Day 3 (Happy Easter, The Fish and the Carnival)

When we woke up this morning there was a trail of yellow paper grass from the front door to the porch... It appears that the Easter Bunny DID know where we were because when the kids followed the yellow grass, it lead them to their Easter baskets.

The baskets were filled with candy treats. (which Z ate WAY too much of and even said, "Where's my shoes? I'm leaving!", when we told him he couldn't have any more) The Bigs got PJs for their friends, Jack and Ruby, and of course the Easter Bunny brought books- books about Easter Bunnies and of course the REAL reason we celebrate Easter.

I absolutely love how much our children love books and also how much they know and understand about God. Ali Jane has been talking about Easter this whole lenten season and of course sharing what she knows with her brothers (and anyone else who will listen). Ali Jane is our true book-worm and though we are on vacation she has NOT taken a vacation from her books!

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! At 9:30 we arrived at church- only to discover that the Easter services were at a different time than their regular services, so we were 15 minutes late!

The service we went to had traditional songs which we haven't heard in a long time since we now worship at contemporary styles of worship. The Bigs were great... Zach was, well,... 'two'... and Sean was amazing. He was awake and super quiet during the sermon and singing away during the hymns. It was precious!

After church we changed into our suits and Jeff and I took the kids to the pool. I was amazed by how excited the kids were! They were jumping into the water- going under- and acting like real fish. Even when I was with Zach and would go underwater with him, we would come up and he would wipe his eyes and say... "AGAIN!"

Ali Jane jumped into the pool over and over and she also practiced making a "T"- (floating on your back with your arms out to your side). The people who have worked with them at swim lessons would never have guessed these were the same kids that hardly said a word and were too timid to jump into the pool.

The place we are staying had an egg hunt for the kids in the afternoon and when I told them we would need to go up and rest before the hunt, Joe said we already had an egg hunt at school and that they'd much rather be in the pool. Even candy crazy Zach was o.k. with that idea!

Sean took in all the excitement pool-side. He didn't come into the pool with us. Even the smallest of swim diapers (which are the ones Zach wears) were MUCH too big for him. He loved watching his sibs and sitting in the sun. Everyone was commenting on how cute and sweet he was.

After shopping at the crazy outlet malls for new shoes for Ali Jane, (I forgot to pack her tennies) we came back 'home' and Jeff and I took the two Bigs to a carnival that is within walking distance of where we're staying. With Sean sleeping, we talked Nana and Papa into watching the littles and Zach didn't object too much... (he knew his beloved candy was there!)

The kids rode some kiddie rides which perhaps will make them more ready for Disney World tomorrow. They were brave and went on them all by themselves (without us) and a couple of rides they even went without each other! Ali Jane chose to go on the Merry-go-Round while Joe opted for a train ride.

After the rides we went into an arcade style place which had a lot of games very similar to a Chuck-E-Cheese (which is one of my least favorite places!) The kids had fun though and gathered a lot of tickets by doing different things- like shooting water at a bulls eye to race some boats. (Competitive Ali Jane loved this because she won EVERY time!) They turned in their tickets for a clapper, vampire teeth, a car (for Zach) and some tattoos- (which we thought were stickers) It was a full day and I'm sure they'll rest well tonight... For tomorrow we'll be visiting the Magic Kingdom! I'm so excited and hoping that Sean will let us sleep again tonight! (Cross your fingers!)