Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  The weather was perfect, and we had such a great time with both family and friends.

On Friday, I had the day off from work, so I slept in and then went shopping for plants.  I needed to replace a bush that died this past winter, and my front flower bed was in dire need of some color.  I ending up going to It's About Thyme, Lowe's, and Home Depot, and I had a great time just walking around with my little red wagon {or shopping cart}, soaking up the sun, and looking at everything -- even things I wasn't even considering buying.

Of course, I had to sample the strawberries.  They were delicious!

And look who I found hiding in one of the flower containers.

I ended up getting some lantana {the yellow}, some society garlic {the purple}, some specialty begonias {which I was told will do well in the hanging baskets on my back porch}, a sky pencil holly, some dirt, and a few bags of mulch.  And $170 later, I was on my way home.  Yikes!

After unloading all of my goodies, I went next door to say "hi" to Cheryl and Miles.  Miles was being cute as always and was doing such a good job of feeding himself applesauce with a spoon.

Later that afternoon, when I was pulling weeds in the front yard, I got to watch Miles fly his first kite.  It was such a beautiful day, and he had a great time running around with the string in his hand.

Such a good dad. :)

That evening, we went back over to the Sotos' house {have I ever mentioned that I love having them next door?}.  They had a few people over for a barbeque, and of course, everything was delicious.  I'm still not sure how Jason is able to keep everything so moist, but as long as they live next door, I guess I'll never really need to learn how. ;)

While hanging out on the back porch, Jason turned on the water spicket.  Miles had never seen water come out of the house before, and he was SO excited.  We had a great time watching him play in the water.

And he had a great time drinking out of it.

On Saturday, I got up early and met up with some ladies from my running group to run 10 miles.  It had been awhile since I had run that kind of distance, but my love handles and I are glad that I did it. ;)  Later that day, Holly came over and helped Ben and me out in the yard.

Ben dug a huge hole and replaced the bush.

And Holly and I spent most of our time in the front flower bed.  Check out the "before"...

And the "after".

Ben also mowed, edged, and planted lantana around the trees.

And Holly and I trimmed the bushes and admired all of the beautiful butterflies.

After all of that hard work, Holly and I treated ourselves to pedicures and then did a little bachelorette party planning.  It was such a fun, productive, and exhausting day, and I crashed early that night.

 

On Sunday, we woke up early and went to both Sunday school and church.  We joined First United Methodist Church a few weeks ago and also attend a fairly new Sunday school class, and we love both.  Our class decided to go ahead and meet on Easter Sunday but to just have a social hour with donuts and coffee instead of a regular lesson.  We had a great time talking and getting to know one another better, and then a group of us headed to the church service together.  By the time we got over there, the seating downstairs was pretty much full, so the usher suggested that we sit upstairs.  Ben was excited about it {apparently he's always wanted to try sitting up there}, but I wasn't too sure how I'd feel about sitting in a place where everyone in the sanctuary could see me.  It was pretty cool being able to look down on the service though. 

It was a beautiful service, and the sermon was great. 

After church, we asked someone to take a quick picture of us in front of the Capitol {kinda}, and then we were off to all of the family festivities.

On our way up to Aunt Brenda's house in Leander, we stopped by Hey Cupcake for a snack.

We really didn't need anything to eat considering all that we would be eating that day, but we were hungry, and how can you say "no" to Hey Cupcake?

At Brenda's house, we helped the girls fill the Easter eggs with all sorts of candy.

For every piece that they put in an egg, I'm pretty sure they put about two in their mouths.  Oh to be a kid again.

 Sweet Olivia.

Adorable Sophia.

"Baby" Jack.

I tried to get a group shot of Holly, Travis, and the girls.

But as you can see, getting both of them to hold still and look at the camera was somewhat difficult.

Okay -- it was very difficult.

Mom, Holly, G, Audrey, and her boyfriend James.

Mom & G.

Aunt Liz & Audrey.

Cousins.

After lunch, I grabbed a piece of strawberry cake to go, and then we headed to Uncle Jack and Aunt Lisa's house.  That group had already eaten, so everyone was just lounging out back.  AJ, Ricardo, Uncle Jack, Patrick, Aunt Laura, Uncle Rodney, Uncle Pat, Jack, Russ, Scott, Kaitlin, Maria, Sam, Bridget, and Suzy.

Tyler, Kyle, Steve, and Ben.

Andrea & Molly.

Mary Catherine & Josh.

Nolan & Vanessa.

Nancy & me.

Later that evening, we went to Grandma's house for our third and final stop for the day.  It was so good to see her, and we had a great time catching up.

Overall, we had a wonderful Easter weekend, and I am so grateful for our family, for our friends, and for a Savior who died for all of us.  Alleluia - He is risen!  Happy Easter!!!  I hope you had a great one, too. :)