Took pictures in the backyard today. Here are my favorites...

Because we know HE LIVES, we had some fun celebrating in anticipation of Easter! We 'hit' hunts at two large churches just down the road from us. There were 1000s of eggs, crafts, animals, free food and candy, candy, candy.

Our Bible verse focus leading up to Easter was "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10

More than in years prior, Elle is grasping a deeper understanding of God's love to us through His son, Jesus. What a sacrifice Jesus made to give us eternal life in heaven with our Father. Watching this knowledge unfold in your child's heart is JOY!

One way we focused our hearts, on this best time of year, was using the resurrection egg devotional. Oh how they looked forward to our evenings, discovering the next hours in Jesus' journey to the cross. They were somber and full of questions. This year, the crown of thorns and nails He bore for us deeply pained Elle. The story was brought even more to life at our church's Good Friday prayer walk. Each station had focused scripture and prayer regarding the last days and hours before our Savior was laid in the grave. Eric read and prayed with Elle at each station, but at the cross she was too burdened to kneel before it with Eric and literally pound in a nail. She quietly watched.... But at the final station, the tomb, she asked to pray and thanked God for Jesus and that He is alive. She hasn't stopped talking about Jesus' sacrifice...as it should be, all year long.

In celebration of our new life, found only in Jesus, we participated in Rent-a-Chick. My sister's family has a coop of them and was flabbergasted that we actually paid for this experience. Ha! It was good fun though and made for a memorable Easter happening.

So this is how it went down... we picked up two yellow and fluffy baby chicks from our nearby friendly farmer. Along with the chicks, they sent us home with a box, bedding, feed, water and food dispensers -- and then we experienced....

Funny story...on our drive home, we all had to go potty, BADLY! When we all had successfully made it on the convenience store potty, Elle shouted out, "HOSANNA!" ...just living The Word! ;)

The chicks were completely adorable and Elle was such a good 'mommy', cleaning their box, feeding them, replenishing their water and holding them until they fell asleep. Zane, not so much. I had to nearly force him to 'enjoy' this adventure and he just wouldn't have anything to do with it. Well, this lasted for five days and then those baby chicks just got ugly, smelly and not so yellow and fluffy. Eew, yuck! :( I'm thinking, a week would have been plenty of adventure for this city family.

My sister is still speechless. She informed me that I could have bought them for much less.

Me: "But what would I do with them when we're done?!"
My (compassionate) sister: "Kill them."

Uh.....yeah, right! ...we live in two different worlds!

And oh, cousin Titus also experienced Rent-a-Chick to his joy as well! ;)

Spring break was a staycation. Daddy at home; what else could we want for! Even then, having him 24-7 for nine days wasn't quite enough. So they rode, climbed, tackled, hugged, and kissed to drain every bit of everything from him.

We played games, spent time outside, worked on projects, had some adventures, ate out (multiple times trying to find the best fish tacos in the city), cooked and ate good food. With Eric's classes on break, he didn't even have to study, so it was a lot of playing hard.

Our first bowling experience was definitely a highlight. Must find out how to do it cheaper! When did bowling get so expensive?! But totally worth it for the thrill they had. The kiddos held their own and scored amazingly well with a little help from bumpers. There were lots of high-fives, woo-hoos and cheers; what a blast!


We also visited this train exhibition that is set-up in a store front at a local mall. Men in the community build and maintain the sets for young and old to come hang out and enjoy. There's even an area of hands-on Thomas engines. Zane was wide-eyed!


Bargain hunting at second-hand stores turned out some big scores for the kiddos; puzzles and a brand new Lite*Brite still in its original packaging!

While I took Zane to a doctor's appointment, Elle had a breakfast date with Dada. Her flower clip makes me happy-laugh. Apparently she drew some attention with her style that morning.

Tis the season, the mowing and rides have begun! It's a lot of cutting for Eric, but he has it down to a science and has been trading in tractors the past several years to increase his cutting deck to an impressive 52".


Just a little hail in the middle of our spring break. Ahhh, Kansas!

One evening we had French toast with cream cheese, blueberries, and real maple syrup. It's actually the first time I've made this since Elle arrived in 2006. Not being huge bread eaters, this was a super-duper yummy treat. Wowzers - it was good!

Zane enjoys 'painting' the bricks and always finishes with more water on him than anywhere else. Painting is also enjoyed inside, especially when Dada is the audience.


The week's evening thrills were at the dinner table over games and popcorn. Z*ngo is a favorite and Zane is really quick at it. He even keeps track of the tiles others need and grabs it on our behalf, to help us out. But nobody cheers over a victory as robostly as Elle.


Certainly enjoyed this year's staycation. When it was finished we weren't exhausted, didn't feel like we needed a couple of more days to recuperate and thoroughly soaked each other up. Not surprisingly, it was very difficult to give up Daddy that next Monday morning.

My first Spring project is looming over Elle's bed. I've been wanting to do this for about ten years and finally have a little girl and her room to do it in. :) Eric trimmed a tree for me and then I used floral wire to wrap silk flowers around the limbs.

This morning Elle said to me, "Mama, I like being with you and I tell you what, you can kiss me always." 'I tell you what' is her newest and most favorite thing to say - she makes us smile!

This evening she asked Eric and me, "Do you like heaven? You obey Jesus, you go to heaven." Our little evangelist!


Elle has mastered the tricycle this week -- it was just too difficult for her to pedal last fall, but she has it now!


Her ballet recital is going to be something.... Below is a short clip of her hitting the stage at her last practice this past Monday. It's not a very good video, so here are the highlights...when she gets on stage she yells, "Hi Mama!", and waves to me. Then she manually moves her feet to first position (LOL!) and yells out to me, "I did it, Mommy!"

We had the pleasure of visiting the Bryant Family Farm on Friday. Several weekends ago my SIL, Alicia, and I attended a farm expo. Farmers from a 100 mile radius of the city came in to meet us city folk. We had the opportunity to learn more about their organic practices and connect with them to buy excellent product.

After meeting the Bryants, we were sure we wanted to eat some of their food. A couple of weekends later and an easy 45 minute road trip brought us to their front door. We spent two hours getting to know the Bryants and saw the love, care and hard work they and their five children invest in their land and animals every day. We even met the goats that supplied our milk - now that's cool!

This morning we feasted on eggs, milk and sausage all from the Bryant Farm. It was all fresh, delicious and organic - YUMO! It's wonderful to support a local farming family and great to know exactly where the food you feed your children came from.

I brought the camera but left the memory stick at home; can you believe it?! Elle talked about our visit non-stop days before, so I am very grateful for the shots the Bryants took for us with their awesome Canon. We had baby goats sucking on our fingers, held fluffy, yellow baby chicks, grass-fed the milking goats, chased a few chickens, fell in love with the baby jersey cow and eyed an Angus that we'd like to eat maybe later this year.

The biggest blessing of it all, the Bryants are Christians and the two hours together with Dana and her children was sweet fellowship! Their kindness and generosity sent us home with a little extra of this and that and we are thrilled about our new relationship with them. Isn't it neat how life paths cross, connect and intertwine? How grateful I am for their passion and dedication to raise healthy food that impacts our lives.

JESUS IS ALIVE! Happy Easter dear ones! It's wonderful to have a day and weekend of activities that celebrate His victory over death and our life in Him, but it's even more wonderful to live every day with this great hope.

We believe that the greatest joy of parenting has to be watching your child fall in love with Jesus to the point of surrender and the choice of His Lordship. We talk about Jesus, pray to Him, worship Him, and retell the Bible stories daily, but when your child starts connecting their life with His, that's just the best ever!

Elle asked if she could go to Heaven with Jesus and if she could talk to Him. We've explained these things a hundred times over, but for her to formulate the thought and ask the questions...it made the answers come to life for her in a whole new way -- this made for a very special weekend!

We started our Saturday at a church egg hunt. I think they were expecting a much larger crowd, so Elle got about four prizes at every booth and there were plenty of eggs to scoop up in the field. Zane even filled his basket. After, we met some friends for lunch and because of Elle's GREAT loot, she was able to pass along a great car racing set to her friend, a boy who could appreciate it.

A pause in the hunt to give Mama a dandelion.



Score, Elle!








Counting his eggs.

We attend Saturday night services and things are quite casual, but we dressed a bit up for Easter celebration. We are so blessed by the music and strong, biblical teaching at our church. Elle always has a great time of learning too. Her class memorized the Lord's Prayer during the last few weeks and got to look in the empty tomb (a decorated dome tent) to see that He was not there. What a glorious celebration with our church family!

Today was a relaxing family day with food, food, more food and playing outside. I really enjoy cooking. I have a passion for whole foods, fresh and organic produce. I like experimenting with spices, flavors and simplicity (thanks Mom, I learned it all from you!). The kiddos eat everything I make and really enjoy it. I was thinking today that getting a child to really enjoy all different kinds of foods definitely comes from modeling and introducing those foods early on while being creative with the preparation and spices. But I believe it also has a whole lot to do with knife skills. I'm sure this isn't an original thought, but I haven't ever heard anyone else talk about this.... Both our kiddos have eaten raw, veggie packed salads since they were one year old -- it's all in the knife skills. If you look at an adult's salad with its big leaves and chunks of vegetables, that requires eating practice and familiarity to consume. But take that salad and run through it with a chef's knife, well then you have a manageable, workable product for the inexperienced eater. You've broken down the overwhelming textures, chewy skins and different flavors and brought it to a level where they can just appreciate the flavors that meld together into a great taste. From there, they grow in to being great salad eaters and enjoying all kinds of other foods -- like the quinoa, tomato, spinach, basil, almond salad with a garlic, walnut oil and lemon dressing that they ate today.

We also enjoyed deviled eggs, squash, asparagus, roasted chicken with orange sauce and a yummy strawberry almond-shortcake with homemade whipped cream laced with orange essence. Mmmmmmmmm... enjoyed a second helping of that with a cup of amaretto coffee, later after the kiddos were in bed. Okay, enough about food....He gives for our pleasure - thank you God!

Elle decorated eggs today and when Zane found them later, I caught him with his hands in the 'cookie jar'! I allowed a few eggs to be sacrificed to get a few pics and video to capture that face -- boy, he knew he had sister's eggs! :)

Later at the park, Zane scaled the climbing wall and ladder like he had done it a hundred times before. Eric has said that he's pretty coordinated, and he sure looked like a true natural, knowing just where to put his foot next and how to pull up - WOW! He isn't even walking -- we should be scared! ;)

Elle and I went down the slide a few hundred times, then we hiked a lakeside trail where Eric snatched up Elle just in time before she stepped on a water moccasin sunning between two giant rocks. We went home tired and after a lighter dinner of leftovers (so we could enjoy that second helping of strawberry shortcake), we did baths and BTBT. (That acronym is for the Wolfe family, but for the rest of you, it means bedtime.)

It was a great Easter weekend! The best part, tomorrow we wake up with the same reason to celebrate, He lives 365 days a year!