Easter

On Friday night the kids put out their Easter "baskets".  Actually, we couldn't find them (they might have been destroyed during the year while the kids played with them) so we used Halloween cauldrons.  The Easter Bunny didn't seem to mind because he brought some stuff anyway. 

Each kid got a small chocolate bunny.  (Daddy kindly ate Bellana's.)

And they also got some eggs filled with finger puppets!  There are two complete families of mom, dad, grandma and grandpa, brother and sister.  We were excited to play with these during Sacrament meeting on Sunday so we made sure to put them in a place where we'd remember to grab them.  Which, of course, we forgot.

My visiting teacher has started a fun tradition.  Sick of the crowded, competitive community egg hunts, she formed her own with friends.  Everyone brought 20 filled eggs per child.  The moms distracted the kids out of sight of the field while the dads littered the ground with hundreds of eggs.  Then, they were off!

The kids aged five and up had to run clear to the back fence first before they were allowed to pick up any eggs.  We forgot their cauldrons at home so Vander and Annalee used grocery sacks.  (Can you see Annalee with her sack in the far back left of the field?  Vander is up close in brown.)

It was great fun to get a variety of items in their eggs, from candy and money to stickers and balloons.  Bellana picked up one egg and was happy with it for the rest of the day. She mostly rode around on Daddy's shoulders and enjoyed the sunshine.



I tried to get some pictures of the kids enjoying their stash but it was getting really bright and quite warm, even though Vander refused to take off his coat.  You can see Annalee is not so thrilled with my request for her to look at the camera.

There wasn't much in the kids' baskets because they got some new swings!  We got the swings put up later that day.  We reattached the baby swing to make sure it wasn't cutting into the tree branch.  Before this, we just had the baby swing for Vander (he used to be small enough for it!) and in improvised swing for Annalee that was made of a rope and a heavy block of wood.  Her swing was not very comfortable and was actually rather dangerous if it was swung around without someone on it.  She is in love with her new, comfortable disc swing!

Nathan installed Vander's swing pretty low (at my request) so Vander could get on it without assistance.  It was so cute to see him swinging an inch off the ground and then just letting go and falling backward to get off.  By the next day, though, the rope had stretched a little and he was scraping the ground.  So Daddy raised it.

Bellana spent some time in her swing but I didn't get a picture.  She loves the game Daddy has played with all the kids, where he pushes them from the front and then tries to grab their toes while they shriek with laughter.  The best part is when he lets them collide with his stomach and then pretends to be wounded or indignant.  Daddy is the best!


Bellana has been loving this nice weather because then she can crawl all over the backyard and eat dirt.

On Easter Sunday I had to go to church early to practice with the choir.  We sang "Upon an Early Easter Morn," a Bach chorale I wrote lyrics to back in high school.  Our nine choir members did so well singing a capella!  Then we ended with "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." After the choir sang I joined two other ladies in the Mother's Lounge as we tried to nurse our babies in lovely Easter dresses that were not conducive to nursing!  It was pretty funny.  I meant to take a picture of our family in our Easter duds but of course I forgot.

Since it was just us for Easter dinner I didn't make anything fancy.  I had planned to do some chicken and rice but I unexpectedly got a long nap (Thanks, Nathan!) and when I woke up there wasn't time.  We had a picnic instead, which I'm sure the kids preferred anyway.  We had crescent rolls with tuna, cutie tangerines, and Ritz crackers.  We don't have crescent rolls very often.  When Annalee saw them she started bouncing in excitement.  "Crescent rolls? I love those! Are those from another country, like do they eat them in Japan?" Not sure if she was thinking of sushi?  Then a little later she said, "These are like cinnamon rolls with tuna fish!"  That gave Nathan and I such a strange mental picture that we burst out laughing.  We did have cinnamon rolls for dessert, but thankfully they were tuna-free.  We also had ants and beetles on a log.  What are beetles on a log, you ask?  That's what happens when Nathan can't find the raisins right away so he puts prunes on the peanut butter celery, just to be funny!  Vander was thrilled and Annalee was disgusted.

We had Family Home Evening after dinner and Annalee taught us about the Resurrection using the coloring worksheet she'd gotten in Primary.  We also watched some videos on the Church website about Jesus.  Annalee kept saying, "Another one!" when one would finish.  I love watching my kids "get it" a little more each year as they get older.

Happy Easter!