for the babies...

Saturday we had our Junior League's annual easter egg hunt. It was a little bittersweet for me. I've been a part of our local junior league for the past seven years. The last three years, my placement has been "Arrangements", meaning I get to organize events such as the easter egg hunt. But to everything there is a season and recently I've felt led to let go of a lot of outside responsibilities, both professional and volunteer, in order to focus on what means the most to me:
my family.In this season of my life, my littles are my ministry. Little children don't keep and I want to focus my time and energy on their activities, on raising God-loving little people without outside distractions. So the egg hunt was my next to last responsibility with the League and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.Mr. I-don't-want-to-stop-and-smile-for-a-picture.
{takes after his daddy! he he he}We had gorgeous weather and lots of eager littles ready to fill their baskets...Amazing how fast 600+ eggs are found!
{less than 6 minutes to be exact}I love these next two pictures and I'm so glad I was in the right spot to capture them. The little pumpkin peeked inside Hudson's basket and seeing he didn't have as many eggs as she did, discreetly put some of hers in his basket without saying a word...They may fight like cats and dogs some days but the truth is they really do love each other and they watch out for each other every chance they get - I love that!The house we had the egg hunt at was gorgeous! The backyard was amazing.We had lots of cookies and yummy muffins, lemonade and juice for the hungry littles after their morning egg run...We had some latecomers...mainly babies and toddlers. Feeling like they weren't going to be able to find any eggs since most had already been found and collected, I asked the little pumpkin if she would share some of her eggs and place them in easy to find spots in the area we had designated for the youngest littles. She said, "okay, mama" and skipped away.I went off to serve lemonade and she went off to re-hide some eggs...The babies LOVED finding eggs!This little guy makes my heart smile. Isn't he just gorgeous??? I couldn't get him to smile, but even his "serious look" melts your heart. He has recently joined his forever family and I couldn't be happier for his sweet mama.I just love the way babies squat down to pick up stuff. It's just the cutest thing ever.When I caught up with the little pumpkin I realized she had given away ALL of her eggs. She was so happy, her little face just beaming telling me, "Mama, I put an egg RIGHT in front of a baby and he grabbed it!!" Oh, to have the pure heart of a child.I was so proud of her. I never asked her to give away all of her eggs. But she's full of compassion and she loves babies {tells me she wants to have triplets...two girls and one boy...when she's a mama one day} and she gave with a happy heart. Makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, we're doing something right raising these two littles God has entrusted to our care.