Happy Easter!

It's been a few months, but here we are again!  We had a really wonderful and special couple of weeks and are glad we finally found a few minutes to blog about it!  

A quick shot from Palm Sunday last weekend.  It was an extra-special Palm Sunday because Clay was ordained as an Elder of our church!  Chip and Phy joined us for brunch beforehand (at delicious Black Sheep - yum!) and at church for a triple-celebration of Clay's ordination, Phy's birthday, and early Easter basket exchange.  The ordination service was wonderful and moving, and then the kiddos had a blast at the post-Palm-Sunday egg hunt.  Though it was POURING outside, the egg hunt carried on indoors, and the kids had a blast.  

After their school parties/egg hunts on Thursday, the kids basically thought Easter had already come, but it was just beginning!  

We really, really, really missed being in North Carolina this year for Easter weekend and hunting for eggs at the Cabin, but we had an important job here in Jacksonville this weekend - supporting sweet baby Jack Haley at his baptism!

Our friends Colleen and Chris (parents of Sam's best buddy Liza, whom you've seen often here on this blog) asked Clay & I to be Jack's godparents, and we were so excited and honored!  After a fun Good Friday of zoo-going and casual dinner-eating with the Haleys and the plethora of friends and family who were in town for the baptism, we took a little break from those festivities on Saturday to celebrate our friend Trevor's first birthday as a new father...which he celebrated by rocking his crying daughter while his Buckeyes lost...poor guy!  But the kids had a great time playing in the yard and blowing bubbles!

Then we woke up early for the 6:00 a.m. Easter sunrise service in which Jack was baptized.  It was very cool, all done by candlelight, and baby Jack smiled the whole time.  Sam and Caroline were a bit sleepy but also quite in awe of this special service (and, unbelievably, quite well behaved the whole time!).   

We came home to find that the Easter Bunny had visited while we were out for church!

And then we joined the rest of the baptismal crew at the Haleys for brunch and an egg hunt.  A few shots of the hunters...

...waiting (some might say cheating) in anticipation while the eggs were being hidden...

...and then setting about the serious hunting business...

 ...or, not so serious, as the case may be...

Even Caroline and Malloy joined the fun...

Liza finds a kazoo!

This picture is totally Caroline.

Colleen's college friend Carrie and her hubby Dallas came for the baptism, with their kiddos Kate and Grady, who were master egg hunters. 

Kate finds the golden egg!

The family of honor, minus the little guy we were all there to celebrate.  Hard to believe, but I managed to get through the whole weekend without a SINGLE picture of the guest of honor.  I fear we're off to a bad start at godparents!

The happy hunters with their loot...

...Caroline taking a break to read the paper (entirely unprompted, by the way...this kid is hilarious)...

My two very tired (after all, they got up at 5:00) munchkins started to crash toward the end of the festivities...

...and took awesome naps when we got home.

Though it was bittersweet not to be in NC for this holiday, we had a very special Easter weekend and we ended the holiday season plus one Eldership and one Godson - not too shabby!  

We really miss all our family and friends, many of whom we haven't seen in way, way too long.  Our love and hugs to all of you, wherever you are!