kids say the darndest things...

if you have children, you know that one of the most interesting and informative things you can do as a parent is to observe your children playing - when they don't know you're watching. it gives you a truthful glimpse of their character. sometimes your disappointed, sometimes your thrilled, and sometimes you just say "aaaahhhh." today was one of those days. my kids were playing in the front yard with some neighbor kids, and i was a little distance away painting a mural for their bedroom. my 4 year old son, noah, found a dandelion - so he says "ooh, i've got to make a wish!" so, not only am i getting to watch him from afar as he plays, now i'm going to hear what his heart desires - because - of course he wishes out loud. here is what he said,"i wish my mommy and daddy won't leave me and go to heaven." made me say, "aaaahhhh."

its good to be loved.

happy easter!

So here's how the story goes...

on saturday, we decided it would be fun to go to an easter egg hunt with our kids. so when we got there, everyone in town was there too. they had the field split into several different hunts...1-3 year olds, 4-6 year olds, 7-9 year olds etc. well, neither jenny or i wanted to miss any of the action with any of our kids. so, we decided to put them all into the 4-6 hunt - figuring there were plenty of eggs to go around. and our 3 year old daughter would be able to find the eggs that were passed over. big mistake. the eggs were too easy to find, and our daughter was left in the dust. she was dazed and confused as the big kids ran past her and took all the eggs. she didn't find one! poor thing, she just sat there as the multitudes grazed across the field collecting all the eggs. you can see in the first picture how far from the action she was. so much for our promise of finding lots of candy...

...so the next morning we made everything right. we hid eggs in our back yard, and as soon as the kids were up (which is always too early) we had our own hunt with plenty of eggs to go around.

waiting for the signal...

...and they're off! we of course, let our daughter go first.

...here's a shot just before getting in the car to go to easter service.