Easter.

This morning I got a call from my aunt asking what our plans were for Easter this year. I am always the "family event planner" and had not even thought that Easter was....NEXT weekend. This seems to be a trend for me. I believe this is the 3rd year I have forgotten Easter.

Last Year, our Easter consisted of our "new normal" Spring Saturday and Easter Sunday.

In 2010, I arrived home from California on Saturday Evening, before Easter Sunday so it as a mad rush.

In 2009 we had 2 deaths and my grandmother's dementia became a real issue.

In 2008, my biological dad and his wife and my brothers came to visit. Easter was 2 weeks after Aubrie Kate was born!

Life is always chaotic on/or around Easter. Last year, we made the change of having Spring Saturday and Easter Sunday. Todd and I want our girls to have the "normal" Holiday Experiences (Santa, Bunny) because of its excitement. We don't dwell too much on them. We don't have pictures with the Easter Bunny, because we have dance pictures the same week. ( i love my kids but thats alot of $$ to spend on memories) we don't say "you better be good so the Easter Bunny will come". We expect them to be good because that is what they are suppose to do everyday. I wrote down some of my thoughts on this here.

We do want the experience of egg hunts and bunnies, because its spring, its new life, its a family tradition. But now...we do it all on Saturday. Spring Saturday is what we call it. Its the day before Easter. We do all the fun stuff that day. Then on Sunday, we celebrate our Lord and that He is Risen. We go to church, we spend time with our family, we give thanks and praise to the greatest gift ever given to us, Eternal Life.

With Easter being next weekend, I won't be rushing out to the stores this weekend to buy new clothes for us to wear. We will adopt the theme of reuse this Easter and just wear something we already have. Each girl has 2 closets full of spring clothes, a good ironing and it will be very cute.

What are your Easter plans? Does your family do things differently?  Do you recycle dresses? Do you wear white shoes before Easter? Share your ideas!