Easter Sunday

Our Easter Sunday was filled with kids, smiles, Jesus, family, and food.  It was a full fun day!  We left our house at 8:45 am and did not return until late that night, about 9:45 pm.

Our children know that there is no Easter bunny.  We do however give our children each an Easter bucket of surprises from Daddy and Mommy on Sunday morning.

We believe in Jesus Christ, and celebrate his life and his sacrifice for us at Easter time.  Our church did a nice job over the last three weeks presenting a short drama/play about Jesus and the week's events leading up to Jesus being nailed to the cross and then rising again on that glorious Easter morning.

All of the children at the church had an opportunity to gather eggs and candy before the service started.

Silas was more interested in playing on the playground equipment than gathering eggs.  Both of our girls found several eggs and shared several eggs with others who didn't get quite as many or arrived too late to participate.

After church we headed north to my cousin Josh's house for the Hastings Easter gathering.  We all enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs, and lots of delicious salads and, of course, a table full of desserts.

 

It has always been a tradition that any children at the Hastings Easter gathering get to hunt eggs and candy.  This year there were only four hunters, Jackson, Sarah, Phoebe, and Silas.  They each got a LOT of candy!

It was a little rainy when it was time for egg hunting, so we had an indoor egg hunt.

Camryn, Josh's daughter, did a great job of helping Silas hunt for his eggs and candy.

All egg hunters must always sit and look in each egg and inspect each piece of candy gathered after an egg hunt.  I remember doing this with my Hastings cousins and siblings when we were little too.  That was when we would make trades too, trading pieces of candy we didn't like for those we did.

After the egg hunt, some card games were played...

And some fishing was done in the nearby creek...

Eric caught some crappie and bass.  Silas really wanted to see and hold the fish, or "ish" as he calls them.  This was his first time to touch and hold a fish.  Eric got him to hold it by the lip at first, but Silas really wanted to just grab onto it with both hands and look it all over.  Eric let Silas throw it back too, although it was more of a toss and flop.

Lilo, the dog had done some swimming in the creek and was pretty wet, dirty, and stinky, but the kids all still loved her.

Another tradition of sorts at the Hastings Easter gathering is a large wiffle ball game.  (This use to be one thing that I think my Grandpa, Howard Hastings, looked forward to the most on Easter Sunday.  He loved baseball and his family.  Wiffle ball was a great combination of both!)  We divided into teams and enjoyed some friendly competition between brothers, cousins, spouses, siblings, and friends.

I took the picture below of... the ultimate group selfie.  My cousin Johannah likes to take some selfies, but this time she had a bunch of family that wanted to be in her selfie!

Before heading home we took a group picture... Top left to right: Charles and Wyonna Hastings, Jackson Hastings, Dale Hastings, Drew Hastings, Jan Hastings, Phoebe, Sarah, Gloria Hastings, Camryn Hastings, Stacee, Eric, and Silas - Bottom left to right: Beki and Josh Hastings, Sulley (the dog), Johannah Hastings, Sophie (Dale and Jan's exchange student), and Paul Hastings. - Not pictured because they had already gone home: Jerry and Julie Hempsmyer, Jessica Higgins, and Jordan Hastings.

HAPPY EASTER from all of us to YOU!