend! I LOVE all of your candid pictures! I wish you were close by and could come and give me a lesson! I can't remember if I commented before, but congrats on the new pregnancy. I hope you are feeling a little better. I think it's safe to say that #4 is definitely going to be just as cute as the other 3. You always seem to have your life right on track and put together and are a great example for me! Hope all is well!
Love ya,
Tiff

Ashley from Sloanbook said...

Aww looks like they had a blast! We're very excited to come visit in end of June/July for July 4th!!! Miss u guys!

Christy said...

very fun! i love roman's little easter outfit and the last picture of lily so excited.

CRAZY about the cross and blood! i'm so happy i get to focus on the resurrection on easter.

Lora said...

What a wonderful Easter! I just love their buckets so very very cute!

ha ha! man, why does all the fun stuff happen in your town! =)

It makes me oh so appreciative to have the faith and knowledge I have!!

Isaura said...

i quite couldn't figure out what you were talking about with zachary's clothes and i had to look harder. your sister must be tiny :) looks like you had a great easter. interesting thoughts, i had a lot of reflecting on sunday too. maybe because i prepared sharing time. so grateful for what i know.
your children make the best models, that have such animated reactions to everything!

Nicole said...

As I said last year, I love those Easter buckets!

And I believe the man with the cross was at the Trolley Run last Saturday. Interesting...

Lisa said...

I love the pictures of your kids looking so intense with whatever activity they are working on. So cute, and great photography! Cute kiddos.

Janet Johnson said...

Look at you with your personalized beautiful pails. Such a cute idea!

And what fun with the egg hunt (we traded the egg hunt for a vacation). And I'm with you. Such a different emphasis.

Happy Belated Easter. :)

dixonfamily said...

I always love looking at your pictures!! Lily is so expressive and just so darn cute. The boys are cute too of course.
After asking you about those easter buckets I went searching and came back empty handed. Bummer. I guess I have a whole year to look before next Easter.
What a blessing to have the knowledge and perspective we do. I have to say that my feelings about Easter have deepened over the last 18 months.
Hope you are feeling well, and I'm glad you had a happy Easter!

Tiffany said...

Looks like a fun Easter at the Painter house! The buckets are really cute. I love how you capture your kids' emotions so well in your pictures. And I totally saw that guy walking down the road with the cross.

Tish said...

lol i would have cried if i saw blood being poured on flowers...and then i would have ran for the bathroom...and i'm not even preggers!

you summed that up nicely and very pc perfect :)