Easter 2013

Happy Easter!  The Melder boys were in good spirits this morning and they were also in handsome, somewhat coordinated outfits.  Here's my attempt at a portrait before we headed to the 9am service at church.

We had a really nice time at church.  Koen had requested if he and Tavin could join me for the music portion of the worship service and I conceded.  I figured it was probably going to make it more difficult to enjoy the service, but it turned out that it just made it so much more special.  They were well-behaved just taking in the beautiful music (lots of instruments today and such powerful songs about Christ's victory over the grave!).  And I was just overwhelmed by all the blessings to reflect upon, not to mention the 3 specific ones I was surrounded by.  After church, I strayed a little from this reflective, euphoric state as we made a stop at Whole Foods and the big boys had a little trouble getting along and listening and obeying.  Actually it is such an ironic reminder of the dichotomy of life.  The truth of our new life in Christ (i.e. the happy thoughts/sweet boys at church) and yet we are still strapped in these earthly bodies for now (i.e. the boys' behavior at WF and my impatience!). It'll be so great to be in heaven one day with nothing to distract us from focusing on how good our God is and praising him for it constantly!  For now I'll just try to do better day by day!  Thankfully when we got home things rebounded and we had a really nice time together before naptime came around.  Right when we got home I had prepared a simple little egg hunt for the boys around the house.  I just used the plastic eggs from the other day and had put an Annie's bunny graham in each one.  Here was my most clever placement (and the last one for Koen to find).

After they had gathered all the eggs, they got to break into them and eat up their snack.  They were pretty happy about that!

After lunchtime we did an impromptu Easter craft.  Koen had been playing with Tav, but randomly asked if he could color for awhile.  I love it when he wants to sit and apply himself to an activity like that, so of course I said yes.  He said he wanted to do some cutting and coloring, so I suggested that he could cut out some Easter eggs to make as cards for Uncle Nate, Aunt Megan, Alex and Andy (we are going to their place for dinner).  He jumped on the idea and for the next two hours worked on this project.  Tavin heard the word "scissors" and decided he was interested too, but he finished up after about 10 minutes.  Koen did such a great job applying himself, I love to see that!

After the little guys were napping, Koen took a break from his egg creating to help me make pumpkin bread to take with us tonight.  Here's my handsome helper.

Around 4:15pm we headed out to Nate & Megan's.  It was such a great family night.  Koen and Tavin played so well with each other and with Alex, Nate & Megan's oldest (2 and 1/2 yrs.).  Koen was such a good leader.  It was great to see him playing well with his little brother.  They were just all so happy together.  Here's a picture of Tavin and Alex at the dinner table.

Alex gets lots of credit for being such a wonderful host.  He didn't mind Koen and Tavin playing with all of his toys all over his house one bit.  Here's Tav enjoying the kitchen (Alex is in the background just waiting for dinner...super cute.

Penn was making new friends.  Also joining us at the dinner were Paige and Josh, some North Way Oakland folks that are mutual friends.  Penn kept a close eye on them, but Paige was able to get pretty close...she even fed him a few Cheerios and later picked him up and he almost stayed happy. =)

After dinner Penn also got to know Andy a little better.  They sort of played ball together.

We pushed Penn to his limit as this tired, teether was ready for bed practically when he woke up from his afternoon nap.  We headed home after a super fun family night around 7:20pm.  Thanks so much, Nate and Megan!