Stone Meadows Easter Activities

Our Subdivision, Stone Meadows, had activities at our local clubhouse and fields for kiddos the weekend before Easter. We had lovely Spring weather the morning of, with temperatures at 40 and drizzle but still had an ok turn out and all the kids had fun. Activities included cookie decorating, coloring, face painting and the Easter Bunny. We had a fun morning of family fun!

The Race is On!

After finding an egg for each hand he was done, ready to see what's inside them.

Brayden found a Golden Egg which had a note it it telling him to claim his prize at the clubhouse.

Brayden and Adelyn - Proud of their Golden Eggs

The Finders of the Golden Eggs with their prizes, a bucket of summer goodies.

Didn't take long for Bransen to figure out that goodies were inside the eggs.

Proud of himself for not being scared of the Easter Bunny this year.

Not a Fan of the Easter Bunny, daddy was alot nicer than mommy

At Purina Farms a few weeks earlier. Made for a memorable picture, mean momma.

Brayden and his friend Adelyn with the Easter Bunny

Decorating Cookie Eggs with Icing next to Adelyn

Face Painted with a Baseball

The Eggnormous Hunt

The church we are attending sponsored The Eggnormous Hunt for the first time this year. I helped organize and put on this event. Our hopes in this activity were to use the egg hunt as an outreach to those in the subdivision where the church is located and surrounding subdivisions. We passed out 2500 flyers to homes in the area. At the event, we gave out pamplets about the true meaning behind Easter and a flyer about the church to each kid. We got all those that registered email addresses and will do a follow-up visit to all these kids.

We had a wonderful turn out of 297 children that had registered plus adults in attendance. Due to our rain the past week and a forcast on Saturday of 75% chance of rain, we decided to move our event indoors to a school gym. It created a crowded environment of controlled chaos but seemed like everyone really enjoyed it and was thankful to still get to hunt and play. We had carnival-like games set up on one end of the gym, face painting, free popcorn and water and balloons, and of course the egg hunt or egg pick up which included 10,000 eggs split into 3 age divisions on the other half of the gym. It was a great time and I pray that someone in attendance at the event also came to church Sunday and more importantly will come to know Christ because of this Eggnormous Hunt.

Look at all those people and eggs ready for the first egg hunt.

He has got this egg thing figured out. After picking up the first egg stopped to open it and see what was inside.

Brayden in action, moving as fast as he could from one egg to the next.

Checking out all their eggs.

Trying out golfing for a prize

Brayden got his face painted with a snake by our HomeTeam friend Becky

Easter 2011

This Easter season I spent alot of time in God's word reflecting on exactly what Easter means to me. Now that I have children I find myself continually asking why we do some of the things we do so I can correctly explain it to my kids. Many of the activities associated with Easter just really make no sense to me as a Christian celebrating Easter. Like a Easter Bunny that lays eggs filled with candy, what? yea that makes no sense at all.

I want to share with my kids the TRUE meaning behind this holiday. In my opinion it is probably the most important holiday we have (next to Christ birth). It is part of the foundation behind Christianity. I want Brayden and Bransen to know that Easter is about Christ Resurrection because He Loves us. Not about bunnies or eggs or candy. Don't get me wrong, we still will do these things because they are fun but it will not be our focus. And if you ask Brayden what Easter is about he will tell you, "Jesus is Alive!!" and give you the whole spill about some bad guys that came and got Jesus and put him in this cave with a big rock in front but an angel came and Jesus was not there, he is in Heaven now and is Alive because he loves us.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Jesus told him (Peter) "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not see and yet have believed". John 20:29

It is true! The Lord has risen. Luke 24:34

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. John 11:25

I have lots of pictures to share from our Egg Hunts but will save those for the next post.

Purina Farms

Last Friday my friend Crystal and I decided to load up our boys and head to Purina Farms in Gray Summit about 40 minutes from us. Located on more than 300 acres of rolling hills, Purina Farms offers animal lovers of all ages an opportunity to get up close and personal with barnyard animals and everyday pets such as dogs and cats. The boy's favorite part was the dog show, where we watched dogs do an agility course, catch frisbee's and jump into a pit of water. They also got to see the Easter Bunny but I'm saving that picture for a later post. We had a wonderful morning of fun with animals and hope to take daddy back soon.

They loved the dog show!

Clapping for the Dog Show

Whoa! Look at that goat, baaing in my face

Brayden got to milk the cow. He then had many fun questions about how that worked.

Bransen 1st Year Stats

At Bransen's 1 year well check appointment he was 30 1/4 in which is the 70th percentile for height and 20.12 lbs which was the 25th percentile for weight . Since he has been on the move he has slimmed down . Here are many of the things he is currently doing:

• copying behavior - screaming when Brayden yells, barking like M'aggie, shaking his head no, dancing


• clapping and waving,


• fake laughing


• head bobbing when crawling with something in his mouth


• walking more than he is crawling, picks up toys from the floor while standing and keeps on walking, can drink from his cup while he walks


• throwing balls


• car riding, rides backwards at times, makes car noises while riding on cars and playing with cars


• climbs on everything he can find to climb on - chairs, riding cars to get on the couch, the fireplace, the small table, stairs (can make it to the top - scary!)


• talking lots of baby talk but have heard him say dada, mmm, momma, nana (banana) and bubba


• sleeping now from 7:30 pm - 6:30 or 7 am- Praise the Lord he finally sleeps! , naps morning and afternoon hour and half


• loves playing with brother and wrestling


• loves it outdoors


• throws fits when has to come inside or sees food he wants


• not eating quite as well, has become more picky about certain foods


• Busy, busy exploring the world around him. He is on the go non stop and enjoys getting to walk now. Such a fun age of learning and growing. He changes each and every day and we are trying to cherish each thing new he does along the way. Even dumping M'aggie's water bowl and trying her food twice a day.

Jumped into the bath tub before I could get his clothes off then he wondered why his clothes felt so funny on him.

Climbing into and onto EVERYTHING! Such a climber, even more so than Brayden ever was at this age. He keeps me on my toes at all times.

Grocery shopping with his grocery cart brother picked out for him for his birthday

Rocking in his new Birthday rocker before he stood up

Climbing on and in everything

Fake laughing while opening his birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma

Clapping at the Purina Dog Show