Easter Fun, Picture Overload

The day before Easter we did our traditional dying of the Easter Eggs. I went ahead and bought fake eggs again- way better than boiling eggs that we would never eat. The kids put them in a bag and shook on the color. I thought this would be way less messy but the packets of color that we poured into the bags kept tipping over and spilling. So glad I had the tablecloth! Lucy had got some color on her brand new Beauty & the Beast shirt, hence the shirt change.

After coloring the eggs we decorated them with Emoji stickers and put glitter on them. I don't know why I agreed to glitter- it is now all over my counter (because Lucy was playing with the finished eggs there) and probably in all my food *sigh*

After decorating Easter Eggs it was time for General Conference. I am really enjoying making my notes fancy- if only my kids wouldn't bump into me and mess me up. All my doodles were inspired by the Spring Doodles class I went to recently.

After both the sessions we got to decorate an Easter Bunny Cake. I had re found this pan when we were moving so I decided we should finally use it. The kids had a lot of fun and it will probably become a new tradition. I let them put the icing on and they then proceeded to cover it with Twizzlers and jelly beans. They totally filled all the eye and mouth holes with jelly beans. Penny kept complaining that her tummy hurt but then proceeded to pig out. Unfortunately later she had some diarrhea, so super fun.

Easter morning Penny woke up super early and super excited that her tummy didn't hurt anymore. She shouted "Mom! I no puke! And no more diarrhea out my butt!" Such a great start to the day ;). The kids all had fun looking for their baskets and checking out their loot. Lucy's basket was hidden in our closet (one of her favorite places to hide- she hid in their while I was showering the other day and surprised me with a card when I went to look for a shirt). Lucy's favorite thing in her basket was her stickers. She also got an Esther movie, a unicorn headband, a pink stuffed bunny, some fun stickers and activity books for church and silly putty. She (and all the other kids) also got some bubbles and a water gun- considering we just got a light dusting of snow last night those gifts are not the most useful.

Ben's basket was hidden in the bathroom since he loves taking bubble baths so much. You can see his loot spread out below. He loved his Ninjago stickers the best. I loved the "Who's Your Hero" book he got. It has 3 illustrated stories for different heroes in the Book of Mormon and then songs, scriptures and activities that go along with them. Should make for some fun Family Home Evening Lessons. 

Penny's basket was hidden under the TV since she LOVES TV way more than she should. She loved her silly putty the best. I loved the new Veggie Tale Water Wow and Lift the Flap book she got for church. We were in need of some new church entertainment for her.

 

Steven's basket was hidden in the fireplace. He's lucky we didn't turn on the fire last night. Steven's favorite thing was a new mini perplex ball (those maze balls). He also got a tricky Bible Guess it Game which should be fun for family home evening and an illustrated D&C book (which is good since that is what we are reading right now as a family).

Me and dad got church wear- ties for him and a new church dress for me. I also got some Brain Putti because I am always stealing the boys, it's a good stress reliever ;)

Then after finding baskets I made the kids their traditional bunny pancakes. I totally forgot to buy things to decorate with so I cut up Tyler's Tootsie Rolls for eyes, used jelly beans from the cake and found some slightly hard marshmallows for the tail- I am so resourceful! The kids, who have been anti-pancake lately- actually chowed them down but only because they were promised they could eat some of their chocolate bunny afterwards. 

And soon it will be time for the Sunday morning session of General Conference. I like that it will help put our Easter back on the path of what it's really about. We have been handing out reward bucks during conference (can be traded in for real money later) and the boys have actually been listening to some of the talks- I hope this continues to help. It's nice when they actually take something from it. Then for dinner today we will be doing our Jerusalem meal. I offered to do ham since we didn't have church today but Tyler really wanted the Jerusalem meal so I wasn't going to fight him. There will be hummus, pitas, fish sticks, grapes, and grape juice- this is the picky eater version of what would be eaten in Jerusalem. And that is our Easter all wrapped up and super fun!

Sunday Best & Ben Turns 8

Since we have General Conference on Easter, I had the kids do their Easter Sunday Best pictures the week before Easter. I did buy identical dresses for Penny and Lucy this year but I took a risk and bought them off Amazon from a place based in China. They took a month to arrive and Penny's dress was just as long as Lucy's. I could have tried to exchange Penny's but it would have taken another month which would have it coming way past Easter. Instead I just went to Walmart and got Penny a dress that at least matched Lucy. 

The kids are always super difficult to get group pictures of and these ones were no different, as you can see Penny was in a dancing mood. I finally had to let her take a "dance break" and then we did group shots. They are some crazy monkeys but they sure are cute, crazy monkeys.

Monday I about had a nervous breakdown due to Walmart being ridiculous. Here goes the extremely long story... So I have been doing grocery pick up at Walmart since about December and I have had zero problems with it. I order the groceries, I get an email that they are ready and I go get them. They have always been ready right on time and they always come out promptly. Well on Monday I had chosen the 9-10am slot and 10am came and I still hadn't gotten an email. This is really weird because I always get one right at the beginning of the time slot. So I called the store to see what was up. Well after some time I finally got a hold of someone who said they would look into it and then call me back. 30 minutes later still no call so I decided to call the corporate Walmart grocery line. They had me on hold for twenty minutes and then they told me that my groceries were ready and they were coming outside to give them to me. I explained that I was still at home but I would head over asasp. So I called the store again and said I would be there in 10 minutes. Well I arrive and these people come out with one small basket which I know isn't mine. They say sorry, wrong person and disappear. 15 minutes later still no one else comes out. I am the only one in the lot and I am feeling frustrated so I call the store. As I am talking to someone in the store a lady comes out- with NO groceries. She explains she just came in and doesn't know what's going on. I try to, without being to mean, explain the situation. She comes back out with the manager who says my groceries are still not ready. I ask how much longer and she says 15 minutes. I figure I can wait 15 minutes because it still beats me having to go in and do this myself. However, 30 minutes later she comes out with still NO groceries. I am so frustrated that I tell her just to cancel it, she says she'll give me a $20 giftcard as an apology. I figure fine, whatever. Well later when I use said gift card it turns out it only has $10 on it. Argh. The whole thing was just so frustrating. Really all I wanted to know was when my groceries were going to be ready so I could plan accordingly. Instead I wasted my time (that I could have been grocery shopping) waiting in vain for them. I have loved using their pick up and now I am scared to try it again. I realize places can have off days, they said they were understaffed that day and that it was the managers first day but some honesty could have gone a LONG ways. I had to leave that disaster to pick up Tyler from the airport and then we went grocery shopping together which made it somewhat better but still, I am at a loss of what to do next week. 

Tuesday and Wednesday I subbed and by the end of those 2 days I was worn out. Thankfully no work for me Thursday! Me and Penny took it very easy, besides a dentist appointment in which I had a red spot on her gum looked out. She melted down so bad and it was a really rough appointment but the good news- the redness was from a scratch on the gum, not an infected tooth.

Also Thursday was Ben's eight birthday! To start his day he got to open his gifts. He had asked his Grams and Poppy Hatch for a Pikachu doll and Pokemon cards and they provided. His best friend Andrea is super into Pokemon and so he seems to have caught the Pokemon bug from her. He was so excited to finally have some Pokemon cards and he seemed way more into those then he did the Lego set and TMNT sword and mask we got him. He even used Grams and Poppy Brady's birthday money to buy more cards.

Ben had jammie day at school and brought a treat to share. I wasn't able to come in because of Penny's dentist appointment but he seemed like he had a good day. After school, his best friend Andrea came over and we had pizza and a Lloyd Ninjago cake (made by Tyler). 

After we stuffed ourselves we changed into swimsuits and went to Splash Universe. Traffic was awful so it took a LONG time to get there but once there, everyone had a blast. Ben and Andrea were everywhere- the splash playground, the lazy river, the slides... Giggling and being goof balls. Steven took Lucy under his wing and managed to get her to finally try the big slides. She of course loved them. They also spent a lot of time on the Splash Playground. And Penny made us do at least 15 laps in the lazy river and then spent a ton of time going on the slide in the toddler splash area. They had so much fun that we didn't head home until 9pm which made for a late night but totally worth it.

Ben really is a sweet boy who will still give me hugs and cuddle with me. He also loves when I am subbing and visit him at lunch, he still isn't too cool to hang with his mom. He really does not like getting in trouble and can easily be redirected to the right thing. I love this boy and can't wait for him to be baptized in 2 weeks!

Easter Egg Hunt

On Tuesday Steven began his treatment for his overbite at the orthodontist. This meant we had to fork over $1800 to the place, it was painful. All they did for his first visit was stick a rubber band around two of his teeth. This is to create space so they can put rings around these teeth that will attach to an expander. It was a lot of effort to get him out of school and to this appt, only to have one of the rubber bands fall out a few hours later *sigh*. Apparently they will fall out if there is already space around the tooth.

Tuesday night I went to a class on "Spring Doodles" with a couple ladies from church. I love hand lettering but the doodles I add can definitely use some work. I learned at the class that my watercolor pencils can actually be used like watercolors. You draw it on the paper and then the color can be spread with a water brush. It was pretty cool to learn how I was supposed to be using something that I've had forever. I had a good time hanging with some friends and learning new things. 

Wednesday I subbed for a fourth grade class and it wasn't a super fun day. I was in the hallway taking the class back to their room when we hit a traffic jam. It got kind of noisy due to their being 3 classes in the hall but as soon as the 2 cleared out and we were able to start moving, a teacher came out and decided to chew out the class I was subbing for. She went on and on about how they were being bad examples to her Kindergarten students. The Principal happened to walk by and stop and listen to some of the lecture, super fun. It was frustrating because it really hadn't been just them making the noise. After we got back to our classroom, the principal came in and decided to observe for a bit. Thankfully it was DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) and all the kids were quiet and reading so hopefully he doesn't think I am a completely hopeless sub.

Thursday Lucy went to the dentist and we finished off her dental work. Despite the issues I've had with that place I was really impressed with the dentist that did her work- we had a different one do it this time. She was able to really calm down Lucy and get her through getting 4 cavities filled. Afterwards we got Frosty's and it was fun to watch Lucy drool some major Frosty drool since both sides of her mouth were numb.

Thursday night I went to a friend's house. Her husband was out of town so I kept her company, we worked on a Michigan puzzle that my mom had given me. It was super relaxing to make a puzzle and chat the night away. This is my friend that miscarried and she really opened up about things. I know I said this before but every time I talk with her I realize just how blessed I am with my 4 healthy babies. She really helps put my life in perspective and keep me grateful. And I really really want her husband to find a job here so they don't have to move to Boston.

Friday Tyler was off work because he was flying to AZ for his dad's surprise party that weekend. He ran some errands with Penny and me that morning and it was super nice just hanging out with him. We got some succulents to put on a new shelf I got for the downstairs bathroom (I was so not into the over the toilet metal shelf we had before). I am really feeling happy with our downstairs bathroom now.

That afternoon I drove Tyler to the airport, only to have him wait there for a million hours because he ended up taking a flight that left 4 hours later. They asked if anyone was willing to go on a later flight, and he was. He basically made back the cost of his flight because they gave him a $400 gift card to do it- pretty awesome! I view it as a tender mercy. It was kind of a struggle to give up that money for him to fly home for the party but he did a good thing going and it all worked out.

Today, Saturday, I wanted to keep busy so they day wouldn't drag on and I feel like I've been successful. We went to an Easter Egg hunt in the morning that was fun for the kids. It was super cold but it didn't bother me as much as it normally does (maybe I am finally learning how to layer correctly?). There were a ton of kids on the younger age field so the girls didn't get a lot of eggs- Penny only got 3- but I was ok with that. They don't need a lot. The older kid field was a disaster. The kids in the front of the line did not listen and started getting eggs before they were supposed to so the lady just said to go ahead. I thought that was so terrible that the older kids were the ones not to listen but the boys still ended up with too many eggs. I had them toss some back because I knew there were some late comers but these awful kids with overflowing baskets immediately snatched them up. Urgh. 

After the Easter Egg hunt we had lunch, and then went to the library. All these things helped to fill up the day and now it's almost over. Now to just get through Sunday without a husband. He'll be back Monday so I am almost halfway through!

And funny note- the kids finished the first Percy Jackson book so I let them watch the movie. There is a character they call smelly Gabe and Lucy exclaimed, "I wish I was smelly Lucy!" 

And sweet moment- Ben is having Andrea over for his birthday this week and when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he said chocolate at first and then quickly changed to vanilla because he knew Andrea doesn't like chocolate. He's a good friend.