Easter At The Beach

It's seems to be a tradition to spend, at least, every OTHER Easter in Myrtle Beach. Yes, Easter is the BIGGEST holiday we, as Christians, celebrate, but being gone on Easter doesn't diminish our faith or our love for Christ.  We are NOT the family that visits church once a year. We are a family that worships our God and celebrates His birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection DAILY, so we don't make going to church, on Easter Sunday, a legalistic thing.  If we are in town, it's a no brainer.  If we are NOT in town, we set aside time, as a family, to make Christ's work on the cross of first importance to our Easter Sunday.  

The kids woke up bright and early (7:00 am).  They were so ecstatic to see their Easter baskets had arrived (thanks Easter bunny). They also were happy to see mounds of colorful eggs hidden everywhere.  I told the kids the baskets/egg hunt had to wait.  I took this opportunity to get back into bed and snuggle with the kids while watching a few animated youtube videos on Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  The crucifixion, even though animated, was a tad grueling for the little viewers, but there is just no way to begin grasping the magnitude of Jesus' death without a visual.  Lilah would squeal out saying, "Awe! That is so sad!!!"  I reminded her that while Jesus' death appears sad, it's actually a GOOD thing.

After the videos, we allowed the kids to open their baskets and partake in the egg hunt. Later, Darren did a family devotional with us. 

 Jax's favorite thing out of his Easter basket was his Wolverine mask.

 Ty's was his Peyton Manning football figurine.

 My diva gir loved her princess glasses and lipgloss.

 

The Easter bunny is NOT the only one who brought treats.  Mommy and daddy gave a little something too.

The night before Easter, I filled over 75 eggs to hide.  I thought capturing them in a fish net was most appropriate being we are at the beach.  LOL!  The eggs contained: whoopie cushions, punching balloons, rings, lipgloss, angry bird collectables, dollar bills, candy, gold fish, teddy grahams, yogurt covered raisins, pistachios, and stickers.

Love the fish egg.

I made each kid hide in a bedroom.  I counted to three and off they went...

I loved watching them run throughout the beach condo in excitement, as they searched high and low for Easter eggs.

 

A few of the items I purchased for their baskets didn't fit, so I color coded the bar code and hid them also throughout the condo.

I think they each had 4 items to find.

If they found something that was NOT their assigned color, they were instructed to put it back. 

 One could only guess who's shirt this is? No, not Cohen's, but Jax's.

Each year, after the egg hunt, my kids love to sort/organize their items.

 

 Like mother, like sons/daughter.  Don't agonize. Organize!!!!

I discovered that Tyson stole the golden egg, after telling him that we were about to hide it.  I guess he thought I would just forget this aspect of the egg hunt.  To punish him, I did NOT allow him to look for the golden egg.  He wasn't very happy.

But the twins were.  They were looking for the golden egg together, as a duo, SURPRISE!  They weren't doing a very great job catching on to the clues.

Clue #1: "I love palm trees and the beach!"

 Clue #2 - "Behind the picture lies the gold."

Eventually, Jax found it.  Look closely... it's not any ordinary dollar.  It's a real dollar bill with the Easter bunny in the middle.  Thanks Gram for sending us something to use in our egg hunt.

Happy Easter to all.  Although these activities were fun, we are thankful that we celebrate a more meaningful story behind Easter. We hope you do too!!!