A Celebration of Life

I decided to be rather ambitious this year and host a sit-down lunch for family and friends in my backyard. I pretty much used every piece of silverware, china, and glassware in my house... and still had to borrow some from my mom. But it turned out to be a very nice time.

As we set off for church this morning in our "Easter Best" I was concerned about the threatening rainclouds, but when we left an inspiring Easter service, it had cleared up a bit and the rest of the day turned out to just benefit from the overcast skies (by being cooler).

My goal this year was to have theme that would celebrate life... the first flowers blooming, the baby birds being born, our own lives and the lives of those we love, and the most important life of all... Jesus! I created little cards that look like this to put on the table:

These are the other two little cards I did:

Here's a close up of the table:

I think lilies are my new favorite flower. Too bad they only bloom for about a month each year. There are so many colors and varieties. These grew awry in a quite pleasant way.

I was so busy running around trying to make sure everything was in order that I didn't have time to take pictures. Here's who took a lot the photos. My dad took the rest (including this one).

I had LOTS of candy left after filling little plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt, so I made these for favors:

I made a pink strawberry cake and lemon icebox pie. I asked my sister, B, to make cookies and she made some bea-U-tiful glazed sugar cookies that tasted as good as they looked. Everything was SO yummy!

After lunch and dessert, everyone sat around and dyed eggs (an Easter tradition with my family).

And my little man went on an egg hunt. Almost every time he found an egg, he said, "Silly Easter Bunny." I must say that my dad found some creative hiding places (as usual). Here's my little guy with his Easter basket:

And here's me and my little gal in her Easter dress:

My little (awesome) family:

My big (also awesome) family:

I could go on and on with the photos, but this blog would be forever long if I did!

I hope that all the eggs and birds and bunnies are reminders to everyone of LIFE! One life matters most- and that is the life of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead and who we celebrate on this Easter day!