Easter 2013

Easter was lovely this year. We all went to Tom and Jenni's house for dinner after church and an egg hunt. I was determined to have a fun one for the kids since the BYU one turned out to be a bit of a wash. Winston was adorable in his new bow-tie I made him. He kept it on all day!

Eleanor wasn't as competitive as I thought she'd be. She was more than happy to pose for pictures while she collected neat rocks and pretty leaves.

Winston was a typical one year old. Find a candy, call it a day. He had no motivation to collect more than two eggs at a time.

Rosaline's first egg hunt! So stinking cute! She had just turned one the month before.

Hello, pixie!

Mouth full, hunt over.

Cute Allie actually found some of the harder ones.

Even with Abby's help, Winston wasn't much for searching.

Trampoline!

Sweet air!

I hid three "golden" eggs for the adults to find that had corresponding "big-kid" treats. Well, just whole bags of candy. It was hilarious how excitedly everyone looked for these. So much fun. I will so be doing this every year. So our three winners were Megan, Shane and Clayton. Actually, that should be Megan, Megan and Clayton, as Megan found two of the three. Go Mims!

 The guys were playing bocce, and Winston was trying his best to keep up with them. He is the tiny blue and beige dot in between Clayton and Shane.

 Megan and Shane recently got baby chickens, so they ran home and brought them back for everyone to see. The kids were over the moon excited about that.

How sweet is her face?!

She renamed them, and then proceeded to talk about them all month long.

Allie and Jasmine, or whatever they were named.

He heee! Holding it on her own!

This made my Easter, not sure about you.

And a small clip of Winston, nearly squashing the baby chicks and Jenni making the save of the year!

BYU Easter Egg Hunt 2013

A few days before Easter, BYU held a free egg hunt. Tom got us tickets and we made our way over as a family. They had giant bouncy slides, crafts, giant animals (mascots) and three separate egg hunts for three age groups. It was quite an event!

E loved the giant bouncy slides. There is a huge obstacle course portion behind this part. As I dropped her off at the start she would tell whichever kid was next to her that they were racing and just go for it. Whether they lapped her or she beat them by a mile, she would turn to whatever kid was next to her at the end and claim, "I won!"

Always ready to pose.

My boys.

Tom and Allie!

Allie's cousins Anna and Ellie came too.

The egg hunt ended up being a disaster. Some kid jumped the gun about 15 minutes early and everyone just mobbed the hunt. If you were even two minutes behind, too bad. Allie got some and E got a few, but tons of kids got diddly squat. Winston walked around collecting broken eggs. Eh, he doesn't know what he is missing. The 3 and under hunt was still preserved so we tried for him to do that one, but he got antsy waiting for the gun to sound, so I gave up our spot at the front to let him play at the back. When the gun sounded, we walked behind the giant throng onto the field and we may as well have been following a vacuum cleaner. The grass was spotless! Some poor man next to me was in a wheel chair with his one year old on his lap. There was no way on earth he could have gotten a single jelly bean. We just shrugged our shoulders and headed back to the car.

 Look at what adorable cousin shared her eggs. She ended up sharing her eggs with several other kids on her way out. What a doll!

 

 Which made E happy.

Our attempt at a family shot. Ugh. E's not looking and Win was done and done.

We went down one more slide on our way out.

And I took Win down one. I think he liked it.

Easter 2012

 Easter! See, what did I tell you? I'm catching right up! Only 4 months off, woo hoo! 

Easter in Michigan for us consists of 2 big events. Playgroup egg hunt and the Greencrest (our street) backyard egg hunt. Here is a group shot from the playgroup one. It was a bit cold, but sunny and bright.

 There is our Eleanor, under dressed in a purple sun-dress with a cardigan sweater... next to the kids with good parents who put them in parkas.

 In my defense, look at how sunny it was!

 Cutie.

 With her sweet friend, Kinsley.

 Could they be any cuter?

 The moms! And some of my best friends. For my benefit, back row L-R: Nora & Jody Evans, Jessica Allee, Delicia Coupe, Maureen Clark, Crystal Clark. Front row, L-R: Me, Tiffany Alldredge, Marissa Christensen, Amy Nielson and Emily Becker. We are missing Laurie Johnson, Sarah Stradley, Janine Fredline and a handful of others. Awww, I miss them!

 Me, Delicia and Jody, who was hosting and so kind to let us huddle indoors when it got cold. She was also due soon with her latest gorgeous baby. (Honestly, her kids should all model.)

 A few days before Easter Clayton's cousin Charlotte came over to visit with her kids, Damon, Claire and Anne. They recently moved to Kalamazoo and it was fun to see them a few times before we had to  move. Here they all are dyeing Easter eggs.

 I love Anne. I love all those kids, but she is just such a cut-up. Eleanor adores her, of course. And I love Charlotte's blog. She recounts the hilarious stuff they say, it's always worth a read. One funny story (to me anyways) from the day- Charlotte is a much better mother than I am, and is fairly health conscious about what they eat. Or maybe she's just normal, but compared to me she is a regular dietitian. She and the  kids drove up that day and we show them around when suddenly Claire starts exclaiming, "Mom! Look at all the CAAANDYYYY! Look at it!  I've never seen so much candy! There is just so much candy!" I started to look around, and darn it if she wasn't right- there is candy everywhere in our house. Especially around Easter. I had little bowls of something or other in every room and on almost every decorative surface. Um, yeah. If you've ever been to my house, you probably can picture this easily.  I wish I could say this was a wake up call to better health, but hahahahha. No, the joke's on Charlotte- I just filled their pockets as they left and threw some in their van for good measure. It's ok, I like to be thought of as a modern day Willy Wonka.

 For our backyard Easter hunt this year we decided to forgo the brunch and just do treats. With neighbors and modern day pioneers Lexie and Ruth having moved away, Angela and I (The modern day lazy ones? JK Angela- you are awesome) wanted to keep things easier. On the day of, Angela's bunny cake got ruined so my ever-ready, Sam's club, tub-o-frosting helped make it back to it's fluffy, cute self. It may have been 70% frosting by the time I was done with it.

 Ellie pulling Kinsley and Kate in our wagon out back.

 Emily shooting Kinley, Eleanor and Liya. (Josh in the background.)

 Ivy, Jaquie (running behind), Lily (draped in fur, of course), Liya, Eleanor, Nora and Malina all out for a ride.

 The 3 and under gang waiting for us to open the gate to start their hunt. The 4+ gang went first.

 Eleanor and Lily were totally matching. Sadly, they didn't find it as photo-worthy as the moms and weren't keen on a picture right then.

 Cutest boys ever.

 Laurie and her Kinsley, we miss them!

 Eleanor and Kinsley, did I mention that we miss them? We miss all of them, you will probably be reading that a lot in the near future.

 Kate, Nora, Lily, Eleanor & Kinsley. Our 3 and 4 year old bunch. Miss them.

 Baby Bennett! I don't know if I can say Bennett without baby in front of it. He is Winston's best little friend from Michigan along with baby Charlie. Miss them.

 Our family Easter shot. Nice, E.

 And this little gadget. Gosh he's adorable.