Team 3 Award Ceremony

Team 3 is our church's youth program on Wednesday night, and this was the award ceremony for memorize verses, participating, etc.  Beyond the ribbons and prizes, I am thankful that my kids are learning the truths of Scripture at an early age, and I pray they are taking root in their heart that will bear much fruit for Christ's kingdom.

Boating Season

Mike's boat finally made it out in the water today, and he took our two older ones and cousin Ethan.  Here's hoping we get lots more sunshine this summer!

Easter

Then we celebrated Easter with my parents and sister in a quiet evening dinner.  Gorgeous day, though, and the kids spent the afternoon on their bikes in the front yard.

The boys playing a strange mix of soccer, handball, and wrestling.  As always the match ended with tears.

Welcoming Grandma and Grandpa.

Hudster on his Roadster

My cutie pie

Kristina, no Easter dress is stopping her from getting on her John Deere.

Ready to eat.

Easter Egg Hunt

For the first time, our family sauntered down to the neighborhood park to partake in the neighborhood-wide Easter Egg Hunt.

Wow, that went fast!  In 2 minutes, hundreds of eggs vanished off the fields and into the baskets of ambitious little kids.  We ran into Theresa, Mike's cousin, and got to ogle her little newborn, Titan.  (I'm gonna say "little Titan" as long as I can.)

Prepping for the race.

On the chase.

Happy with her loot.

Proud momma

Colton kisses Titan.

Seder

We joined some dear friends of ours for an evening celebrating the Jewish Passover at a Messianic church.  I had NO IDEA how powerful it would be, to celebrate the same passover that Jesus did the night before he became our Passover Lamb.  The significance and imagery was overwhelming in its Messianic prophetic significance.

I'm hoping to make a Seder celebration a regular part of our future Easter traditions.

Birthday Weekend

Our dear friends, Crystal and Aaron, offered to take the kids for the weekend so Mike and I could get "away" for my birthday.  But we had just gotten back from Hawaii, and it didn't make sense to go out of town, so we decided to stay at home and be tourists in our own town.

We started off by going across the lake and visited the Seattle Art Museum and toured the Gauguin exhibit.  How kid-unfriendly is that!  Ha!  Then for dinner, we gorged at Din Tai Fung, the Chinese dumpling house at Bellevue Square.  Yum…waddle waddle waddle.

It seemed odd to go to church without our kids, so we watched from home, and then went to Newcastle for brunch and overlooked a gorgeous rainbow encircled Seattle and Bellevue skyline.

Then it was off to the Korean spa and we spent the afternoon lounging around there until we met up with my Dad, Linda, and Katie for dinner at Tulio's back in downtown Seattle for a sumptuous dinner.

Rainbow at Newcastle's Calcutta Grill

Church at home.

Dana, Dad, Katie, and linda

Caleb was upset that we were leaving him for the weekend and couldn't grasp the concept of a "staycation".  He wrote this in a note I found among his things, "mom is crazy  sh is going on a vication shes maching (making) us stay at a frends hous"