Easter Weekend

On Good Friday we played all day long since Adam had work off. That night we made another craft; a cross with each color jelly bean representing part of Jesus' story.

And Adam read from the Jesus Storybook Bible:

But Jesus stayed.

You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there. It was love. "Papa?" Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky. "Papa? Where are you? Don't leave me!"

And for the first time-- and the last--when he spoke, nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. God didn't answer. He turned away from his Boy.

Tears rolled down Jesus' face. The face of the One who would wipe away every tear from every eye.

(seriously, poor Adam almost cries reading from this Bible every night)

On Saturday, we went to our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. And that night dyed our Easter Eggs.
Sunday the kids woke up excited. We were going to have a celebration, because Jesus had conquered death! They dressed up in their new Easter shirts and dresses. (I am a sucker for making this Sunday more special than any Sunday during the year.) And we had told them that something special was going to happen that morning so they were extra excited. I had spent $25 on each of them and got some pretty awesome gifts. They were thrilled.

(Alexis went straight for the boy's things. Hahaha)

We had church at the Frank Erwin Center, which is where UT plays B-ball. We packed the place out with over 9,000 people. It was absolutely incredible worshiping our risen Savior with the whole Austin Stone family. Have you ever worshiped with that many people??

That evening we had some of our Gowalla family over for dinner. We had over 25 adults and 15 kids running around our house inside and out. We had a blast and ended the evening wishing we did that more often.

Overall, our goal to make Easter week more special was really an incredible thing for our family. We will now look forward to this new tradition. The kids LOVED doing a special craft every night, the candy, and gifts, but in the end the special family time was a favorite for everyone. My hope is that each year my kids look forward to remembering and celebrating the week that our Jesus saved us all!