Easter Fun

Easter Weekend this year was also General Conference Weekend. At first I was bummed that they coincided but in the end I think having them together was kind of great. Conference helped us remember the purpose of Easter and prevented us from getting too caught up in all the other stuff. I still think the  other stuff is OK, just as long as in the end my kids remember the reason we celebrate Easter. So on that note, I must admit that most of this post is mostly about the other stuff. 

Saturday, after the first session of Conference, we dyed Easter Eggs. This year I bought some fancy fake eggs that were dyable instead of wasting real boiled eggs (we never eat them and it is just SO much effort to boil eggs). The fake ones were a bit less fun though. You can't submerge them too long and they don't hold unto color very well and the boys blew through them in like 5 minutes flat. They were done before I could get my new, fancy camera working (although I am doubting its fanciness since it is giving me grief). So I made the kids pretend to dye the eggs again for the photos below:

Do they look staged?

Although the dying eggs was less than great, our next activity went *mostly* well. I decided to start a new tradition of making Resurrection Rolls. You take a marshmallow and dip it in butter and than in cinnamon sugar and you compare it to Christ's body and how it was prepared with oils and spice after he died. Then you wrap it in a crescent roll, which you compare to the linens they put on his body. Next you put it in the oven (the tomb) and bake it. When it came out we cut open the rolls and they were empty- no more marshmallow. His body had disappeared just like the Resurrection. It was a good analogy, and even though I slightly burned the rolls, they still tasted pretty good. 

After the second session of Conference Saturday, we did an Easter Egg Hunt with our 2 neighbors. Stefanie and I hid a 9 eggs of each color and than each kid was assigned a color before they could go on the hunt (except for the kids who were 2 and under, they were assigned all the big eggs that we scattered in plain sight). I got a little carried away and hid some of the eggs a little too well so Steven was pretty crabby at first because he couldn't find any (he has issues) but in the end he got all of his eggs and his happy smile returned. Ben, on the other hand, was a trooper about finding the tricky eggs. Well, until his nose randomly started bleeding everywhere and then we had to do some damage control. But in the end I think everyone had fun and got sugared up pretty well- except for poor neglected Penny who got no eggs. 

That night the Easter Bunny came and hid the kids Easter Baskets. Steven's in the dryer, Lucy's on the water jug, Ben's on the bookshelf and Penny's with my Precious Moments. (Note that these were all in places that mice can't get to. Tyler literally trapped 2 mice on our kitchen counter this week alone)

The next morning Steven was rearing to go and found his basket no problem. However, he gave a pretty lame sauce reaction to everything in his bucket. I'm not sure what he was expecting but apparently it wasn't found....

Ben needed a little help finding his basket(note the sleepiness in the picture where he's holding his note). But with some pointing in the right direction, he found it. He gave much better reactions to the stuff in his bucket and seemed thrilled with everything he got- even if he had a hard time keeping his eyes open for the camera...

Lucy slept in a bit that morning (probably because she was up several times that night) and once she was up she was a little too obsessed with her milk to focus on the contents of her basket:

Penny's basket was found by Steven and she loved her new blanket and books:

For breakfast I decided to be a Pinterest mom and I made cute bunny pancakes for the kids. But I think being a Pinterest mom is overrated. The kids hate black jellybeans and wouldn't eat the part where the eyes were and honestly were not that appreciative of all the cuteness I created. Maybe being a Pinterest mom works out better when the kids are older? Maybe than they will like to eat food that looks cute?

After our Easter pancakes the kids played with some of their new stuff outside (sidewalk chalk & bubbles) and then we had our 2 sessions of General Conference that afternoon. 

This lasted for about the first 15 minutes of Conference:

Then this happened:

He's such a good example!

We ended our Easter Sunday with Salisbury Steaks because it was cheaper than ham and Tyler claimed that's what he wanted. And since it tasted good, everyone was happy. All in all, a good Easter!