Easter

This picture has nothing to do with Easter, but it's cute so I'm posting it anyway. There are few things better than going for a lawnmower ride with some of the neighborhood kids. Oh, how we love our small-town life!

Now, on to Easter. We started the weekend off with some egg coloring on Friday night. Note to self: two dozen eggs is not nearly enough for these expert little dyers. Three or four dozen each ought to do the trick for next year.

The kids were struggling with the little egg-dropper-thingys that come in the egg coloring kit. Daddy came to the rescue with a ladle and a whisk. Much better!

I read an awesome article recently about the lack of pictures most moms have with their children during their younger years. Half the time I feel like I look like crap and am happy to hide behind the camera, but if my children are looking at this blog when they are older, I want them to see me in their lives. I want them to know I was there, we had fun together, and there is nowhere else I would have rather been on this Friday night than home with them coloring Easter eggs. So, I handed over the camera to Greg and told him to snap a few photos. Supermodel, no. Happy mom, yes. Good enough.

So far, the kids are happy just to dunk their eggs in the different colors and call it good. This unartistic mama is a bit nervous for the day they realize it is possible to do really cool things with Easter eggs.

The kids had a blast the next morning at the town Easter egg hunt. They were great little hunters and came home with a nice haul of treats. Greg and I are getting smart in our old-age and told the Easter Bunny not to bother bringing any candy in their Easter baskets because we knew they would have more than enough.

Notice their lovely Easter buckets...you may remember I was the WT mom last year who forgot we needed cool buckets for the Easter Egg Hunt and showed up with ice cream buckets. (The kids hadn't been old enough to care about Easter the previous years and we had just kind of skipped the whole Easter Bunny thing. Garrett asked if the Easter Bunny was coming the night before and we had to throw a few things together fast. Oops!) A trip to Wal-Mart and 97 cents later, and we were set for this year! Yes, I realize they are just glorified ice cream buckets and not as fancy as some you will find, but I still felt better about it. 

When we got home, the silly Easter Bunny had hidden our Easter baskets in the bathtub. Garrett and Abby loved hunting for their baskets and were so thrilled when they finally found them! 

Poor Abbs was so worn out from all this fun and said she needed a little rest before we headed down to Grandpa and Grandma's for more Easter festivities. (FYI: Garrett is our little Energizer Bunny and doesn't get tired...ever. We've often said it would be interesting to see how long he would stay awake if we didn't make him go to bed. I seriously can't imagine him ever climbing into his bed and going to sleep on his own. Miss Abby, on the other hand, usually gets her jammies on all by herself and lets us know when she is ready for bed.)

Later that afternoon, my parents had a little Easter Egg Hunt and party for the grandkids. Greg's parents were out-of-town and we missed being able to celebrate Easter with them, but we were happy they were having a good time visiting Brian and Cathy's family in New Mexico.

My schoolteacher of a mom sat all the kids down and made them listen to the rules for the Easter Egg Hunt. You can see how well they are all listening.

Let the games begin!!!

The kids looked precious on Easter Sunday in their Easter best. Greg was less-than-impressed with my choice of Easter clothing for Garrett and completely sabotaged my picture attempts. He said he would like to forget Garrett ever wore that outfit and we didn't need any pictures to remind us of it. This was the best I could do while Greg was distracting them in the background.

We had a wonderful Easter this year. I love doing the fun little things that make holidays magical for children, but the real reason we celebrate Easter was never far from our hearts. We had some very sweet moments with Garrett and Abby as we discussed our Savior's death and resurrection and the hope it gives us in this life and what it will mean for our family in the eternities. We aren't perfect, but we love each other and we are so grateful to know we can be together forever!