The Easter Bunny even found us in St. Kitts

Happy Easter to all!

What a wonderful day! Austin and I really like this Easter Bunny thing, especially me. Creating the magic is so much fun. We have been so very blessed and got a lot of goodies from a friend who is moving. One of the items was a pink tent. We set up the tent in the living room and hid Eden's Easter basket inside. Her expressions are priceless! She loves awing and her eyebrows can't get higher at times. The great thing about this age is that simple is perfect. St. Kitts doesn't do the plastic egg or Easter egg hunt thing, so we had to settle for hard boiled eggs. The only disadvantage was that we had to hide the eggs after church so they wouldn't spoil. Eden loved it. She loved it so much that Austin kept secretly taking eggs out of her basket to hide them over and over. What fun! 

It has been wonderful watching the Kittitians celebrate Easter. It's like Christmas here. Everything shuts down. They celebrate Good Friday and Easter Monday (though I can't figure out where the Monday came from). Austin keeps saying that we need more religion in America like this. It's really cool that it's so widely accepted and openly celebrated. So, they don't to the plastic eggs, but they do fly kites. I guess that's their tradition. We drove past maybe 100 kites on Good Friday, kind of cool. Kites, and salt fish are their traditions, I hear. They eat salt fish, coconut dumplings, and veggies for Easter... much different than ham and funeral potatoes, right? 

I was grateful to be teaching in primary yet again today. It's wonderful to feel like you are making a difference. There was a boy in class today, visiting with his neighbor, who is not a member of the church. He was very pleasant and seemed very intent on learning. Surprisingly, the kids in class didn't know the real reason we celebrate Easter aside from the fun and treats. That left me with an exciting yet challenging task. How do you explain everything- Christ, the Atonement, that He died to save us from death and sin, and the Resurrection, plus the whole story- in one class period? As I started teaching about the Atonement and how Jesus Christ went to a garden to pray, he said "Father in Heaven..." this boy stopped me and said he didn't understand. How could God pray to himself? Wow. The truths we take for granted. Like I said, what an exciting opportunity for me! I tried my best to explain that we all have a Heavenly Father, who is God. Jesus Christ's father is also God, but He doesn't have an earthly dad, so that made him a God too, but they are different beings. We have a few light bulb moments in Primary. That was one.  Another was these kids learning that when we die, because of Jesus Christ we don't go to hell. Many- too many- think that and they aren't afraid to say it. 

Eden and I spent one morning at the park this week. We invited all the moms to join us so there was quite the party. It is such a joy for me to watch Eden. She is such a people person and loves being friends with everyone. Although Eden is the youngest one in her group of little friends, it doesn't stop her from jumping in and running around with everyone and yelling from one person to another. We have passed the "I have to be by mom all the time" phase. She's a free spirit now. Joanna, our friends also from Utah, was there with her 6 year old, Grant, and her twins. Eden really likes Joanna and is comfortable going to her now. She was getting a stroller ride from Joanna when we hear Grant yelling from the bathroom. I ran to his aid and as I suspected, he was in need of toilet paper. I handed him toilet paper and turned around to see a real, live, 8- inch centipede crawling toward us. Ew! That's the first live one I've seen (thank goodness). All I could do was say, "Grant, wipe fast!" because it was corning us into the stall. Needless to say, we booked it out of there. I never want to see one of those again. 

On a happier note, I have to brag. Eden is wearing big girl panties and keeps them dry. We have had a couple of days where we have been out and even then, she hasn't wet her pants. We have a potty-trained 15 month old! Yay for saving money and laundry! Go Eden!

Just look at that blue sky!