More Easter Sunday!!

For lunch today we used our Easter eggs to make Egg Salad Sandwiches.  Always a hit around our house.  After we were all ready for church we watched this Youtube video to prepare for our special Easter Sacrament Meeting.

It was very powerful and helped us be more reverent and feel the spirit.  Our lessons at church were awesome as well and I came hope feeling so uplifted and grateful for the gift of the Atonement.

We watched a few more easter videos as well.  Here they are below.

Easter Sunday

We started our day with the Easter egg hunt and lots of Chocolate!!  The Easter bunny even remembered to bring a basket for Mako!

Each of the kids received a different magnetic travel game in their baskets so we spent some family time playing games this morning too. Micah and Evy also received jump ropes so there was a lot of "bunny hopping" going on as well.

Evy's was a 'chinese jump rope' so it was fun remembering back to my elementary school days to remember the rhymes we used to skip to....I cheated a little and looked a few more up on the internet.

Easter Dinner

It was fun to host Easter Dinner this year.  It felt kind of strange all day and I couldn't figure out why til later tonight when Steve commented that we aren't usually here for Easter.  Our tradition for the last few years is to visit Gramma and Grampa Brinton in Kelowna for Easter.  They are serving at the Temple on a mission in Guatamela, so that option was out.

Anyway, it was lots of fun, and the weather was gorgeous!!  I wish I had remembered to take some photos.  Dinner was delicious as it always is when we get together.  Mom and Dad provided the ham and mustard sauce...with a little help with the cooking from Dan.  Dan and Andrea brought an green salad and a couple of pies for Dessert.  We made funeral potatoes and roasted spaghetti squash.

It's always fun to be with family on these special occasions.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather, the delicious meal & the company of family.  Andrea had to go off to work today, and Dan went home for a rest,  so Gramma, Gramp and the twins stayed for a bit and we watched a movie and Gramma gave all the kids a special Easter treat!  We are always counting our blessings.

New Jumparoo!!

Micah and I were left at home by ourselves for the afternoon so we decided to set up the new trampoline. It was HARD!!  Its really hard to put together a trampoline with only the help of a 7 year old....at least I got a good workout.

Here he is trying it out....it was a big surprise to everyone when they got home that night!  The next morning dad and the kids attached the supports and the net, moved it, and staked it down so the wind wouldn't take it away.

It was a big hit on Saturday with the twins when they came over for Easter Dinner.  There will be a post about dinner but I didn't take any pictures so hopefully you'll get to see the finished trampoline later on.

Easter Preparation!!

We invited Andrea and the twins over today to help us with our egg decorating. The kids had a blast but we were all a bit multicolored by the time we were finished!

I'm always frustrated with commercial egg coloring kits...they never seem to be vibrant enough for me. I was on Pinterest a few days ago and saw a post explaining how to color your eggs with Koolaid! The colors looked great and I got so excited! But, superstore only carries 2 flavors of Koolaid and I didn't have time to shop around....we were already late getting home. So, back to Pinterest for me that night.

I found a post about using paste cake decorating dye to make your colors with and the results looked awesome! I put quite a bit of paste in each cup because we were working with 2 two year olds...I didn't want to be sitting around for 15 minutes at a time waiting for colors to darken. Then I added a couple tablespoons of vinegar and the rest hot water.

Our colors came out awesome! The pink and purple had a tough time dissolving but that resulted in some Tie-dye effects. The colors were quite potent and we didn't have to wait long at all to get some vibrant coverage!

Everyone had about 7 eggs to color because Maren was gone with friends. The twins were so cute! They loved using their hands and then they'd wipe their hands on their tummies...good thing Andrea opted to take their clothes off before we started.

All in all, everything turned out awesome!! I think I'll use the same method next year too, but maybe I'll try some different color combinations for some interesting colors. Thanks for coming to play guys!!

Swim Club Mini Meet Fun!!

The girls have been doing winter club swimming at the university in Lethbridge for the last few months. It's been lots of fun watching their swimming improve. We are able to carpool with some other families as well so that helps.

Maren and Jenna decided to start together and Evy and Dawn-Marie are having fun too! I'm so glad they found something that they enjoy so much and the great exercise is a bonus!!

This swim meet was a fun meet with just the kids from their club. They divided all the kids up into random teams regardless of age and did some really fun relays. They were hilarious to watch.

The first one was just a regular front crawl relay. They did one where you had to use a flutter board and pass it to the next kid. Then they did one where 2 kids swim each leg and they had to push a ball to the other end without touching it. In the last one they used the huge floating mats and one kid had to lay or sit up on top and 2 other kids push them to the other end.

I tried to get some pictures and video but we were pretty far away. Everyone had lots of fun! It was a great last day before the Easter break.

Poor Micah was pretty sad because he wanted to be in the pool too! He is going to start as a beginner after Easter holidays so he will be ready for summer club this year. He is so excited!!

I'm glad my kids love to swim! I wish I was better at it...it's on my bucket list to improve...maybe this is the year!!