Easter

Easter was really fun this year!  The kids are finally old enough to enjoy the egg dyeing (as opposed to The Frog's first Easter, when I ended up sitting alone, dyeing all the eggs myself.  fun.)  I tried to show the kids the trick where you color on the egg in white crayon and then when you dye the egg, the crayon part stays white.  They all took it a step further and colored with all kinds of colors before dying them, which turned out to be a great way for Hazel to be able to participate too.

 Since we have 9am church this year, I made everyone get dressed for church before opening their baskets and searching for eggs.  Here they are waiting for daddy to come down (and I'm sad to say, they didn't actually wait for him all the way.  We didn't realize he had hopped into the shower).

 This is just a funny shot.

 Our kids get super spoiled because they get a basket from the Massachusetts easter bunny and the Utah one :)  Because I know this, I always try to go low-key, but I think I got a bit carried away this year.  on accident.

 The bunny ears and tail were in the dollar section at Target.  I couldn't resist!

 I at the last minute, decided to host Easter for whatever local family didn't already have plans and so my little sister's family and parents came down.

 We took many many photos of all the kids together, and believe it or not, this was the best one.  (If I got a nickel for every photo of my kids with thumbs in their mouths...)

 These little dolls are something I started last year intending to be for easter, but as usual, I had too much going on and I had to bag them for later.  I thought about trying to finish them for Christmas, but all my spare time went to the quilt for my mother-in-law, so I finally got them done in time for Easter this year.  They are topsy-turvy dolls!  One side they look like they're ready for a fancy event, and if you pull their skirt over their head...

 they're dressed in their everyday wear.  I think they turned out so cute!

 The hair is probably my least favorite part... it was annoying to sew and I'm worried it's not going to stay in.  Only time will tell...

Peach wanted to be in the photo once she saw what I was doing.  However, the dolls went into quarantine right after I took these photos because we had just discovered that Peach had LICE.

EW.

It was super disturbing to see those little bugs crawling in her hair, and even MORE disturbing to see how many eggs were in there.  We are so lucky that nobody else seems to have gotten it.  (where SHE got it, I have no idea...)  Needless to say, my spring cleaning got a huge jump-start that day, since I had to wash pretty much everything in the house that could be thrown in the washing machine and vacuumed everything else.

We're still on red-alert around here, but so far so good :)

Sorry to end on such a yucky note.

I Take that Back!

I had forgotten...  I made Peach let me take a couple pictures of her for a post for tomorrow and when I uploaded them I saw that I DID manage to take some photos in the morning of the Easter egg hunting and basket reveal.  (in between dinner prep, me getting ready, choir practice for our Easter performance...) Silly me :)

Our kids get extra spoiled on Easter because Nanie and Gampie always send swimming stuff (to use at the lake house when we visit each Summer) and a few extra goodies.

 Which is probably good since I managed to not give them even one piece of candy this year.   Before you judge me, I did get them the unhealthy kind of fruit snacks!  And they got green and white animal circus cookies.  Those have sprinkles.  They're definitely bad for you, right? :D

The Frog finally got his first alarm clock.  (Lego Boba Fett)  Now he can know what time it is and if he's allowed to come out of his room or not.  (We have found that unless given a required "sleep-in time", The Frog will wake up at 5am and sneak down and play with his toys, and subsequently be tired and grumpy all day...)

 Peach loved her little doctor set  (she got for Christmas) so much, we decided to replace the cheap (and now in pieces) stethoscope for a real one.  It's been really cool for all of us!

This is the first year when I felt like 12 eggs was not enough.  In the past, I ended up doing the rest of the dyeing and getting the kids to find all the eggs was painful.  This year, however, The Frog was really interested in both dyeing and finding them, so I'll for sure do more next year.

Peach woke up on Easter morning and decided she needed to wear her tutu all morning... in case you were wondering :)

My parents came over for dinner that night, after church.  It was a fun day.

No Easter Pictures...

 Easter was soooo hectic this year!  I think it's just because we have church in the afternoons: 1-4pm, so I had to do things WAY in advance, without the advantage of nap time...  SO, despite me wanting to get at least family photo, it never really happened.  (which is fine, since Peach decided that instead of taking a nap before church, she would instead remove her diaper and wet the bed and her Easter dress...)  But I did manage to take a couple photos the day before.

I forgot to buy the Easter egg-dyeing tablets this year, so I decided to try my luck with vinegar and food coloring.  It worked pretty well, except for the purple...

 The Frog decided to dye one with allll the colors.  We consented that it looks a lot like a dinosaur egg.

We've also been having some days of beautiful picnic-worthy weather, and have done such on those days.  Believe it or not, last week was the first time I had taken Hazel outside and didn't hold her the whole time.  (mostly because we have had snow for so long!)

 After many many attempts at one decent shot with the three of them,  I kinda got one, dirty faces, messy hair, and all!

You may notice The Frog is wearing his swim suit top.  I cleaned the screens on the back of the house, which means I needed to use the hose, which means The Frog thought it must be warm enough to play in the hose water.  After going back and forth for quite some time about how I thought it was too cold to run through sprinklers and he (while changing into his swimsuit) assured me it wasn't, I consented to let him find out the hard way.  We turned on the hose w/ a sprinkler head attached and he never even ran through, sensing that it was going to be freezing upon approach.

kids...

That doesn't mean he couldn't play outside wearing his swimsuit all morning anyway, right?

Happy Easter!

Iris had never dyed (or ever heard of dying) Easter eggs before, so it was extra fun to share our American Easter traditions with her.  (It was also extra fun for me because I wasn't the only one who actually wanted to try doing something creative with the eggs.  Jay never wants to help...)

 You can see some eggshells sprinkled around.  That's because we were all so enthralled with the egg dying (and making sure The Frog didn't splash the dye everywhere, again, by dropping the eggs in from amazing heights) we didn't notice Peach innocently burrowing her finger into the center one of the eggs...  We just ate that one, which is why there are only 17 in this picture.

 The Frog was determined to keep up his perfect record and wanted to "win" and find all the eggs.  Iris was was and put the ones she found in his bucket.  (we purposely put a few too high for The Frog so Iris could find some too).  Meanwhile, Peach was too busy looking for "teats" in her loot.

 Everyone got mini squirt guns filled with water and so a water fight promptly broke out in the living room.  Nothing like some good, wholesome, family fighting to remind everyone about the true the meaning of Easter...

 And of course, the children devouring their pre-breakfast chocolate.

 Nanie (Jay's mom) always sends the kids something awesome, and amidst their loot, she gave the kids sunglasses, which they love.  We gave Iris some fake glasses so we made them all pose with their new shades.

We had my parents over for dinner, but I failed to get even ONE photo.  I guess that's how you know we had a good time :)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

I'm a little embarrassed about the amount of loot our kids got this year for Easter, but I bought a bunch of used Little People sets for cheap on ebay last November and I've been DYING to finally give them the last of them.  Jay's parents generously sent their own little Easter baskets too, so they are now thoroughly entertained.

The Frog's shirt is off.  There is a long story behind it that merits its own post...

Peach got right in there and knew exactly what to do :)

Imagine a "funny" comment about "why did I even bother with the presents when I could have bought her a knotted rope".  I'm too tired to actually make one...

And here's the moment I've you've all been waiting for!  Peach sporting her new Easter rags.  As you can see, I made her a little headband...

and added a matching rose to the front of the dress.  (which she enjoys munching on...)

Oh yes I did.  I made The Frog a matching tie!

I meant to post these next two pictures after I made it, but never got around to it.

This detail is my favorite part :)

And here's The Frog, after church, showing my mom the swimsuit and hat he got from Nanie and Gampie.  He insisted on trying it on over his jeans...

We got to have the W family over for dinner and last second my parents were able to come too.  As you can see, we were having so much fun together, I forgot to get any pictures.  I DID remember to ask for HW's roll recipe, though.  mmmmm

Easter Egg Hunt

Last year I remember sitting at the kitchen table with The Frog, and dying a dozen Easter eggs by myself and feeling like things were somehow anticlimactic and not as fun as I remembered.  Not to mention the LONG home video we took the next day watching The Frog painstakingly wander around the living room oblivious to the task at hand finding our carefully "hidden" aforementioned eggs.  I must say, it made me look forward to this year and it also made me decide that something different needed to happen.

This year, I happened to find out a friend in the ward who, in my mind, is the epitome of family funness, miraculously had no Easter plans with extended family.  I jumped on that boat and made sure we could tag-along.

So glad I did!  (hopefully they are too?)

I know we all had a lot more fun, even if The Frog still didn't take much pride in his egg dying.  Once he found out about the egg hunt he dropped everything and wanted to get started right away.

That doesn't mean he didn't have his fair share of the action, as you can see by his dyed fingers below.

The W family is always so sweet to us.  Here's their oldest, D, holding little Peach.

They have a little girl, K, about The Frog's age- they are in nursery together at church.  Here they are going through their loot!

And here are our youngests.  Peach and N spend quite a bit of time poking each others faces until The Frog realized all eyes were on them and decided to break it up with a little Frog-style tackling.

Or maybe his "big brother instincts" just kicked in and he could see N making eyes at Peach. ;)  Whatever the case, I think all are now recovered and doing fine.  :)