On the road again: Cottontail and game face!

Easter Sunday was exactly a week ago. Somehow, Jon David and Luke forgot about the Easter bunny. Jon David has believed in the Easter Bunny for quite some time. In fact, I think his belief in the Easter bunny paved the way for his belief in Santa, and not the other way around. Blame the forgetting on all of the wonderful distractions we had while Mimomo and BePops were here, the multiple egg hunts in the back yard, and Mom providing stuffed plastic eggs early.
The day that Mom and Dad left, I had an egg hunt with them while Don was out studying. We have two egg cartons with "Christian Easter Eggs." They are pretty cool. They are called "Resurection Eggs," and all twelve together tell the Easter story. You may have heard of them. They are an example of an effort to re-incorporate Jesus into the secularization of the Easter holiday. I'm sure that many of you would find grounds for hours of excellent philosophizing on this matter. Knock yourself out.
Anyway, the cool thing about having two sets of eggs goes w/out explanation when you have two boys on the hunt. When they gathered all of the eggs, we talked about them. Jon David especially seemed to enjoy this. It was pretty cool to hear them both recount what the eggs' contents meant again before bed that night.
Jon David has enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs for almost his whole life. When he was a toddler, we used to let him play with them year round. We finally would put them away b/c we felt like he needed a break from them.
By the way, Jon David told me this last year, and I might have even blogged about it: one of the main reasons he likes Easter is b/c the Easter bunny usually brings him something "about God" --like a bible or bible story book. I love that he loves this.
Well, how could the "Easter Bunny" resist keeping this going? So "he" decided that it was time for Jon David to have a bible of his own, not just an illustrated bible story book.
It was a little sad to see him bring his miniature bible into the family room sometimes if we were having a bible reading, and for him to say "Oh, it's in the Old Testament." Which meant--well, I can't look it up b/c my bible only has NT.
Of course, the Easter Bunny had no plans to leave Luke out, so when we found some adventure bibles on sale at the Christian book store, we were sold--or actually, the bibles were--haha.
The next morning, the boys woke up casually and played around or watched TV like they always did (easter baskets hidden in the family room and all!). When Don got up, I told him that they were clueless. We got the video camera out and tried to capture the moment:
By the way, I didn't realize how much Luke is licking his fingers here!!! It was just after breakfast, and I think he had just finished eating waffles and syrup. I should have had him wash his hands. In our haste, I think we forgot... obviously.

Well, we proceeded to get ready for church. Somehow, as we were on our way out the door, bibles in tow, the Easter Bunny got brought up. Luke asked the question directly "is the Easter Bunny real?" Don answered, well, "No." Oh well, in case they didn't know, the cat -- or bunny, as it were-- is now out of the bag. We decided that it is still fun to pretend. :)
Happy late Easter!

And now for soccer season. I hope to post more on this later. Here are the boys after their first games. Don said that they did great! (It's a bit tricky making evening games with Caleb sometimes).

Here they are w/dirty faces, eating a snack.

And here, hmmm... The three stooges? The three musketeers?

Caleb looks hilarious here. He looks like he is posing. One for all!

Poor Luke. Sometimes, being a middle kid just stinks. Jon David thinks he is so smart. Caleb: oblivious--thankfully.

And all for one. Ay ay ay! Luke is such a good sport! Man, it's pics like these that make me wanna swat Jon David's hiny--how do you spell that, btw??!

And sweet Caleb Thomas cut a tooth yesterday! He is also sitting up so well on his own now. Still LOVES playing with Jon David and Luke. Daddy makes him laugh, too! Oh, well, yea, Mommy too. ;)

More seven month pics: