Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed

In honor of Johnny Appleseed's upcoming birthday our family spent Sunday (after church of course) at Apple Hill. It's a local place where there are tons of apple orchards all close to each other and in the fall they always have tons of activities going on. We usually take a few trips there a year. This past Sunday we visited 5 of the orchards and had a bunch of fun.
Actually to be totally honest I was hot and felt dirty and after the second one I was ready to go home but the kids and the dad insisted we keep going. So here is a bit of what we did...

Our happy family after the long day!

Mom is extra happy because we are on our way back to the car. :)

I wasn't sure what this was but Adia says right away "look at the big emu"... whatever!

Kaden was happy to keep his distance.

Adia and Adison participated in the egg race... Adia got a free carmel apple for 2nd place!

Adison got a bunch of tears for dropping her egg off the spoon. She didn't care that most of the kids did the same thing.

Making apple turnovers... we cooked them at home the next day - so yummy!

Kaden trying to get in on the action.

This guy was taking people for rides on his little cart being pulled by miniature horses. He actually went pretty fast around the turns.
Couldn't pass up the opportunity for cute daddy daughter photos.

So cute... as you can see Avery isn't being as sweet as her brother (notice her open hand).

Daddy and his best buddy looking for fish.

Following the leader.

"Mommy, take my picture."

And here are a few pictures I found as I downloaded my camera...

I thought Kyle would LOVE for me to share them!

This is what little girls do with their little brothers when they are bored... Avery and Adia think these are SO FUNNY!

Kenyon looks like he might just have a future career in modeling in the other pictures for his nice poses in a girls bra and scrap fabric... but after posting them I realized if you blow it up there is a bit of boy parts showing so I needed to remove it. If you got lucky enough to see his great pose - oops!

Christ Has Risen!!!!

If ever there was a reason to celebrate it is now, in this season, for this reason -

CHRIST HAS RISEN!

Here are some pictures of how our family has been celebrating our risen KING!

Dying eggs with friends...

Eating candy with friends (and without)...

Making "Thank you for the cross" cakes with friends on Good Friday...

Going to a church party to celebrate with our church family...

This little candy monster kept finding chocolate and even when she said she hadn't had any - her tongue told us the truth.

Watching friends from church get baptized...

Spending time with family having a yummy Easter dinner...

Notice where Kenyon is - he cuddled and climbed on Ty all day. It was a super special treat to have Uncle Ty with us for Easter as well as our Petersen cousins (and their parents).
Finding our Resurrection eggs that the bad guys stole so we wouldn't talk about Jesus... but they didn't win - we found every egg and celebrated the truth about Easter.

Going to church...

When I think about what Christ did for us and that he truly conquered death and has promised us a new life with him I am overwhelmed by how rich those words are and how hard it is to live in that reality every day. I so appreciated our pastor sharing these words from Paul in regards to the resurrection of Christ... "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

And this picture has nothing to do with Easter but I just had to show it because the teeter totter is Kaden's newest love... the boy is truly a thrill seeker and scares me!