Easter Fun

In spite of the snowy start to the week and the fact that I was babysitting most of the week so we couldn't go anywhere, we actually did have a pretty fun spring break. We made cookies and played games during the little kiddos naptimes and generally tried to have as much fun at home as we possibly could. By Friday, the one day I didn't have to babysit, most of the kids were completely done with staying at home, so after my doctor appointment, we went for a few hours to Kid's 'n' Stuff to play. Taylor had discovered a Doctor Who marathon on TV and begged to be allowed to stay at home with Kaya who had fallen asleep. I caved and let him because I really didn't want to have to wake the baby who really, really, really needed that nap. And it ended up being so much fun at the museum without packing Kaya around the whole time. I was actually able to get down and race cars with Spencer, and play in the doll hospital with Lynnsey and in the music room with Kendall. And we all spent a good hour in the messy art room creating all sorts of fun projects. During the week I also managed to finish up the ponchos that I've been making for Lynnsey and Kaya. Lynnsey has asked me repeatedly for a couple of years now to make her one, but I wasn't very confident in my ability. I pretty much crochet just afghans and scarves and those are the simplest patterns that I can find. But when I found a poncho pattern that actually looked do-able, I promised Lynnsey that I would try. It ended up being such an easy pattern that I made an extra little one for Kaya. Lynnsey is absolutely thrilled with the result and has been wearing hers every day. Kaya is not ecstatic. She keeps getting her fingers stuck in the holes when she tries to pull it off and it's just in the way of crawling. So I snapped some pictures and then put hers away for awhile. We'll try again when she's walking.

Cute aren't they? The afghans came out pretty nice too.

Saturday was a busy day (it's the day we get ready for Sun-day...) plus we also had some Easter festivities. The morning was spent at the home of a Methodist pastor and his wife who is my dear friend. Every year they host an egg hunt for the kids in their congregation and anyone else who wants to come. This year is their last time ever because they are moving this summer to head up another church in another city. We are devastated that they are moving. Their two oldest children are good friends of Taylor, another son was Kendall's first friend in Albion and they have remained good buddies, and their daughter is one of Lynnsey's good friends. We'll sure miss them. Hopefully we'll still see them occasionally since they aren't moving too far away, but I know how those things can go and I know they'll become busy in their new community and our lives will go on here and soon we'll just swap Christmas cards every year. So anyway, we attended the last egg hunt there and the kids had a lot of fun. Spencer really got into finding eggs this year and would get so excited when he would spot one. After they had found their eggs, each child received a silver egg with a gold dollar inside, and then they had a mini lesson on the empty eggs that the kids had found that represented the empty tomb. And since the resurrection of Christ is the biggest gift, each child got a "bigger" gift. The older kids got kites and the little ones got stuffed animals. Except Spencer who was quite put out about being considered a "little" kid and really wanted a kite. Of course he didn't want to give up his stuffed animal either, so they let him have one of each. Which I allowed since all the candy in the eggs was chocolate and so is off limits because of his allergies. Then they had some relay games that Kendall really got into this year--in past year's he's been a little timid and hasn't wanted to do it. And then we had lunch and let the kids play with friends for awhile.

That afternoon after the kids had some down time and Kalen had a nap while I filled Easter eggs, we had our own egg hunt here. We were so happy the snow had melted. It was still a bit chilly out but not too bad. One year we'd had a huge snow storm come and ended up having to hide the eggs in the house because it was just too cold out. Kalen hid all the eggs. We use the same system that we had when we were kids. Each child has one color of plastic egg that they look for and there are the same amount so no one can complain that someone else got more than they did. Plus with the age differences, Kalen can hide the eggs according to ability and if someone finds an egg that is not their color, they are just supposed to move on so that the right kid can find that egg. Spencer didn't really get that though. He kept finding Kendall and Lynnsey's eggs and yelling out to them where to find them. Oh well.

On your mark...get set..GOOOOOOO!!!!"What??? You're telling me I don't get any candy this year????" (Doesn't it just look like that's what she was thinking? I love that face!)

That's okay. The view was pretty good from up there so she cheered right up and had fun trying to figure out what in the world was happening. Spencer became an expert finder of green eggs. This came out a little blurry but I just thought his excitement was too cute. He did this after almost every find but this was the only one I caught with our camera delay.
And of course Lynnsey was hunting for all eggs pink! Kendall and Taylor had to look high and low this year. But mostly high. It took them awhile but they finally found them all.

Ta-da!!! (A little exercise never hurt.)Taylor found one up in a hanging flower pot. The hardest one for him to find was actually in one of the easiest locations. It was in the sand box underneath one of the sand toys. Kalen had told him it was somewhere near the swing set but he'd have to look under something to find it. The other kids had all located it but Taylor was lifting up the whole swing set and the sandbox looking for it. So easy it was hard I guess. We all had a good laugh and Taylor was pretty embarassed when he finally did find it. And here's one courtesy of Lynnsey who noted that I am never in any photos. I tried to tell her that I prefer it that way, but I think she just really wanted to play with the camera.

And while we were having so much fun outside, the sneaky Easter bunny paid a visit inside the house and left some extra goodies. (Kaya got some too but would not stay in the picture no matter what we tried.)

And finally, as a cap to a wonderful spring break, we had a lovely Easter Sunday yesterday. It was very chilly out so once again I had to take a picture of the kids in their Easter best indoors. And once again, we were in a rush before church so we had to wait until we had come home afterward and that is why they are all looking a bit disheveled. But they're all smiling...thanks to Kalen who was doing jumping jacks behind me and cracking everyone up. Church was really nice. We heard three wonderful talks on Jesus' Resurrection (one of them by my wonderful husband) and heard a lovely hymn by the choir with a violin accompaniment, and in Sunday school we watched a recording of Elder Holland's conference message also on the resurrection. Then we had a delicious Easter dinner (also courtesy of my wonderful husband) to wrap up a very nice day. I hope your Easter celebrations were just as wonderful!