Easter Adventure 2024!

Our church's Easter Adventure was on Saturday, March 30th. Next year we are thinking of having it the week before Easter and not the day before. A lady at our church mentioned this and I have no idea why we never thought of this before, but it's pure genius! 

Me, Heather & Jenny are the floaters that run around and do all the things! I love working with these ladies! 

We had three guys set up to be the bunny. We had one outside at the roundabout to draw attention to the event. It was such a gorgeous day!!! 

The event starts at 10am, but unlike other hunts you can come to anytime to ours and still have fun. It's a whole walk through adventure. 

When families came inside they were greeted by our lovely volunteers. 

They got some candy and then checked in....we were just keeping track of numbers for planning purposes. 

After check in they headed into the nursery for the hunt portion. Michael was the leader in charge of the hunt. Once the kids got their 10 eggs everyone would exit at the other end of the nursery out into the hallway where they took their eggs apart to get the candy and then recycle the eggs for us to use next year. 

Once they were finished recycling their eggs they could come into the sanctuary for the carnival portion of the adventure. It looks crazy, but it is well organized with stanchions so people know where to go. 

First stop if you wanted was to get your face painted.

Then you went onto Wheel of Fortune. My Dad's name tag on his shirt actually said "Pat"! 

Justine & Ella ran the Egg Toss event. They were giving out candy and/or small prizes. 

This year we had a new game...fishing. It was so fun. Micah would help the kids on this side with the fishing pole and then Caitlynn would attach candy or a prize on the other side and the kiddo would reel it up. 

Jenny & Charlie ran the duckie game. Each duckie had a number written on the bottom. A kiddo would pick a duckie and then get that number of candies. 

Plinko is always a favorite. Jason and his daughter Ava signed up to help that morning and we were so thankful they did! 

Over at the front of the sanctuary we have a prayer booth. Lots of people took advantage and got prayed for. 

Then there was the prize tables. Every single kid got a prize to take home. 

We had a ton of awesome prizes this is after a bunch of kids have already gone through. These tables were full! 

Once you got your prize you could go out and get your picture taken with one of the bunnies. This particular bunny was Jack! 

After a bit the bunny would change out for a different bunny. The chocolate bunny was Josiah! 

After bunny pictures when you went outside you could get popcorn and cotton candy to take home. 

In one of the conference rooms we had a few volunteers that were putting all the recycled eggs back together to be stored for next year. We've found that storing the eggs like that makes for less broken eggs. 

In the end we had over 600 people come through our door. Over 350 kids!!! Our goal this year was 400 kids and we got pretty close!!! It was a smashing success! 

A Few Random Things That Didn't Need A Whole Post!

Here are a few pictures that didn't justify a whole blog post by themselves, but they are still pretty cool so I wanted to post about them! 

Back in October, our Women's Ministry put on a skit at our Women's Retreat...the theme was all about the Armor of God. Gail the Women's Ministry Leader tasked Zeke with creating swords, shields and wrist guards for the skit. Well this was right up Michael's alley so he jumped in to work on it too. He made them look so amazing! 

Here's the ladies in the skit with their swords and shields. 

Here's all the actors on stage after the skit. Jack & Andrew played the bad guys that fought against the Christians wearing their armor. Zeke, Caitlynn and Josiah were off on the side holding up signs during the fight scenes that said things like "Thwack" or "Smash" like the old Batman TV show. It was hilarious! 

Zeke really wanted to be Seahawks player for Halloween he was so excited when his costume came that he wore his helmet almost the whole night. 

I finally broke down and took Jack and Zeke to Great Clips to get their hair cut. They look so good!!! 

Last year I started going to a Cooking Club with Kim and a few other ladies. We've met monthly with the exception of summer. It's been so fun trying new foods and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. On Monday, October 13th, we had a tea party so I had to bring my Royal Albert Old Country Rose china and use that. It was so fun!

Back in July during a camping trip we hit a deer and the truck had a bunch of damage on the front and driver side. At first our scheduled date to get it fixed wasn't until November 16th, but thankfully they were able to get us in early. I took the truck down on Sept 28th and it was finally finished on Oct 31st! She looks pretty good!!! 

Just a fun picture of these cuties of mine prior to them going to youth group & play rehearsal! 

I bought Michael and I one of those dating books where you scratch off the date and go on an adventure. The first date we went on we had to go somewhere that was at least 15 miles from home and we hadn't really ever spent time there. We chose to go to North Bend. We've driven through there, but we haven't really done anything other than get MCD's or gas. Our first stop of course had to be Snoqualmie Falls. You can't drive up here and not visit. This was on Saturday, November 11th. The falls was roaring, but thankfully not too misty! It was beautiful! 

Michael and I had also been attending a Marriage class at church so we took our book with us and discussed the questions on the drive up. It's always so nice to be intentional with our marriage. We ended up eating at a the Pour House Bar & Grill. It was really yummy! After that we walked through the older part of town...not the outlet stores. We bought some chocolate and then I had a cookie and Michael got a coffee. It was a really fun date day! 

Our kids have been attending a Christian Taekwondo class every Tuesday night since January 2022. Here they are getting their new belts!  

They started out at white belts, moved to low yellow, then high yellow and at this class they moved into low green. The best part about low green is they now attend the later class. Rather than class starting at 5pm it now starts at 6pm. It's been nice getting to have dinner at home prior to class. 

Zeke was part of the Kids Musical at church on December 17th. He had never expressed an interest in being in a play, but he was bored one Wednesday nights when his older siblings were leaving to go to youth group so I told him he should go to the rehearsal and see if it might interest him. He fought me on it, but I told him he could go once and then be done if he didn't like it. Well, he came home singing the songs and he was so excited he LOVED it. He did a great job! I also had a minor roll in the play. At one point Zeke talks about how he hopes his mom isn't too mad because he already opened all his Christmas presents. At that point in the play I got to jump up and loudly say...ZEKE RUSSELL MARTIN!!!! Everyone laughed it was super cute! 

On Valentine's Day, Ella came home from youth group with a card and candy from a certain boy! She had the biggest smile on her face!!! 

On March 5th, Owen had an appt with his dermatologist to start on Accutane. He has bad acne just like I did...thankfully it seems like Jack and Ella are taking after Michael which I'm so thankful for. I know it doesn't look like it in this picture, but Owen does struggle with his skin. I knew I wanted to get it taken care of before he gets any scarring. He's been on it now for over a month and his skin is looking better. Right now he's in the drying out period so his skin is really flaky, but it should take less than 6 months and he'll be finished. 

On Monday, March 11th, Jack went in to get his braces removed! 

Nice straight white teeth. It's so crazy that we don't have anyone in braces anymore!!! 

For Cooking Club in March we were making Scandinavian food and I was tasked with making dessert. I requested a cookbook from the library called Modern Scandinavian Baking and decided to make this recipe for Mama's Maple Pecan Ring and oh my goodness the house smelled divine!!! They were so yummy and the best part was the recipe made 2 rings so I took one and Michael and the kids got to enjoy one at home.