More Easter

After the kids finished hunting for eggs in the neighborhood, we came back inside the house and colored some real eggs.

I boiled a dozen eggs for each kid to color, which makes a LOT of egg salad afterwards (needless to say, I threw about 1/2 of it out - don't tell the starving children in China). The important thing was that the kids had fun coloring eggs.

I had to laugh at this egg. Pepper was experimenting with dipping his eggs in 2 colors - first half in one color, then half in another. This egg ended up with a little white showing, as you can see. He showed it to me just like this, and said, "This egg looks like a fat lady." I think he meant it looks like the back end of a fat person whose pants and shirt don't quite meet - especially when she bends over. For those of you who don't know Pepper, he doesn't have a mean, judgemental bone in his body. He just calls thing like he sees them - a simple observation. I chuckled about this all afternoon - he was right!

The next morning, the kids were delighted to see that the Easter Bunny had come...

Luke especially couldn't believe his luck - there was candy everywhere! A two-year-old boy's dream come true.

That evening, we had Easter dinner up at Jeff and Jodi's house. Once Erik and Luke found their way outside, we couldn't drag them back in the house. These two little boys just LOVE each other! They call each other "Geeker" and "Owek", and I have never seen two-year-olds play together as well as they do.

A lovely Easter, although we missed Brad all day. Sigh...

Happy Hunting

Every year, my neighbor Michelle organizes an Easter egg hunt in our circle. This year, Michelle had the brilliant idea to have the older kids hide all the eggs the night before, so us fuddy-duddy grown-ups didn't have to leave our warm houses after dark to go hide hundreds of eggs. It was magical for me to walk out this morning and see that all the eggs were just waiting for us!

Here are all the kids ready to start hunting. The snow was mostly gone, but it was still pretty cold this morning.

This was Luke's first year to hunt eggs, so he was a little confused at first. Once he figured out the rules (you know, see an egg, put it in your basket), he had a great time.

As an eight-year-old, Adam is a seasoned egg-hunting professional. He went for it hard core.

Pepper was also all-business. When you're ten, you know that it is all about getting the maximum number of eggs in the minimum amount of time.

Now that Jess is 12, she is officially "too old" for stuff like this. But it is still fun to be the big sister and help Luke.

Happy Easter!

Grumpy Spring Break

OK, so after a too-short visit, Brad left last night to return to work in Germany. And then, as if to kick me when I'm down, this is what I woke up to this morning:

Just be warned, Jill is grumpy today!

Buddies

Yesterday we had a house full of friends here to watch General Conference, and it was a great day. Brad and I both grew up in families that get together to eat massive amounts of food while we watch conference. Since we've lived here, we have been lucky to find friends that enjoy the same tradition.

This year, we invited some friends to our home for the Sunday morning session, and Luke was in heaven because his favorite buddy Landon was here to play with all day. I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos of these two cute little buddies.