Easter

We made it back from Seabrook in time for Randy and I to attend a concert by Jenny Oaks Baker, an incredible violinist.  She performed with the Ensign Choir, a local choir made up of LDS singers in our area.  The performance was so good!  It was a great way to get into the Easter spirit.

We took the boys to the temple to do baptisms.  Henry hangs out with me in the waiting room and then we go out to dinner afterwards and we've been doing this almost every month.  I love it!

Easter means spring and the views outside the kitchen windows are stunning!

The boys have learned a lot about the events during Holy Week.

The 2nd Annual Easter Egg Decorating competition.  

Ethan picked the winner who was pre-selected to be Henry :) This was the first year I can remember that we didn't do an egg hunt on Easter.  It was raining and one of the families canceled because they were all sick so we just had a delicious Easter dinner instead.  A few days later the sun was out so Henry and some friends hunted for eggs.  It was actually a great idea to postpone the hunt and prolong our Easter fun a little bit.  And I never got a picture of the boys on Easter.  Oh well.  Who cares about dingy white shirts and mismatched ties?

Easter 2020

Easter was a quiet affair this year.  I always look forward to hosting a big dinner and an even bigger egg hunt in the backyard but this year it was just our family in quarantine.  Somehow I still managed to spend several hours in the kitchen preparing food that no one ate because they'd been eating Easter candy all day.  Luckily it made plenty of leftovers for dinner the next night so I wasn't too upset.

I was so bummed to miss out on our big egg hunt that I got the idea to hide eggs in other people's yards for them to find.  I thought I was being pretty creative but then I saw something on social media  and copied the cute flier that some talented person was kind enough to share.  The whole family piled in the van at nine o'clock at night and we stealthily hid Easter eggs in three different yards.  Of course the boys complained I was making them do this but they had a good time.  I can't wait for the day when they will do kind deeds of their own will and not mine but until then, this was some forced family fun.  But I had a lot of fun and especially loved the kind text messages/photos the following morning from the surprised and happy recipients.  It made my day.

The boys got dressed for "Family Church" as we now call our church gathering on Sundays.  I made them put on ties and everything so we could get a nice Easter picture even though this was the first year no one had any new clothes to wear.  If only I'd recorded a video so you could hear the whining, insults, tears, yelling, and pure hatred going on as I tried to get a picture with everyone smiling.  It was bad and I wanted to punch my kids in the face or rip out my hair.  Luckily I did neither.

Randy hid about half as many eggs as we usually hide but since we only had a few kids looking for eggs, it was still a lot!  

Ethan was the proud winner of the golden egg.  He opened it up and said, "Ten dollars?!  Mom must have done it this year instead of Dad."  He was right.  

 And here are a bunch of outtakes.  You can tell who just got yelled out by their frown and Henry definitely stole the show.  His facial expressions just kill me.  He knows exactly what he's doing whether it was making a face or just refusing to look at the camera.  

Happy Easter!  I'm glad it's over.

Easter 2019

We lucked out with beautiful weather on Easter Sunday.  Hooray!  It was warm and sunny on Saturday too so we were able to get plenty of yard work done in between all the lacrosse games.  Parker was invited to his best friend's house for an Easter party and egg hunt and he was shocked and thrilled that it wasn't on a Sunday or during a lacrosse game so he could actually go.  When I dropped him off at the party I had to sneak a few pictures because their yard was so beautiful and huge and gave me motivation to work on our yard.....don't worry though, the motivation is completely gone now!

You can't tell how huge this water feature is but it's in the center of their yard with a bridge going across it.  It was amazing!

Meanwhile back in our yard I had to snap a picture of these boys in front of this beautiful bush.  The flowers are so heavy that it makes the branches droop.

We had to be at church at 9am for choir rehearsal which the boys weren't thrilled about so this picture was as good as it got.  Marcus would only cooperate if I let him hold the orange juice in the picture. Insert eye roll here.

Easter Dinner 2019

This year we had a couple families over for dinner that we wanted to get to know better, and then invited several other families to join us for dessert and the egg hunt.  I really liked this setup because it's so much easier feeding a small group, although both families had five kids so our group was still plenty big!

The teenagers "interacting" with each other

We hid more than 300 plastic eggs in the yard and enjoyed watching the teenagers struggle to find the golden money egg.  We finally caved and gave them a hint.  It was hiding in the roof of the paddle board shed.

Filling the eggs was no small task.  Randy and the boys got caught up on General Conference while they filled eggs and ate candy.

And Ethan's hover board arrived in the middle of all the chaos.  I fell off it and thought I broke my foot it hurt so bad.  They are harder than they look!

We had some pretty cool looking Easter eggs this year which made for very colorful deviled eggs at dinner

The only picture of the actual egg hunt.  Not pictured were the 30+ kids running through the yard

We found tiny baby birds while hunting for eggs.  Spring has sprung!

Easter 2018

We had another great and memorable Easter.  We invited a few families over for dinner and a couple other families to join us for the egg hunt and dessert after dinner.  We started the day with a yummy breakfast of sausage, eggs, and the best cinnamon rolls in all the land.  All the boys were loving that we finally had a lazy Sunday morning because it was General Conference, instead of a mad rush of chaos to get to church at 8:45am.  For my boys, listening to General Conference usually means playing with LEGOS.  They build while I listen and sometimes I help them find pieces so I don't fall asleep.  It was bliss! 

The LEGO explosion after a day of listening to conference

After 2 lacrosse games, 1 soccer game, and HOA meeting, and priesthood session, we were finally able to decorate eggs at 9pm.  I was so thankful to get to sleep in the next morning!

During the Sunday afternoon session, Landon wasn't with us.  I was all ready to burst into his room, point my finger at him just like my mom used to do to me when I was in trouble, and tell him to get downstairs to listen to conference.  Instead, I opened his door to find him quietly working at his LEGO table while he listened to conference on his Kindle.  What was more impressive to me was that he figured out how to find conference all by himself using the LDS app.  What a stud!

Our Easter feast with friends.  Believe it or not, there were actually a few kids missing from this picture.

I spent a couple hours on Saturday cleaning the deck, wiping down the patio furniture, and even washing the windows after a long winter of neglect.  The weather was sunny and warm and I anticipated being able to eat outside the next day for Easter dinner.  Then I checked the weather on my phone and my jaw dropped.  The forecast was 41 degrees with rain mixed with snow.  I couldn't believe it!  All that work for nothing.  I even power washed the deck!  Grrrrrr.

The teenagers hid all the eggs {or dumped them on the ground, Marcus} and all these younger kids were chomping at the bit to get outside and find the eggs.  Randy hid the golden egg {with $10} way up in a tree for the teenagers to find.  Shortly after the hunt ended, it started to snow/hail.  We finished just in time!

Happy Easter!  It was a wonderful day celebrating that the Savior lives.

Easter Celebrations

 We lucked out with great weather Easter weekend which made for a great time.  The boys had the whole week off of school for spring break so this year I was able to spend some time teaching the boys about the Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday and working our way through Good Friday. 

We all learned a lot, made some memories, and kept the teenager angst in check for the most part.  Each day we read some scriptures or watched a movie specific for each day's lesson.  For family night, the boys got to take turns riding the donkey (Marcus) into Jerusalem while the rest of us waved palm leaves.  It was irreverent but memorable.  Then they got to reenact the cleansing of the temple which involved knocking over a table filled with stuffed animals and money.  Again, it was irreverent but memorable, and luckily nothing was broken.  I'm really sad I don't have pictures of it.  We kept track of the things the Savior did each day of the week by writing them down on bright yellow paper which I hung on the wall for display.  Did you notice we didn't finish out the last two days?  It's like counting down to Christmas then not bothering to celebrate Christmas.  Major fail but at least the three hours spent in church celebrating the resurrection made up for it, right?  

Here is a before picture of the garden area.  Luckily I've been weeding it all week or we would've been up until midnight working on it.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day which meant a huge yard work day.  I thought we'd do some weeding and mow the lawn in preparation for the big Easter egg hunt we were having the next day.  Randy had bigger plans.  Much bigger.  But now we have a garden which looks beautiful {until it gets devoured by deer and rabbits}, lots of bushes to replace the dead ones, and new trees to replace all the ones that fell this winter. 

 Here is the after picture with the garden complete with fencing.  Be impressed!  When Randy does something, he does it right!  We've got rhubarb, thyme, rosemary, and scallions (courtesy of previous owners), and blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bushes, and ground cover.

After almost two years of living here, our yard is finally recovering from the neglect of the previous owners.  Good thing too, because we are hosting a wedding reception in the backyard this August.  Right now there are blossoms everywhere and it is beautiful to see.

Easter Sunday was busy and fun.  We enjoyed church then raced home so I could put together the final preparations for dinner.  We had 30 people coming over which sounds like a lot but didn't feel like that, especially since the weather was warm enough for the 21 kids to play outside.  The food was delicious and I was able to use all my nice China/silverware for the adults to use in the dining room so I was happy. 

After dinner, Randy threw the biggest Easter egg hunt known to man.  Eggs were hidden everywhere, chocolate bunnies were peeking from the rocks along the stream, and the highly sought after "Money Egg" was tucked deep into a bush, taking the older kids quite awhile to find it.  When I found out how much money Randy put in the egg, I freaked out.  But Ethan found it so at was least it was my kid who benefited from Randy's generosity!  We really had a great time.  My family thinks only a crazy person would host such an event but I loved it!  Holidays sure are fun when you're surrounded by good friends.  And good dessert.  How could I forget to mention the dessert?!  People went all out.  We had my key lime cheesecake, coconut cream pie, lemon tarts, and a chocolate torte with strawberry puree.  Next year we will skip the dinner and just have a dessert bar. 

 Happy Easter!

Party Central

It feels like we've had one big party after another lately.  Our most recent was on Easter.  We invited three families over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt.  We had delicious food while it poured rain outside and suddenly and quite unexpectedly the rain stopped long enough for an epic Easter egg hunt.  There were over a hundred eggs hiding in the yard but the older kids overlooked them all in their search for the golden egg with a five dollar bill inside.

The kids loading up on the food taking all the deviled eggs before the adults could get any

The frantic hunt for eggs, errrrr I mean $5

Landon didn't care about the Golden Egg and ended up finding the most eggs of anyone

It was a mad dash as the kids frantically searched for the Golden Egg

There were lots of places for the Egg to hide

Kids even searched through the wood pile for the Golden Egg

I love the kids running under the white blossoms

Parker sporting his fancy "Easter basket" and two different shoes. 

Ben was the proud winner of the Golden Egg.  There were a lot of disappointed kids!

 Back up two weeks and it was our good friend Mark's 40th birthday party.  Mark and his wife Jen are some of our best friends.  We became friends with them when we lived here before and when we moved to Rhode Island, they moved into our house.  I loved that house so it's fun we get to go back to it.  And the house we are currently living in used to be Jen's aunt's home for forever so not only are we good friends but we have this weird house connection too.
The party was a blast!  We pulled out all our stuff from my awesome 80's birthday party and used it to set the theme for Mark, a true child of the 80's {he even had a mullet!}  Randy hosted Totally Tubular Trivia and I gave out mullets for the prizes.

Mark and Jen are the best!

The very intense 80s trivia game

We didn't think so many people would want to play the game so they were smashed in like sardines.  We had a house full!  I bet there were 15 other people in the kitchen who opted out of the game.

The prized mullet

I blew up a picture of Mark with his mullet way back in the day. 

Now the parties are over and we have a break for a few weeks before Ethan turns ten and we get to celebrate him.  I'm breaking my own rules and letting him invite friends over for a birthday party.  I decided hosting a kid's party when they're older so I don't have to have to do some cutesy theme, games, and party favors is not such a bad idea after all.  We'll see how it goes.