Because He Lives, I Can Face Tomorrow

Unfortunately Josh had to work Easter Sunday...AGAIN. That seems to be the norm. Not sure why it seems like he works most Easters, but it does. Maybe it's because it was Easter 6 years ago when he broke his arm at work.... I'm not sure. But that is what I think of every time he works on Easter.
So us girls got up early and checked out what the Easter Bunny brought.

This year they got new sandals (much wanted "jandals" for Brenna), American Girl outfits, bubbles, a skirt, a pen, Little Debby cakes, M&Ms, and Pirates Booty!

 The Easter Bunny even left them a note reminding them of the real reason we celebrate Easter. Brenna was a little insulted that he thought they needed to be REMINDED of that. She assumed everyone knew..... Sweet girl.

After we got dressed, we attempted some pictures in our Easter Best..... Easier said than done. Mama is a little OCD when it comes to getting the PERFECT Easter Sunday picture. Because- ya know... that's what's really important on Easter...... getting the perfect picture!

"Macie- cross your legs like Brenna."
M-"I don't want to."
Me- UGHHHHH!

"Macie, cross your feet like Brenna is doing."
Macie-"I don't want to."
Me- UGHHHHHHHHH

This one turned out pretty decent. Other than Brenna can't take a picture without cocking her head to the side!

Let's try the selfie stick!!
(Macie is fake smiling in this one because she was DONE)
(for the record- I am fake smiling in this one because I was DONER than Macie)
((Doner is a word...right?))

One last attempt...AFTER CHURCH! And it worked!! Both cooperated! Both smiled normal smiles! Mama is now happy!

After church, we loaded up and headed to Aunt Kim's house for some more Easter fun!!! Nina made a traditional Easter lunch of Ham and Dumplings! What? That's not a traditional Easter dinner? Oh well! We had Ham at least!! And it was sooooo good! Dumplings, sliced tomatoes, and homemade fried potatoes. oh my!!

Say CHEESE!!!!

After lunch, the girls dyed 18 eggs that Nina got for them. They had a blast!! This was the first year they hadn't dyed eggs with their Daddy. It was kinda sad (for me- not sure anyone else cared). But we just didn't have time... Story of my life..

I do believe they had plenty of colors...

All they really needed was pink, purple, and turquoise. That's all they cared about...

And while they colored eggs....

I colored Aunt Kim's hair! I offered to use the extra egg dye....she didn't go for it. She's no fun.
And while the color was sitting on Aunt Kim's hair... the girls hunted eggs yet again!

After the egg hunt, I took Brenna and Nina to the movies while Aunt Kim kept Macie Claire. Brenna had been asking for 2 weeks to go see "Miracles From Heaven". I had kind of put it off because I didn't know if it was appropriate for her or not. But after talking to several other people who's children about the same age had seen it, I decided we would go for it. I did know that Macie would NOT sit through it, so we twisted Aunt Kim's arm and talked her into keeping M. (And if you know Aunt Kim- you know that arm twisting thing never really had to happen...)
The movie was really good. I cried from about 5 minutes in until it was over. Brenna watched the whole thing very intently. It was a good experience for her. She talked about it a lot after it was over, and it was a great conversation piece for days to come.
After we left the movies, we picked up Macie and dropped Nina off and headed home. I was BEYOND exhausted. The events of the weekend had worn me smooth out, as my Mama would say. So we went home to our LOUD house, and I tried to not let the noise bother me too much...(notice the words tried and too much). But we survived, and were all in bed early! I really needed another day to recover from the chaos  of the 3 day weekend... but alas- there is not another day off of school until summer. Jesus be with us....it's going to be a long haul till the end.