Easter

Yeah - I am back! Last week was so busy, so it's good to finally be able to blog about Easter. I was frantically trying to finish 2 quilts for the girl's teachers (I found out that I needed to get them to my quilter much quicker than I thought - pictures to follow!), I spoke in Church yesterday, it was my turn for Kate's preschool group, plus all of the regular day-to-day events of our lives....so, FINALLY...here are the Easter pictures.

We had a great Easter this year! The weather finally warmed up and was beautiful for all of the fun events.

Easter Egg Hunts & Decorating

The kids were excited to do 2 Easter Egg Hunts this year. There was an Upper Arlington one at Lane Road Park. Jon took the four oldest kids over. He said there was a ton of candy spread out all over, but even with dividing kids into different age divisions, all the candy was snatched up within about 40 seconds. The kids were happy with what they got and since it was a week before Easter, they loved having candy early.

The following Saturday, Becky Larson had organized an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids in our ward. She had the moms bring over eggs and goodies and she filled the eggs, went to a local Elementary School and put them all over. It was an impressive amount of eggs! The kids had a really fun time gather their eggs and searching for the "golden" egg that had $1 in it. Emily got some candy and then helped the little kids find some, Lindsey gathered her eggs and then started giving it away to kids that didn't have quite as much, Jack got as many eggs as we'd let him and wouldn't let anyone touch them, and Kate floated around finding her few eggs. It was really fun to be with so many of our great friends!! (Thank you Becky for the fun Egg Hunt!).

Hannah's idea of "hunting" was to just sneak some out of the other kid's baskets

We came home and while Jon went for a run, the kids and I dyed eggs. (In all honesty, for me, egg dying is like carving Jack-O-Lanterns - soooo much work, soooo much mess, and sooooo stinky!). The kids had a fun time waiting for their eggs to turn colors and it turned out to be a really fun time to just visit with the kids.

Easter Morning

The kids had a fun time finding their Easter baskets on Easter morning. Emily and Lindsey helped me fill and hide them and it was fun to see them feel so grown up. We got ready for and went to Church (unfortunately Jon had to work). Church was great and it's such a blessing to be able to celebrate the life, Atonement and resurrection of our Savior.

Easter Dinner

We had the Rasmussen's and Johnston's over for dinner for our traditional Easter dinner. We had ham, baked potatoes, Jell-O beans, rolls, creamed corn, cooked carrots and Bunny Cake and Cupcakes for dessert. Holidays are so fun with these great families and we loved being all together. Kirsten let the kids decorate the bunny cakes and they had a blast. One turned out just like a bunny, the other was just covered in candy and they called it a "one-of-a-kind" cake. It all tasted super yummy and it was a treat to all be together.

Kirsten's amazing bunny cupcakes (the bunny's feet are sticking up out of the dirt)


10 great kids!!!! Hannah was grabbing both cakes with her hands and making the kids laugh. You'll also notice that the cake Lindsey is holding is sliding to the ground. Kate and Karli also ended up with matching skirts (Hannah had one too but it had already needed to be changed). Wow! We love these kids!!!

Easter Family Home Evening

On Monday night, we had our Easter lesson in FHE. We talked about the last week of the Savior's life and His Atonement, Death and Resurrection. The kids did a pretty good job paying attention and it's always amazing to hear about that week. We ended by cracking open an egg that we had blown out, to show that the tomb was empty on that first Easter morning.