Easter

 On Friday the kids and I were talking about Easter and egg hunts. They got all nostalgic about hunting Easter eggs and I said "well, next year I can do an egg hunt for you." They thought it was not necessary to wait a year because all that is needed is plastic eggs and candy. " I was going grocery shopping on Saturday anyway and so I picked up eggs and candy. I brought it home and the kids filled the eggs. And now I'll be having Easter egg hunts probably until grandchildren overtake the children! lol

We had our hunt on Saturday afternoon. I did very much surprise them with squishmallows. Not just any squishmallow--penguin pokemon squishmallows and a colorful, sparkly lion for Anna.

I actually thought it was fun to hunt eggs with big kids. Then there was a egg memory game. They had to find the matching eggs.

This one needs a little more perfecting, but these are supposed to be bunny pretzel treats. I'm pretty sure these will be a new tradition for us too. We spent Saturday evening together as a family and it was just really nice.

The girls and I went to the sunrise service on Easter Sunday which was something the girls had never done. Anna was very excited to see her first sunrise and it did not disappoint. The sky was bright pink/red on our drive to the church. She was taking pictures all along the way.

The sunrise service was at 6:45am. After it was over, we came home for a shower, breakfast and getting dressed for church. Church was at 10:00. When it was over, I came home to get food ready to take to my parent's house and the rest of the family stayed longer at church and then went straight to my parent's house. I make this fruit plate and was really pleased with how it turned out.

The afternoon was really nice. There was an Easter egg hunt for the younger grandchildren. Grandma had candy for all the grandchildren which led to the epic candy trade. This candy trade is becoming an anticipated event--at least by Isaiah.

There is some strategy involved in the trading now and it was fun to watch everyone's personality come through. Some were quickly satisfied with what they had. It was Isaiah and Ezra that stayed in it the longest. Isaiah was going for quantity. And he felt that he was a complete success. Ezra was going for Twix and Tootsie Rolls.

Everyone was very cooperative with taking pictures...

...and so we recreated one from 2011. Caleb and Gideon were a little concerned about squishing Grandma. Josiah added as much noise as he made for the the original picture. And I have no idea how Renee managed to get the same hand pose. Janell, Meghan and I had too much fun doing this.

There was lots of talking and eating and Aliza snuggling. This was a celebration weekend that left my heart full.