Busted.

There's no doubt this girl is my kid.

She is a candy fiend.  It's almost as if she can sniff it out...

And she knows exactly what to do with it once she finds it.

I found her plopped down in the middle of the hallway one afternoon, plastic eggs, candy, and wrappers strewn all around her.  Not only did she find the Easter baskets, she also knew how to open the eggs and was smart enough to take anything with a wrapper on it to Harris so he could open it before she ate it.

When I asked Harris if he knew how she got all the wrappers off the candy, he simply said, "She wanted it open, so I opened it."

Never a dull moment.

Easter at The Way.

We celebrated Easter Sunday with our friends and family at Church of The Way.  After the morning worship experience, the kids participated in an "Easter X Hunt," complete with eggs, candy, balloons, bouncy balls, and other kinds of craziness.

A good time was had by all.

We also collected items for the "Saving our Seniors" program in our community.  I didn't get any pictures, but the people of The Way brought in TONS of toilet paper, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, and other personal toiletry items for low-income seniors in the surrounding neighborhood.  It was an awesome way to celebrate the love and power of Jesus!

I must have forgotten about my camera after the egg hunt, because I also didn't get any pictures of our Easter  celebration with Ben's family at Aunt Sally's house...

Ugh.

By the end of the evening, we were wiped out.

Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Easter at Granti's.

We headed over to Granti's around lunchtime on Saturday for our first (hopefully annual) "cousins" egg hunt at her house.  The weather was absolutely perfect!  The kids had a great time swinging around her yard while the adults put the finishing touches on lunch.

 We stuffed ourselves on bbq chicken sandwiches and asian coleslaw (my fave!) while the kids dined on chicken nuggets from McDonald's. :)

And then it was time for the egg hunt!  There were TONS of eggs FULL of candy.  Props to the "egg hiders" for making the hunt so much fun.

Once they were off, there was no stopping them.  Even Emmy knew exactly what to do.

Raven was lucky enough to find Tyler's "prize egg" full of clover.  I don't think she cared about it nearly as much as Tyler was hoping. :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, listening to music, swinging in hammocks, eating candy, playing with legos, and enjoying the company of one another.

 Granti's house is so much fun!

:)

Easter Saturday.

This year, we asked the Easter Bunny (via email) to visit our house on the Friday night before Easter.  It's definitely something we'll continue to ask...it made our morning so much less hectic, and on Sunday we were able to focus solely on Jesus.

The big kids made sure all the baskets were placed by the door and even left a little lettuce and a mug of water out for the Easter Bunny.

I'm thinking the Big Guy was pleased with his snack.

 And the kiddos (even Emmy) were thrilled with their treats!

This baby double-fisted everything. :)  Thankfully, the Easter Bunny left her goldfish crackers and yogurt-covered raisins in addition to candy.

It was so much fun to spend the morning huddled together, in our pjs, camped out in the hallway by our front door, gorging ourselves on candy.

Seriously can't wait until next year!

"Diving" Eggs.

According to Babe, "diving" eggs this year was "so much fun!"  I'd have to agree.

Because Friday was a school holiday, we spent the afternoon boiling eggs, wearing Easter bonnets, and counting the minutes until Ben got home from work so we could start decorating our Easter eggs!!!  Seriously...Babe and Harry waited outside for Ben to pull into the driveway.  We're serious about our egg dying over here!

 Poor Ben...he didn't even get to take his gun off before the kids were ready to get started.  He's such a good sport.

We don't really do much with our colored eggs besides sticking them in the fridge and eating on them for a few days.  When I was a kid, we would leave our dyed eggs out on Easter Eve for the Easter Bunny to hide around the house and then have a race in the morning to see who could find all of "their" eggs first...it was tons of fun and makes for a great memory, but it's just not something we've incorporated into our own traditions. 

 

I love sitting around the table, though, and talking and laughing and creating messes with our crazy brood of kids.  I can't wait until Thatcher is old enough to join in. 

For us, it's a great way to spend time together as we prepare for Easter Sunday!

Easter Parties.

We had to divide and conquer this year. 

Ben spent the day with Hadley's class celebrating all things "egg."

He was supposed to drop the camera by my office on his way back to work so I could have it to take some pics of Harris' celebration.  Unfortunately, his translation of that conversation resulted in him leaving the camera in Babe's cubby at Primrose.  Thank goodness for smart phones. :)

Fun times (and sugar highs) were had by all!