This year, we kicked off Easter by dying eggs at Ashley and Beau's house last weekend. Charly loved climbing their stairs and spilling green egg dye all over their kitchen, but she wasn't too interested in coloring eggs. Kelli and Ashley and my mom did all the work while she slept on Beau.Saturday before Easter we took Charly to our church's annual Easter Egg hunt. While we waited for the hunt to begin, she colored some pictures, pinned a tail on a donkey, and tossed an egg into a bucket. The night before, Taylor stopped over to pick up the Minnesota Twins tickets for Saturday's game that Kelli and I couldn't use, and he predicted that Charly would timidly hunt for eggs and hand over all her findings to other kids.
That was not the case. Kelli only needed to model finding two eggs and placing them in the basket for Charly to figure out what to do and take it from there. She pointed her finger, jabbered directions to Kelli telling her where to go, and danced her way through the minefield of eggs. A few former students and their mom watched her hysterically from the distance and our music director followed and filmed her while missing his own daughter hunting eggs. He told us he was having too much fun watching Charly!
When Kelli counted out the 19th egg, our limit, Charly took the basket away from Kelli, slung it over her shoulder, and strutted toward the door. She was so proud!
It's crazy to think that last year Charly fit inside her Easter basket and this year she's twice the size of it! It was fun to see her discover her basket on Easter morning this year and immediately investigate all it's contents. She liked her bouncy ball and stackable bath cups but most of all, she loved her Easter egg shaped sidewalk chalk. She wanted it opened immediately!
After church with my family, and a quick visit to Grandma Henrichs', we headed out to Kelli's family for lunch. We hadn't gotten together for the last few Easters so it was fun to have everyone under one roof, even if the beer-can chicken took 3 hours to cook! We played baseball, hunted eggs, and Charly loved roaming the open yard with her cousins. The look on her face said it all! She thought she was pretty big stuff, playing with her big cousins. We don't know how she'll navigate this family of boys as she gets older, but we know she'll definitely be loved.
After eating and resting and hunting eggs with Kelli's family, it was back in to town for us to visit my family again. Cruz was sleeping, and stuck around long enough to open presents with Charly and play with her dress, and then we scattered some eggs in my grandparents' front yard and Charly had a blast collecting them. Uncle Taylor even hid some up his sleeve, but to no avail. Charly is a pretty seasoned hunter of the eggs after just one Easter of work.
Easter is obviously about so much more than bunnies and candy. Jesus died for us, so that we may live on and raise families that get to hunt for eggs and fill baskets with goodies. Amidst all the celebration, it's important not to forget that. The price He paid for us is worth it's weight in chocolate eggs. It deserves to be celebrated the best way we know how. If that means dying eggs and hunting for candy, then so be it, as long as He is not forgotten.Seeing our little girl's face light up as she shook each egg like a maraca, made us all the more thankful for what He sacrificed. He gave us His life. He gave us ours. He gave us Charly, and for that we thank Him.
