Oh Happy Day

Easter was last week and it was a year to remember.

After church we had fun in the yard.

As you can see the monkeys climbed the crab apple tree.

Dubs got bubbles from his Primary teacher. He had fun blowing them until he dropped them and they spilled down the driveway.

Then he was sad.

Do you blame him? I hate it when my bubbles get spilled.

Then we had our Easter Egg hunt. We made a lesson out of some of the objects in some of the eggs.

It was such a pretty day, we loved being out in the sunshine.

Just look at that sky.

Gorgeous.

Mr Bird's boogers are quite attractive too, don't ya think?

For the egg hunt we gave some plastic eggs to the kids and let them fill them up with things they had.

At first they were like, "We don't have anything to put in them!"

I told them they did not HAVE to fill the eggs and that we could just find the few that I had filled.

The next thing I knew they were all coming down stairs with filled Easter eggs.

They put their own coins in, small plastic toys, Doodle put in some little crafts she had made.

They even put in things they had just gotten in their Easter baskets earlier that morning.

And you know what? They had just as much fun during this Easter egg hunt that they have ever had at the ones that were nothing but candy.

They were so excited to see what was in each egg.

Beano was so excited to get Doodle's crafts, he still keeps them safe.

Look at these handsome boys.

I can't believe how grown up Doodle is getting. She is such a help to me and is so kind to her brothers.

And P.S. She is so with me on wanting another baby in our family. If she had it her way, we'd have 10 more! I don't think I'd go that far, but 1 more would be nice.

I had to snap a picture of them before they took off their Easter clothes.

Saturday we died Easter eggs with weird things.

I think they turned out really cool. There are some others I want to try next year, like red onion skins and canned beet juice.

We used turmeric for yellow and it worked really well.

See how yellow that egg is?

Most of the other colors were really soft. We had fun experimenting though, we felt like scientists.

Sunday night we went to Mr Bird's brother Mike's house for an Easter feast. We left the camera in the car the whole time, so we did not get any photos.

With our new no artificial anything diet I was really nervous about going.

I knew there would be lots of sugary, artificial food there. On the way to their house we talked to the kids about it and let them know they would have to chose what they wanted to eat.

I did not want to stand by the food table and be the food Nazi all night long, so I didn't. They went nuts.

They ate about 4 bites of dinner then they ate cup cakes and chips and cake and punch.

They ate and ate and ate.

On the way home they were all complaining about their tummy aches.

Then guess what happened sometime in the middle of the night?

You guessed it, their poor little bodies rejected all that toxic waste. Doodle and Beano puked their little guts out. Just goes to show, it really is toxic. I was so glad they made the connection between getting sick and making poor food choices.

All we can do is hope they make better choices next time!

The True Meaning of Easter

I just found an idea for the PERFECT Easter Egg hunt. I am going to try to put it all together tonight when the kids go to sleep. If I can get it done, this will be what we do for our hunt tomorrow!

Click here to check it out and to create your our very special Easter Egg hunt!

All Natural Easter

Easter 2003

For Easter we have always done big Easter baskets on Easter morning packed with Jelly Beans, pastel M&M's, chocolate shaped bunnies, Marshmallow Peeps and Robin Eggs.

What was I thinking putting that much candy in my 1 year old's Easter Basket?

This charming photo of my first born was taken when we would not let her eat all the candy in less than 5 minutes.

Do you see the drip of snot that goes all the way down to the floor?

I still laugh when I see this photo.

I know, I'm such a mean mom, I take photos when I should be comforting them.

She wanted ALL of it and was not happy that we put some up for later.

That was one drama scene we could have avoided by making better choices as parents.

Easter 2004

Each year we have gotten those egg dying kits from Wal-Mart that cost about 50 cents.

We dye eggs to our hearts content.

One of my sisters even tried to dye a worm once. The color did not stick very well.

And as I recall, the worm did not like it too much.

See, I'm not the only weird one in my family.

Beano Easter 2004

Then we bask in all the prettiness of our eggs.

Then we eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 3 days.

Artificial food dye that leaches into the eggs and all!

*Yummy*

Easter 2004
Here is Doodle the next year enjoying her toxic waste, Ahem, I mean her yummy candy. I was getting wiser though, I filled the basket with other things, like a feather boa and stuffed animals and only a little candy, still way too much for a 2 year old.

Easter 2005

Every year we have been seen at community Easter Egg hunts. It's quite amazing to see all the brightly colored eggs lying on the grass, just waiting to be snatched up by some eager child.

Easter 2005

Each egg is filled with candy, candy and more candy.

You would almost begin to think Easter is about how much candy we can get our greedy little hands on.

Sure, they teach you about Jesus in church, but I am ashamed about what I was showing them in real life.

"Hurry, snatch up as many eggs as you can, because we all know it's really about YOU!"

*Shameful*

Easter 2006

This year will be different, but the same.

Here are some of my favorite Easter memories.

Flying kites with cousins.

2006
Playing at the park with cousins.

Dubs Easter 2006

Grandma holding babies.

Beano and Doodle 2006

Grandpa teaching my kids to stomp in water puddles.
By the way, they have not forgotten that little trick.

2006

Any time they see a puddle they think it's for stomping in.

Why else would God put it there?

This year we will dye eggs, with all natural dyes like turmeric for yellow, berries and red onions for pinks and purples, spinach for green and carrots for orange. We will use leaves to make prints on the eggs.

We will have Easter baskets filled with books, markers, games to be played together, scripture stories and maybe one or two treats that are all natural.

The pretty plastic eggs will be filled with coins and little plastic farm animals and toys instead of jelly beans and M&M's.

We will have pretty strawberries with whole grain pancakes for breakfast.

We will go to church.

We will have a different kind of Easter egg hunt. We will do it at home and the kids will get to pick things they want to put in the eggs for hiding. They will fill them with things like Lego's, their own coins, homemade crafts, etc and enjoy the thrill of the hunt and of sharing their things with each other.

We will spend the evening with cousins, making new memories and eating good food.

We will show them, not just tell them how to be thankful this Easter season for the gift of God's Son and what it means that He is Risen.

We will teach them that because of His Son we can all be with our dear Grandma again, forever.