Easter Sunday

Singing while waiting to leave for church.

Cute craft Cecily made in Sunday School.

Nearly six years of marriage... still newly weds!

The only kinds of pictures of get of Rosie these days are action shots!

The one picture we managed to get of all of us!

Pretty dress from our friend the Ockers! Thank you for both of the girl's dresses!

Baskets filled by friends from church! 

Loving her pink egg from Johanna!

Seder Dinner

We had the great blessing to attend a family Seder - Celebration of the Passover- on Maundy Thursday (The day in Holy Week where we remember Jesus' last supper with his Disciples.). I hope that it will be a tradition we repeat each year. We went to the Seder at our Sister church-- Lakebay Community. (We have a relatively small community out here, so we like to work together with other churches, especially Lakebay Community. For a time we had combined youth groups with them.).
Anyways, this Seder was really well done. It had a nice flow to it. And we ate a full meal in the middle of it. The girls were able to stay engaged and participate through out. They condensed it a little bit from the tradditional Jewish ceremony but tried to make it as integral and complete as possible. There wasn't any commentary or explaining of it, (which is what I experience in the past, it is great for learning, but makes it long and difficult for kids to sit through.). It was such a blessing to have such a multi-sensory experience and to share it with our kids.

Rory doing one of the readings.

Rosie helping Daddy break the Matzah.

Cecily and her good friend Amber hoisting their glasses for one of the toasts. Cecily thinks we should do this with our juice for now on!

The Seder Plate from the head table.

Ceremonial hand washing.

Holly helping Cecily with her ceremonial hand washing.

Daddy breaking off more Matzah.

Rosemary raising the Matzah.

Rosie hoisting her grape juice!

Vandehey Play Day

Making Crafts with Grandma Bear.

We enjoyed a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Vandehey right before Easter. Grandma was ready with crafts for the girls. They decorated little bags to carry their Bibles to church with them on Easter Sunday. They also decorated pencils. The girls love making crafts!

Their completed bags. I think Rosie's is the purple and Cecily's is pink. 

Grandma Bear had also found the Resurrection Eggs that she had made 30 years ago. (To hear this story hop over to my blog Mammalattesays and check it out!) Grandma and Grandpa hid the eggs around the yard. It was a beautiful day and they had a blast finding the eggs and filling their baskets.

After a nice lunch we opened the eggs and learned all about the Easter Story. 

It was a very special time for us all. 

Easter

Well, I can't believe how quickly Easter came and went! We definitely enjoyed the Lenten Season, and Holy Week. I did not give up anything for Lent, but we did rediscover Henry Nouwen and enjoyed reading some of his works.

Rory's parents- came over for Palm Sunday. We enjoyed the service with them, and then they came over to our place for a nice dinner. Rory's mom got to go visit his sister and her family for Easter.

We enjoyed a Maundy Thursday service at another local church and then went to my parents church and had a Seder Dinner on Good Friday. Cecily really liked looking for Elijah... "Elijah? Where are you?... He's not here!"

On Easter day we went to our church and then came over to my parent's house and ate a simple but very yummy Ham dinner followed by a nap for one and all. It was a very very very relaxing holiday.Here we are in our Easter finest!