Easter 2011

This is backing up a week before Easter when we made little bunnies from washcloths and put candy-filled plastic eggs into them to give to church and school teachers. I did it all a week early to keep from mixing the fun from the sacred. Who knows if that was accomplished, but the kids had a lot of fun making their bunnies for their teachers!

I actually had the dresses done with over a week to spare! I chose the material based on what wouldn't be too loud for church. :) And then that limited me. So once I came up with 3 combinations that I could live with, I decided who would get which fabric based on how much I like it. So I liked Sarah's the least. Since she's the only one who will wear it, I thought I could handle it for a couple of years. ;)

The pattern for these dresses was a long one. But I didn't take into account the "short gene" that we have in this family. Sarah's dress ended up so long that she had to hold it up like a storybook princess to walk. But she look DARNED CUTE doing it!

It's difficult to get a good picture these days. So here are all five. Sarah didn't want to even be on the couch and Daniel was having way more fun than was appropriate. They'll get it all back when they are parents! hehe

Our Easter Sunday was a nice one. Chad and I had been asked to speak (poor Chad - I took all his time!) and so we'd asked my mom if she could and would come up to sit with the kids in church. My step-dad ended up in the foyer much of the meeting because Sarah was cranky and kept reaching for the front of the chapel.

After church, we came home to a yummy, but unintentionally sugar-filled Easter dinner. We had a delicious ham with a cherry glaze, canned pears, a sweet potato pie, and Resurrection Rolls (look in the archives under April 2011). So much sugar!

My mom left after dinner (lunch, really) and we got a brief Easter nap. ;) Then we found several Easter clips and a movie and watched it with the kids and talked about it all a little.

All in all, it was a very nice day!

FOOLish

I've been missing! Actually, I've been in Chicago. There will be more on that another day.

But today was April Fools' Day. And what a day it was!

Here was one of the biggest jokes played:


We drove home in a blizzard last night. The snow (magically) stopped at the state border, but it caught up with us today. The kids made several large (3-4 foot diameter) snowballs in only a few seconds. They were in heaven.

Then Daniel got one of his bright ideas and Chad's hand saw.

A snowball wedge anyone? You may notice Daniel's lack of winter gear. That's the foolish in the April Fools' day. I would say it's his age, but I rather think it's just him.

Because we were out of town until late last night, my April Fools' Day (from now on, it will be AFD) planning was poor. Actually, I forgot all about it until earlier this morning, I think. Last year, we were visiting in Utah and I had to resort to pouring chocolate milk on the kids' cereal. There was even less planning then. Two years ago, I went all out. (Read about it here, but scroll down most of the page to find it.) Today I found some good ideas that didn't require much work or planning.


We had cake for dinner and baked potatoes for dessert.
Leah referred to the cake as "healthy cake". She just didn't know exactly what it was...until we cut into it.

It's meatloaf layers and mashed potato frosting with cherry tomato strawberries and ketchup writing. It was very yummy! We also had salad.

Daniel was not enthusiastic about his dinner.

We hinted about dessert enough that he finally choked it down...mostly.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream, shaped and rolled in baking cocoa powder, with a dollop of whipped topping sour cream. It wasn't until the kids actually dug into their potatoes that they realized it was ice cream. :)

This was a lot of ice cream to eat in one sitting! And I think I've had enough cocoa powder to last me a little while.

Here was one of the potatoes before I started peeling. I almost felt sorry for this guy! He looks like he knows what's coming. Those eyes came off nicely under my vegetable peeler. I thought it was a very appropriate potato for the occasion.

Sarah sat in the high chair and played with her tray during dinner. What a cute girl!

Now, Easter is officially the next holiday. I boiled 3 dozen eggs this morning. We'll probably decorate them tomorrow night. I also got out the Easter bin to take a mini inventory. I found another AFD surprise inside:

Somehow, we missed this little fellow in one of the Easter baskets last year. Two peanut M&Ms sat out in the garage for a year. If I was about 30 years younger, I'd probably eat them anyway. They've surely melted and frozen a time or two. Yummy. I threw them out; Joseph cried.

And speaking of Easter...the girls wore their dresses to church on Sunday. Leah's holding her matching purse, but you really can't see it against the dress. Joseph is missing a shoe as a result of a tantrum at picture time. What a great-looking bunch of super kids!

Too Slow

I was a little late calling Joseph up for his nap today. Apparently, I didn't need to worry. We usually put toys in these bins. I guess "little boys" works, too.

I made Sarah's Easter dress on Tuesday. I still have Leah's and Rebekah's to go. For as productive as I've been lately, I'll need all the time from now until Easter to get them done.

Our Easter Events

Easter is at least a 3 day event for us. This year we started with egg coloring on Thursday night. Rebekah couldn't remember coloring eggs last year, so it was all new and exciting for her. Everyone got into the fun and before we knew it, all 35 eggs were colored.


Leah likes to combine her holidays. She's got her Halloween shirt on here.













Joseph is coloring his only egg here. He did try for the easier way to get that egg out. Yes, his hand was orange.













Nathan used the most concentration decorating his eggs.













Daniel probably used the least. He did end up with a green thumb...that should help in the garden next month.

Rebekah was surprisingly deft with the little wire. She really only cracked one egg and it was the first time she picked one up.














This picture says it all. They had messy hands for a few days.

Our egg hunt was on Saturday. Here are the baskets all ready for the kids. You can see some of the "hidden" eggs on the back of the couch.














The butterfly nets were a big hit. They were only $1.25 at the grocery store. Best news? We haven't broken one yet!

The bubbles were pretty exciting, too. Look closely and you'll be able to see some. Poor Joseph was wistfully watching the fun. Like our vibrant-green grass? Spring is reluctantly coming to our corner of the world.

The best part of the day was the actual egg hunt! With 35 real eggs and at least that many candy-filled plastic ones, everyone had plenty of chances to find an egg.

It looks like Nathan is sliding into home to get this egg.













Daniel helped Joseph find some eggs. Actually, Joseph didn't have any trouble finding the eggs, he just didn't know what to do with them next.













And here is our Easter dress picture right before church. This is one of the reasons we made it to our bench just as the meeting was getting started. You'll notice Leah's pleasant expression. She doesn't like wearing tights. (Actually, she doesn't like wearing much of any of her clothes, but that's a different post all of its own.) You may notice that Daniel doesn't have shoes on. He still doesn't know where they are. The boys have matching ties, excluding Joseph.

And that's our Easter story in pictures. On Sunday, we had a ham dinner. Chad made it and it was very yummy. Next we had FHE on the Easter story - complete with 12 plastic eggs, each filled with a scripture and something to do with the story. We watched "The Lamb of God" and then ate a bunny cake I'd picked up at the store.

Everything is now put away and there is only a handful of that blasted plastic grass floating around the house. I really like holidays, but I'm so thankful when they're over. The kids really like holidays, too. They just wish they'd last more than one day. (Rebekah was convinced that today was Easter, too.)

And here's a little proof that the Easter Bunny really did come to our house!

Easter 2008

Easter seemed so early to me this year. I figure that has a little something to do with the fact that it came less than a week after St. Patrick's Day. It's really asking a lot to expect me to switch gears so quickly.

Fortunately, I am so organized and have all my Easter stuff in a bin. Unfortunately, it was in the garage, trapped beneath two of the very heavy Christmas bins. I was able to free it (3 days before Easter) with minimal grunts and groans and only one lost slipper. What joy the kids expressed when the lid came off and the colors came out! I was surprised to find my "misplaced" Valentine's Day decorations in there. I do seem to remember storing those two holidays together once upon a time. (I was even more surprised to find Chad's shoe shine stuff in the Easter box. Of all the unrelated places! I made him guess where they were and now he owes me a dinner.)

We tried something a little different (for us) this year. We had "fun" Easter on Saturday and "real" Easter on Sunday. I liked it better that way...less stress before and after church. Anyway, I've digressed. We decorated 2 1/2 dozen minus one eggs on Thursday night. (I ate one that erupted during boiling.) It was a good math problem for Daniel.

We really like to decorate eggs. I usually endure a high level of stress as eggs are dropped, plopped and slopped. I'm just waiting for a nasty lime green dye to get spilled and stain my floor and walls. Rebekah was especially good at making me gasp throughout the event. She pre-cracked them for us. Nathan had fun decorating, but reminded us that he wouldn't eat any. He's sworn off hard boiled eggs since last year's never ending supply of egg salad sandwiches. I like Leah's expression here and can't help but think that she's eyeing the competition
...which apparently was Daniel.


We went to a community Easter egg hunt at the high school on Saturday morning.
As it was 20 degrees, we looked more suited for cutting down a Christmas tree than gathering eggs, but what do you expect when Easter falls on March 23rd? They had the fields divided by ages and we were a little dismayed to find that we had 4 kids in four different categories. So Rebekah pretended she was 3 and Daniel pretended he was 6. Heck, I know there were true 6 year-olds bigger than him! I went with the girls and Chad with the boys. Joseph was in a cocoon in the stroller with me. All the eggs were labeled with local companies' names. They were waiting off to the side to give the kids even more sugary prizes if they presented the right eggs.

I thought we should have had hot chocolate once we got home...but that doesn't really seem fitting the holiday.

Later that day, we had our own Easter egg hunt. We hid our dyed eggs plus an additional 39 plastic ones.


Some eggs were harder to recover than others.









I bought some hoppy balls (you know...the kind you sit on and bounce all over the place?) for the kids that they had to find from clues in specially filled eggs. The smell of the rubber just about knocked me out. I still make a face when I go downstairs and step around them. I intend them to be outside toys, as soon as the weather cooperates.


The next day was Sunday and we were fortunate enough to be speaking in Sacrament Meeting. Chad's mom drove out to sit with Joseph and Rebekah while the rest of us sat on the stand. Leah, Nathan and Daniel gave a short talk, then we all stood up to sing "He Sent His Son" and Rebekah joined us for that. It would have been nice if she sang instead being so interested in the podium. Then I spoke, followed by a flute number and Chad finished up. The girls looked cute in their semi-matching dresses. The boys got new ties and Joseph got a new shirt. He then christened his new shirt (through his onesie) while grandma held him and endured to the end. I nearly put him in the women's bathroom sink after that, but used 20 baby wipes instead.

And that was our Easter 2008. Today I bought next year's Easter goods at 75% off. Long live Wal-Mart.




I'll try to post about April Fool's Day tomorrow. I've run out of time tonight. (It's no wonder since I blabbed on and on in this one!)

Sorry for the small pictures...I was economizing on space. Hopefully, Blogger will cooperate and allow you to click on them and make them bigger (huge, actually).