Easter was wonderful. I’m so glad we get to spread out the holiday over a whole week, and that it ended with such powerful, spiritual messages! I feel inspired and driven and oh, so responsible for all these wonderful children!

Happy Easter!

Easter baskets were filled mostly with religious items (books, DVDs, games, etc.) a bit of candy, Listerine and floss to compensate for that, crackers, and the kids’ favorite Cheetos “carrots.”

The kids hunted for their own color of Easter eggs, which turned out really well for the 2nd year in a row. It was fun to hide the eggs extra tricky for my oh-so-grown-up nieces! Andrew’s were pretty easy to find!

They each had puzzle pieces divided among their 9 eggs. The puzzles had 60 pieces, so I’d recommend it for ages 5 and up. Natalie & Amy were able to assemble their own puzzles, Adam needed help, but was excited about it; Andrew liked it, but the puzzle was way beyond his level, so he lost interest in the puzzle building pretty quickly. If I could find easier puzzles it would still be a fun thing for him. (It could work to have the boys share one puzzle.)

Andrew got into his Conference binder a lot more this year. The other kids did them, but reverted mostly to coloring. I have new ideas brewing already for next time!

Then there was this new game for the boys:

The boys and I made these “I Spy the Prophet” telescopes last week, and they were fun to try out. I got the idea from Sugardoodle. It’s super easy. They picked most of the pictures, and I glued them on and glazed them with Mod Podge.

Easter dinner turned out yummy. I grew up and bought a ham (okay, so Jon bought it... and it was already baked for me... it’s a step in the right direction, eh?), made cheesy potatoes, green beans (that I can never get right), Rinna’s buttermilk rolls, Whitney’s holiday Jello, and lemonade.

Monte’s seminary student, Dean, joined us, and Barney, Mary and Millie happened to stop by and we got lucky enough to have them stay for dinner, too!