Easter

We had to decorate eggs on Thursday after soccer games,
it was the only time for us to do it all together.
Evey had even agreed to babysit for a neighbor,
but I had to cancel for her, so we could make pretty eggs.
Sorry Tara!!!

Jon made 4 1/2 dozen eggs!!

Winter just wanted to put the eggs in the dye.

Lovin' the team work!

She ended up liking coloring paper when
I wouldn't let her stick any more eggs in the dye

Friday I actually got my bootie in gear and
made the girls dresses. While I was sewing
the kids decided to do a science experiment,
which ended in them making ice cream in
    plastic baggies. They had a ton of fun dancing
to shake the ice cream.

Saturday We had soccer games in the morning then
Jon and I ran some errands together. It's so nice
having a built in babysitter. Although I feel her pain,
I was one too!!

There was a neighborhood egg hunt planned and
we were supposed to drop of a dozen eggs for
each of our kids to hunt. So I got the eggs over there.
But when the time for the hunt and pot luck rolled
around it was raining.  We were running a little late
and when we got there the kids were almost done
hunting. They were hurrying because it was raining.
I don't blame them!!! But when they saw us they
each threw out enough eggs for my kids to hunt and
some parents hid some to make it fun. Such sweet
kids and neighbors we have! No one stayed for the
pot luck, it was no fun in the rain! Oh well, I think
the kids had fun anyway!

Sunday we had to be at church extra early 8:15 (actually 8:30, but I had to give a little leeway!!) so I could practice with the choir and the kids were singing prelude, so that meant waking up super early to hunt baskets. The Easter Bunny left everyone a personalized hunt as always.

Everyone finding their first clue.

Winter was not happy to be up so early...

Until she realized what she was supposed to do.
She had a deflated balloon, and had to search the house
for the inflated matching one,
pop it and inside was another deflated balloon of another color,
The last balloon held a clue to where her basket was.

Lex Had a map of the house with a bunch
of numbers on it, And a math equation.
He had to solve the equation and
find the corresponding number on the map
for the next problem.

The last number had his basket.

Paris was given a rhyme and the missing word was where the next clue was.

What the heck!! Evey's clue was a long strip of paper
with a little drawing of an object and a  bunch of letters.
She had a hard time figuring out what she was supposed to do.
She finally realized she needed to find whatever the object was.
Then it took her a bit longer to figure out she had
to wrap the paper around the object for the next clue.

Her clues weren't totally obvious either. Well to me at least, she seemed to find them pretty quick!
For example, WAKE was the clue to an alarm clock, so she found her next clue there.

Each basket had a little letter so once
everyone's letter was found,
they had to make a word with the 6 letters to reveal a final surprise.

As per Easter Bunny tradition, he brought some fun outdoor games and toys.

Since it was a huge rush to get to church early,
we didn't have time for pictures,
and then after no one wanted to cooperate, As ALWAYS!!!
But they were kind enough to pose for a few
and I discovered that my new camera does not have a self timer,
for a family shot,sad, but I guess I'll live :)

The Easter bunny usually leaves an egg hunt for the kids,
but he knew we needed to get to church,
so he left a monstrous bowl full of eggs
and a note that we were to have a hunt outside after church.
Which turned out well, we waited until our guests got
here and included them in the fun.

One of the outdoor toys was a helicopter  shooter thing ??
I don't know, anyway, its little propeller things shot
 really high and we had to send Evey on the roof to get it.

We try really hard to make sure the kids know what
Easter is really about, and what is most important.
And they all know, they really do, but it bothers me
especially this Easter because we woke up to do the
basket hunt early so we could get to church early.

I heard a couple of friends say this year, that the bunny
visits their houses on Saturday morning, so that all of
Sunday can be focused on Jesus and the Atonement.
I really , really love this idea and think I will have the
kids sit down with me and write a letter to the Bunny
next year telling him we would like to do our basket
hunt on Saturday too. I think he won't mind too much :)

I am so bad at expressing my feelings and bearing my
testimony anyway, but am even worse on a medium like this,
online! I have written a few paragraphs only to erase them.
But I want you all to know how truly grateful I am for our
Savior and His Atonement.

I am so moved by music. I am the ward choir director and
picked two songs that held so much meaning for me and I
can't tell you how grateful I am for everyone who sang on
Sunday! The choir was so big and beautiful and so full of
the spirit! I even heard comments that we sounded like the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Such a complement!
Here is a link to one of the songs we sang,
however it is not the choir arrangement we sang,
but the words are what I want to share.
Gethsemane

 And I couldn't find a link to just the music of this song so here's a video.
Also not a choir arrangement.



 And while I'm at sharing videos here is an Easter message.





He is Risen!