Easter, belated

Since everything in our world was so screwy this spring, one of the things that we missed entirely was Easter.

Fortunately, that didn't end up being an issue.  

In the end, we just made our own a week later, and no one was the wiser.  

                       

I'm kind of a kill joy when it comes to the commercialism of Easter.  We don't do the bunny - my kids know that it's just mom and dad - and instead we usually spend the month leading up to Easter learning about the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Of course, this year we cut all of that out too.

I also don't allow a plethora of stuffed animals and candy, because I'm the Easter Grinch.

So what little candy they do get is a BIG deal!  As you can see, it goes pretty quickly.

I have a pretty strict "only if they need it" rule.  Each year, their baskets are filled with items they legitimately need for the upcoming summer season.  Things like sandals, swimsuits, towels, hats, summer jammies or sunglasses.  Maybe a pair of tennis shoes if they've outgrown theirs. 

It just so happened that this year, they all needed a lot.  Somehow, everything just came together such that they needed everything I listed up there.  It was a little excessive, but it was all stuff we would have had to buy anyway.

    

  Leah and Logan have both outgrown their bikes and helmets, and that was a super fun surprise for the kids to wake up to on Easter morning!  Oh my goodness, it was SUCH fun to watch them ride those new bikes up and down the street!  We are almost to the phase where we can actually take family bike rides. Luke just needs to be a little bigger...

We had the hardest time trying to figure out what to get Jacob.  I'm so not an expert on what a teenage boy gets in his Easter basket!  I do believe it was his first ever Easter basket at that, so we tried hard to make it special.  

I LOVE these bright blue hats!  Partly because they're Cubs-colored (GO, Cubs, GO!), but also because they're just so darn practical.  Three bobbing, bright blue heads are so easy to pick out in a crowd!

Little Luke was just an observer this year.  Although, it should probably be noted that he's the only one not to get an Easter basket on his first Easter.  Poor kid.  But, if he wanted to be important, he probably shouldn't have been the fifth born.  ;)

(P.S. How cute is that kid in his froggy jammies?!) 

Even if we had to set aside some of our traditions this year, we still enjoyed ourselves.  There was awesome breakfast and cinnamon rolls, and our usual big Sunday Dinner to celebrate.  

No doubt about it: we are pretty blessed.

And, we've come a long way since the very first one:

 (Funny side note: This is how fast seven years goes... there was a video camera in the background of one of the shots from our first Easter.  Loooong before I had a smart phone, HA!)