Our Five Ring Circus: The Best Easter Moments of 2017

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Best Easter Moments of 2017

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays! Even though we have the same traditions and do the same thing every year, I just love everything about it. I was really looking forward to it this year, but nothing seems to go exactly as planned these days!


Over the past two weeks, my family has been sick. 5 out of 6 of us came down with a strain of the flu, and it took us down one after the other. Just as one person improved, somebody else got sick. Lily was the only one who escaped it! It was a ROUGH two weeks.

Dylan, Liam and I bounced back quickly. Dylan and Liam had a fever, chills and body aches for 48 hours, then they were fine. I only had it for 24 hours, then it turned into a cold. Grant, however, has been sick for 2 weeks, and Lexie ended up getting it most recently, and was sick with a really high fever from Tuesday until Saturday.

Everyone who was still sick was definitely improving, but Grant and Lexie were still very congested and had a lingering cough that just wouldn't quit. On the evening before Easter, we realized that we would have to change our plans for the following day, and miss the Easter service at church for the first time ever.

To say it was a letdown is an understatement. It just didn't feel like Easter Sunday! But these bumps in the road happen, and it's up to us to adapt. So we focused on the positive. No, we didn't make it to church and we had to cancel most of our plans. But the six of us got to celebrate Easter together, and that's all that really matters!

The Lucky Few

Although our Easter didn't go exactly as planned, it was still full of special moments that I will always want to remember!



We followed our usual tradition of dyeing Easter Eggs on the evening before Easter. Dylan, Lexie, Lily, and even Liam participated.

Easter Egg Dyeing
Nothing Down About It
Easter Traditions

Liam TRIED this year. He quickly got the hang of shaking the eggs in the bag, but soon realized that tossing the bag across the room was just as much fun. He ended up with a half dozen of dyed, cracked eggs!

Egg Dyeing with a Toddler

As usual, my girls were the most creative and put the most effort into it!

Easter Eggs

Four dozen eggs later, they were done!

After the kids were in bed, it was time to prepare for Easter morning! I assembled the baskets and hid them, then stuffed all of our plastic eggs for our Egg Hunt. 

Easter Baskets

I fell into bed, completely exhausted, and before I knew it, Lily was in our room asking if they could wake up and search for their baskets!

Easter Sunday started perfectly! I opened my eyes to a bright, warm beautiful Spring Day, and everyone was in a happy mood. Instead of rushing into everything like we typically do, we had the chance to tackle Easter morning calmly for the first time ever. 


Easter

Our four kids ran off in search of their baskets, then went examined each item thoroughly. We weren't rushing out the door for church this year, so we even let the kids enjoy a breakfast of Easter candy!

Easter Morning
Downright Perfect
Down Syndrome Awareness

The Easter Sunday service at church is my favorite service of the year, so I was really bummed that we were missing it. As I cooked Easter brunch, a warm breeze blew into the kitchen from the open window, and I could hear the church bells in the distance, signaling the end of the service.

I could hear all four of my kids laughing in the next room, and it hit me then that in the grand scheme of things, it didn't really matter that we were missing church. We were still celebrating Easter, and we were celebrating together!

That evening, we went to my parent's house for Easter dinner. My mom had been sick, too, and they didn't mind one bit that we were joining them, germs and all!


After we ate a delicious Easter dinner together, Grant and I set up for our annual Egg Hunt in my parent's yard.  We no longer attend public egg hunts because they are too quick and cutthroat, and instead, we do it on our own. The kids love it so much more, and they actually look forward to it!

Liam still wasn't interested in participating. Running around the yard and playing was more appealing! There just might have been an egg incident, too. Somebody might have hidden an egg in the dryer vent only to have a gust of wind blow it completely into the dryer! Oops...luckily I took off the dryer hose, tilted the dryer and rescued the egg!

Dylan, Lexie, Lily and Liam worked together to find every single egg, then had even more fun emptying each egg!

Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Hunt

After the egg hunt, they all posed willingly (almost) for a quick Easter Sunday photo session!

The Lucky Few
Easter
Easter
Easter
Easter

We had dessert with my parents, then enjoyed the last gorgeous hour of daylight together on their deck. We may not have been able to spend Easter with most of our family like we typically do, but we sure felt blessed to be able to spend it with my parents! It was a perfect evening!

Photography
Easter Style

We reluctantly said our goodbyes, then headed home. Grant and I decided that we had to add some more religion to our day, so we all changed into our pajamas and curled up on the couch to watch The Ten Commandments. Lily and Liam quickly fell asleep, but Dylan and Lexie impressed us. Lexie fell asleep JUST before the end, and Dylan made it the entire way through! It was a great end to our Easter Sunday!

Although our Easter didn't go exactly as planned, we made the most of it, and enjoyed celebrating the holiday together. I will definitely hold many of these memories dear for years to come!


Easter

What was your favorite Easter moment?


The BEST Easter Moments


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15 comments:

  1. Despite the lingering sickness, it sounds like an amazing Easter spent together!! I agree, egg hunts in your own backyard are much better than the ruthless public ones!

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    1. It was a nice Easter! And, yes, ruthless is a great way of describing it!!!

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  2. I'd say you guys had a pretty great day! Bummer the germs are still hanging around, but the kids look so happy and you were with family which makes it even better. :) We went to a public egg hunt which we do every year because of the other activities and I was so disappointed with the parents in Emmy's age group. The place doesn't put candy in the eggs but had a bag for each child after when you turn in your eggs, but you can find slips of paper with extra surprises in and egg. While I was holding the bucket for Emmy to put eggs in I noticed a bunch of them were open because parents were opening them to take the slips of paper out and leaving the eggs. Come on people. It's a little kid's egg hunt. Who cares about prizes.

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    1. That is EXACTLY why we stopped going! The last public egg hunt we went to was 2 years ago and parents pushed over Liam trying to help their kids get the most eggs. I picked him up and walked out of the field! I'm so sorry you had that experience, too. It really is disappointing!

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  3. Is it just me or has this been one of the roughest winters for being sick?! We have had the worst time. So glad that y'all were feeling well enough to celebrate. Missing out on all the holiday fun due to sickness is the worst.

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    1. It really was! I honestly think it was because it continuously bounced from warm to cold and back. We have never been this sick before!

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  4. Well it looks like you made the best of it. Hope everyone is feeling better.

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    1. Thanks, Jamie! My husband is the only one who is still sick. Lexie seemed to be back to normal today!

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  5. Easter is my absolute favorite! It looks like you guys had a good one, minus the sickies. I am sorry you had to miss Easter Service. I know that must have been a disappointment. It’s one of my favorite services of the year as well. So glad you were able to focus on the positive and just being together! Their Easter baskets look awesome. I know they must have loved them. As always, beautiful pictures!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, friend! It was definitely disappointing, but there really wasn't much we could do about it other than make it work! We ended up having a really nice day together!

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  6. Looks like you made the most of so many being sick in your family. That's such a bummer, hoping everyone is well today?

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    1. Thank you! Everybody but my husband is feeling better. He just keeps coughing, but hopefully the medication helps him soon!

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  7. Goodness gracious, Stef! You poor thing! Sickness seems to have been extra bad this year, especially around here. I was sick nonstop all winter it seemed, although, thankfully nothing as serious as the flu. That is such a bummer that you had to miss your Easter service at church, though. I've never missed either and I wouldn't even know how to feel about that. It looks like you made the most of it, though!

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    1. It really has been bad this year! It's not just us, either. Everybody seems to be dealing with illness after illness. The only thing we didn't get was a stomach virus (fingers crossed)! It was very strange missing Easter service. It was a disappointment, but we ended up having a nice Easter. I hope you did as well!

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  8. I can't do things like mass Easter egg hunts because crowds and people not following the rules stresses me out! I am so sorry you are sick but looks like you made the most of it and had a great attitude too ❤. Xoxo Erin

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