He Has Risen!! He Has Risen Indeed!!

There is something about Easter that is so refreshing, so excited. It gets the blood flowing! I am sure that it is a combination of things, but for us, it is the renewal in our hearts, mind & body of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of dying on the cross for us. It is so easy to get caught in the rut of life and forget all that we have to be thankful for. Thank you Jesus - we can never say thank you enough!!

We have a packed day today. After going through their goodies from the Easter bunny, we got the kids ready for church. We were fortunate enough to have an extra few minutes to run to one of the Deere houses to take some pictures. Church was wonderful!! We are now home for a few hours of respite and then off to Grammy & Grandad's for a ham dinner and egg hunt. To say that the kids are excited would be an understatement. I will post pictures of the egg hunt later.

Trying for the ever elusive "all kids looking...all kids smiling (naturally!)..." picture...

I THINK WE GOT IT!!!

HUNTING FOR EGGS

FINALLY!!! A nice weekend!!

We were so excited to see the sun and warmer temps listed for today. This is the first weekend that Matt isn't on call and the weather is nice...so, we were extremely anxious to get out and do some letterboxing. Our goal for the day was Princeton, IL. Thanks to Pitties & Shorty for planting the "New Orleans" series at Echo Bluff Park. They planted 11 boxes in this park and let me tell you...these are some gorgeous stamps!

We actually started our day at Buffalo Rock State Park to find a box by Matt the Rat. What a great way to start our day! We found the box, enjoyed a great hike and played at the playground (more on that in a minute).

Ready to hit the trail - notice the walking sticks - Katie made sure that everyone had one as soon as we got out of the van.

Maddie & Will waiting for Matt. He realized that he had left the clues back at the box!! So, he quickly hiked back to successfully grab the paper.

We are on a mission for 2009. A friend of ours has a goal of 52 slides in 2009...we took on that goal and raised it to 100. So, here is our first & second official slides of the year.

Leaving Buffalo Rock State Park, we grabbed some lunch and headed to Echo Bluff Park. This little known park is close to Spring Valley, IL. We were successful in finding 10 of the 11. We were reminded how well the kids do with hiking! The GPS that we carried showed us walking a total of over 5 miles while Google Earth shows it closer to 2 miles (between the 2 parks)! So, we are assuming that it is close to 3.5 miles of hiking on the prairie and bluff trails.

Maddie taking a break during while stamping in...she thought it was so funny that the bench was on its back!

The really cool High Rope Course - the kids couldn't believe how high up everything was. They thought it would be cool to have one of these in the backyard.

Will - ready to call it a day. This was at the #9 box. He plopped down and stayed there the whole time we stamped in.

It ended up taking a bit longer than we anticipated (at Echo Bluff). Of course, 3 snack breaks don't help matters! We got home in time for quick baths and sleep...ready for the Easter Bunny's visit and celebrating our Lord's miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday. Thank you Jesus for making the ultimate sacrifice - we are not worthy!

Awana Awards Night

Awana ended last night. This particular church ends their Awana program early so that it doesn't interfere with school sport schedules.

Alex has "graduated" from a Cubbie to a Spark. She is so excited to be with Katie next year! Here is Alex with her group leader Pam Mott.

Katie finished her second year as a Spark. If I may boast...and I am going to!!...Katie completed her whole book TWICE, plus finished the workbook that can only be done after the book has been done twice. She is the only Sparky to do this (at this church) in MANY years and she has done it two years in a row! We pray that she will store these treasures in her heart and use them as the mighty weapon they are! Here is Katie with her group leader, Lois VanHoek.

Next year will be a wonderful year! Matt & I have always tried to make Tuesday night our "date night"...but we have always had at least 2 kids with us...Not next fall!!! Maddie & Will will be old enough to join Cubbies...and we will get to eat wherever we want! We are SOOOO excited about that prospect! : )

Goofing Off

Some fun pictures we got before bedtime a few nights ago.

We got the girls matching jammies (Tinkerbell) with slippers and a magic wand. Will got Thomas jammies. The kids got dressed in jammies as soon as we got home from the store that day!! (not sure where Alex ran off to during these pictures??)

Family Night

Shepherd's Fold Preschool held their annual "Family Night" last Thursday. For Family Night, all three classes (3 and 4 year olds) sing songs together than watch a picture video of all the kids during the past year. We end the night with yummy desserts (yes...the perfect thing for a bunch of young kids...SUGAR, just before bed!!) We were so proud of our Alex. She really loves preschool and singing with her friends.

Alex showing off one of her "pieces of artwork"

Here is what Maddie wore to the concert...she also carried her purse...full of matchbox cars!