Easter Festivities

I was lucky enough to take the week before Easter off and hang out with the family. Because I had that week off the kids and I were able to go over to a lady in our ward's house and have a nice lunch and egg hunt. There were a whole bunch of kids there and Ethan had a blast playing with them all. (for the most part) For the egg hunt they let the younger kids go out first. I figured Ethan would know what to do so I went with Katelee.... After a few minutes I had to get Ethan off the trampoline so he could get an egg or two.... Katelee figured it out pretty well and ended up with quite a few more than Ethan!
(Classic Katelee stare!)

Yes that is Ethan's basket, and yet he only got ONE egg! But he didn't care. He had a blast with all the kids and frankly I didn't mind it at all. Less candy for him to shove in his mouth! We are so lucky to have such good friends in our neighborhood that care about us and include us in things. It was nice to hang out with all the other moms and get a glimpse into the live of a stay at home mother. It was nice and makes me sad that my kids don't get to hang out with all the other kids very much. But one day, one day!

That night we had an Egg Decorating party at our house. I made some dinner and then we colored eggs. Aunt Lisa was in town and really helped Ethan out. He of course loved it and dropped every egg he could in a color!

Tayler was there as well and her eggs looked much better than the Nelson families! Tayler is so good with the kids and we love having her around. We had a house full and we loved it. Aunt RaNae, UJ, Tayler, Carrie, Grandma Nelson, Aunt Lisa, Aunt Anjali, Madilynn, Aunt Anna, Uncle Enrique, Emily, Grandma Blackburn and Grandpa Blackburn all came.

It is a tradition in our family to get the Easter basket on Saturday instead of Sunday. This way they can have their goodies on Saturday and play outside with their baskets as well. So Saturday we got up with the kids and had them start looking for their baskets. That silly Easter Bunny always hides them....

(Ethan dressed himself, he loves this outfit because he says he looks like a football player, or sometimes even a baseball player!) Katelee got carried down by her daddy because it makes it faster! (and yes those are books and they are on practically every step on our staircase, the house of a PT Student and a lazy wife!)

Ethan had to look a little harder for his basket than Katelee but eventually they both found them and were excited for the goodies inside.

Don't these kids look Thrilled to have their baskets? Well they actually were, just not at the very second this picture was snapped!

After they looked at their baskets we informed the kids that the Easter Bunny had also hid some eggs in the backyard for them to find. This time Ethan looked for eggs....

And so did Katelee!

She was so funny doing the egg hunt. She would grab one egg and leave another one right next to it there. And later when we were hiding eggs for FHE she would hide them and then point to them the whole time someone was looking for them! What a little helper she is!

I think the kids enjoyed themselves and I know I enjoyed watching them and even hiding the eggs!

Later that day we went to the school up the street and 'rolled' eggs.

Here is baby Emily rolling her first Easter Egg....

Notice that both of my kids are pulling their arms back to throw the eggs.... Go figure!

And here we finally go them to sit down, hoping that would help them roll them, but they still just wanted to throw them!

I love spending so much time with my family and especially on Easter. We have such great traditions and I love the fact that I am carrying them on for my kids. I remember as a child looking forward to dying eggs and then hiding them. I remember going egg rolling with all of my cousins and grandparents. And I remember throwing my eggs too and rolling down the hill and being all itchy that day from it. I hope we can continue to provide our kids with these same kind of memories so they can look back one day and remember what fun they had, just like I can!