Easter Spent With Family

Easter was a beautiful Spring day, nice breezy day. Perfect for kite flying.

Emma and Zella

Blane

Charlie, Zella, Emma, Blane, Keith

Keith and Zella

{this one makes me happy}

The spectators

{I really thought everyone was looking - darn that little view finder}

Ryder wanted to be on the other side of the fence with his grandparents...

Keith and Leah

We did have a yummy buffet of ham, turkey and all of the trimmings. But y'all know my love {weakness} for the sweets. We had cake...

... cakepops ...

... and cupcakes. All were delish!

And, this year we got a new toy for the kiddos. We missed having a bounce house for the kids last year at Easter that we had at Justin's birthday/Leah's Graduation party. We were storing it for friends for a while and they had wanted it back. Needless to say, we were very sad to see it go. And, really, we should have seen this coming, that storing the bounce house for a friend was going to be costly.

Anyway, this has been on Keith's mind and he searched high and low for something for Easter. Well, perhaps just low. Toys R Us had plenty of options and I think we picked a good one. And, with Easter being as late as it was, water was not as crazy an option as you might think. Well, even when Easter is in March, water can be a good thing here in the desert.

And, you know kids. They'll be swimming in February 'til their lips are blue and they are shivering and will still deny that they are cold. Thankfully, there were no blue lips today...

...but there were a few shivering kiddos!

They sure did have fun!

And, then there was a time that they had enough of the water and needed to dry off and warm up. Which was good. We needed to get them inside so we could hide eggs for the hunt!

This picture is what I love about holidays or birthdays or any time family gets together. Family. We all get together, mix and mingle. Its loud, messy, something will be spilled, maybe broken, something will be taken away from someone else, someone will cry {it will be me if you take the last cakepop}, there will be comfort given, laughter, hugging, love.

And for someone who grew up in a small family of 4 with very little extended family that lived near us, its heaven.

{at least, now that I'm used to it}

Contemplative?

or just ready for the hunt...

Sweet love ...

{awww}

... cakepop love!

About this time in the evening, we got the kids inside while Leah, Justin and Emma hid the Easter eggs for the hunt. I'll post the hunt pics separately, later.

The boys

Dana and Steve

Debbie and Brent

Tori and me

The wonderful citronella candle that kept the mosquitoes away

{its a beautiful thing}

Cousins

Grammy and Pappy

Leah and me

{loved talking with my girl}

Leah and Emma. Love seeing the girls together.

As always, I didn't get pics of everyone. The one that sticks out plain now is that I didn't get a pic of Justin. I'm beginning to think I need a checklist...

Spending Easter with family over was just a treat. Thanks all for coming and bringing all your yummies!

Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life.
~ S.D. Gordon