A Radiant Easter

Another Radiant Easter!  A huge community outreach combined with tons of services and beautiful moments made for a really fun weekend.  The kiddos were troopers and got to celebrate the following Monday with an egg hunt, but they also enjoyed the weekend at church.

The entire week leading up to Easter, the carnival was setting up outside slowly, piece by piece.  And Daniel just drooled every time we pulled up.  "What's that ride Mommy?!"  "What's that new machine?!"  "Look at that giant circle!!"  (Ferris wheel).  

One day was particularly memorable... Daniel asked why Easter was coming.  And I told him that we have a big party at Easter to celebrate Jesus.  And he said, "Why?  Is it his birthday?"  And I told him no, that it's the day Jesus came back to life and now he's alive!  The reaction was priceless.  Daniel's face registered nothing but pure excitement and surprise and he began screaming (a la Will Ferrel's Santa scene in "Elf"):  "JESUS!!! Jesus is coming!!!  Jesus is alive!!!  Violet, Jesus is coming!!!"

Fernando and I were working all weekend, and it appeared that there was no time to enjoy the carnival as a family.  So we kind of broke the rules.    

We snuck Daniel and Violet out on Saturday night for a snow cone (oh the joy!  oh the sticky mess!) and on Sunday, we snuck Daniel out of his class alone for a special treat he had been begging for all week:  A ride down the giant super slide (which I managed to not get a photo of!)  

It was at the very end of the carnival on Sunday, and Fernando managed to close a line while also standing in line.  Smooth.  

Daniel's little face was in awe of the towering slide - three side by side bumpy tracks, designed to race the people sitting next to you.  (And please notice his "Daniel Spiderman" name tag - this was in the middle of his "I will only respond to Spiderman" phase...)  The excitement was just adorable to watch, and the slide itself was a lot of fun.  He sat on the middle track (obviously) so he couldn't fly off one of the outside tracks.  We held hands and went down together.  

We continued celebrating the next day together as a family (read: Egg Hunt!") but thoroughly enjoyed Easter weekend itself at Radiant.