Easter Weekend...

I am absolutely in love with my kids. Yes, some days they make me want to pull out every hair from my head but most of the time I just want to squeeze them until I can't squeeze anymore. I am so grateful for the past Easter that we were able to experience together. I will have a lot of beautiful memories from this weekend. The fun began Friday, when for the first time, my Grandma Saylor visited my home. Since dad had the responsibility of picking my grandma and aunt up from the Indy airport, he took the liberty of driving them past Muncie on their way back to Van Wert. Since my grandma has been living in Florida with my aunt (who also visited) over the past 1 1/2 yrs, getting to see her does not happen often. She has never met Judah and only seen Jonah a couple of times. Recently, Jonah has been in this "play shy" phase which in David and I's opinion comes across as rude. Fortunately, he was in the "let me entertain you" mode when grandma visited so that she was able to see a better picture of Jonah. Judah is pretty consistently cute, energetic, and lovable right now. So, while my parents, grandma, and my aunt were at our house for a short visit, we had our first Easter Egg Hunt followed by dinner and entertainment (trying to talk while Jonah directed us as "the band" with him playing lead on the drum set).
This is the first Easter Sunday that I can recall not driving to Van Wert to have dinner with my extended Ohio family followed by the huge candy hunt. We love being with my family but with church responsibilities, the timing just didn't work for us. So this year, we did things a little different. On Sunday, we woke up bright and early and headed to IHOP for pancakes before church. During our church service, 5 individuals were baptized. One of the individuals was Nate the drummer. Nate the drummer and Dave the guitar player are three of Jonah's favorite people to see at church (especially when they are drumming and playing the guitar). On Easter, Nate was being baptized and Dave was baptizing him. David and I thought that it would be a significant event for Jonah to watch the baptisms and that they would hold even more meaning to his 3 year old mind since two of his favorite people were involved. Jonah was quite attentive and wanted to check out the baptistry tub afterwards. We had quite a conversation last night about Easter being the time we celebrate that Jesus is alive and that "Nate got a bath and Dave pushed him down". And then we proceeded to talk more about "Bathtism".

After service, David and I and the boys visited Zoe's grave. Our friends, Tim and Karen and their kids, joined us as we gave Zoe the Easter Lily that their daughter, Waverley, had purchased in memory of her. Jonah was again in the "Let me entertain you" mode and showed Wavey what visiting Zoe's grave is like. He also showed her the trees, the other graves, the huge mulch pile behind the graves and a few other things. You'd think they were much older than 3 by the way they interact sometimes. After Tim and Karen and their kids left, David and I and the boys had a short picnic at Zoe's grave. The wind was very strong and the boys were getting restless so even though the picnic was short, I really enjoyed our moments together...another memory that I will cherish.