Easter Weekend 2014

What a gorgeous, brilliant day of a Monday! I woke this morning to hear rain falling heavily on the roof. It was 5am (thanks, Joe) so I was able to nurse the little guy and then doze back to sleep to the sounds of rain drumming and birds chirping as the grey light filtered in. By 10 the clouds had broken and scuttled away so we went to the park. For 3 1/2 hours. It was just too nice out to leave! We met up with friends there and played and picnic'd and rocked on a swinging bench under the trees till the babies were exhausted and slightly pink from the sun, then headed home for long naps. Which is glorious cause this mama's got stuff to do! Like Easter weekend recapping! Of course it involves a lot of pictures, so prepare to be overwhelmed. Or underwhelmed perhaps, now I've built it up. Never mind: prepare to be whelmed.

Okay first of all, Riley developed croup on Friday after coming down with a cold this week. We tried a humidifier and Vicks and soothing cough suckers, but it was so sad to hear her cough and cry through the night that I ended up taking her to a doctor anyways. Despite her vehement protests. I told Dave over the phone that I was taking her to the "d-o-c-t-o-r-s" and she heard that and said, "NO I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE D-O-C-T...S" all slurred like. She was even less pleased to get a steroid shot but at least she was able to finally get a good nights rest.

Saturday she was a much happier camper so we got to go to a community Easter egg hunt, which turned out to be the event of the season. Thousands of eggs scattered over fields that were roped off for different age groups to keep things fair. It was cold and windy but the excitement was louder than chattering teeth. Joe was especially enthralled - kept trying to jump the gun, little stinker.

Afterwards they gave out baskets with toys and goodies and the kids lined up and met the Easter bunny. Joe would have none of it. Riley would have almost none of it.

She wouldn't look at, talk to, or sit with them, but consented to stand in the vicinity for a photo. Ha!

A lot of our church family were there also.

On our way out we came across a real bunny - magic! bunny rockstar! - and a gigantic slide which the babies had to go down at least ten times before they let us drag them away to Sonic. There are about two Sonics in MN so we get a little excited about going. Mozerella sticks! Mmm... Funny how back in UT our fast food excitement was about Dairy Queen. We actually had a Dairy Queen budget...yeah. Here in MN there are DQ's on practically every corner and guess how many times we have been? Zero!
Oh the frailty of men...

Saturday night: egg dying. We received a Japanese egg dying kit from the egg hunt people. It had everything you needed to turn your eggs into ninjas, as well as a 3-D pagoda for them to party in. It was weird and Dave loved it.

Easter morning came all too early at 6am. Especially after we stayed up till almost 2, Dave doing homework and me working on my Sunday school lesson, making deviled eggs, and crafting bow ties loosely based on pictures from the internet.
I asked Dave why I always left things till the last minute and he brightly said, "Because then it only takes a minute!" He is terribly wise, my husband.  Anyways, we opted to lounge on the couch watching them paw through their baskets instead of doing another egg hunt. Meh, no one complained.

Baskets had new church shoes and sippy cups, hair bows/ bow ties, and candy. They also got new church clothes. Yet the Easter grass was the biggest hit. Frailty!

Joe felt as dandy as he looked. He has been using one of Riley's headbands as a bow tie for weeks. Let no one say I can't take a hint! He loves the real deal!

After one or two pictures Joe took my camera and I just let him. I don't know, because it's Easter and I was feeling magnanimous. I like my phone's camera anyways and playing with the different picture filters and editing features. Here are a few "we-are-late-but-I-want-Easter-outfit-pictures-dang-it!" pictures:

Church was awesome - lots of beautiful testimonies and musical numbers. We sang one of my favorites: I Believe in Christ.

 "...He is the source of truth and light.
I believe in Christ; he ransoms me.
From Satan's grasp he sets me free..."

 Beautiful. Always makes me feel warm inside. My Sunbeam class was a little insane because presumably they had been eating baskets of sugar since dawn. They definitely know now that a tomb is made out of stone - that bit was of particular interest for some reason - but beyond that...it was a very rowdy class.

Back at home, I threw together this dessert to take to our friends for dinner:

Oreos covered in chocolate covered in sprinkles are a bit ridiculous but sooo good. I was pretty pleased with the strawberries too. I hear Ritz crackers and peanut butter crackers covered in chocolate are good too. Note to self.

Dinner was amazing. Really delicious, and the seven babies either slept or entertained one another nicely for over two hours! They didn't eat much but we did and we had peace and quiet to eat and chat with fellow adults...it was something of an Easter miracle.

You'd think they had never seen a cat before. This was right before they started feeding spoons and things out the letter box for him.

Our hosts had an Easter symbols activity for us in between dinner and dessert where we read scriptures and shared our thoughts about the meanings behind it all. It put the evening right off the charts as far as Easter evenings go. It was the perfect end to the day - might need to adopt that into our own Easter traditions.