Our Easter Celebration stretching into the afternoon, too, when the cousins got here! Nana, Aunt Amy, Danny and Aunt Val had to head out soon after that, but everyone got to say hi to everyone. ;) Tammy wanted Chinese Sundaes for her celebratory birthday dinner and that is always a delicious hit. Before dinner, I took the kids outside and had them plant some "magic jelly beans" in a patch of dirt. The jelly beans were going to grow into candy flowers. ;) Each kid planted their jelly bean, Nathan watered them and then we went in for dinner. After dinner, we pulled out Austin's applesauce stack cake (his birthday is March 11th) and Tammy's strawberry creme stack. Yum! While we ate through our slices of cake, Tammy, Sereen, and Jenna tore up strips of cloth to make arm bands for us to use during the family games.
Jenna made a list of the teams and she and Sereen passed out the arms bands. Then we took our places in the yard for the first game - the Hula Hoop Pass! Each team joined hands to pass the hula hoop down the human chain and back again. Our team won the first round, Mom's team won the second round and then we won the third!! Mom's team tried to cheat in the last round (one person held the hoop while everyone else stepped through it) and our team caught on and cheated too. ;) It was fun!
The next game was the Egg Walk. Each team member had to walk across the yard with a raw egg on a spoon and pass it to the next team member without breaking it. Each team was rooting and cheering and the kids were having a blast. It came down to me vs Liz and I came in just a few steps behind her! They won fair and square this time, though. ;)
The last game was the Egg Toss and we blew through 3 dozen eggs. Austin was paired up with me and we won with the longest toss. No idea how far apart we were, but it looked like at least 30 feet. I was the limiting factor - I can't toss very far. Our egg dropped on the ground once and didn't break, so we were technically still in! Haha! The kids were having so much fun throwing to each other and several of the eggs were almost indestructible.
After the games, the kids went out to the front yard to draw with chalk on the sidewalk while the adults hid eggs for the Easter egg hunt. The candy flowers were planted, the $5 egg was hidden and the kids were lined up! It was crazy chaos as the littles cousins went first to gather a few eggs and then the older cousins tore all around the yard. Jon found the $5 egg I hid in the wheelbarrow of grass and Derek found Jon's special little golden egg that he likes to hide in crazy high spots - this time was on the porch light.
The last activity of the day was the confetti egg party! All the kids were loaded with a confetti egg and told to smash each other with them. After their eggs were smashed on each other, I gave one to Katelyn and told her she was "It!" She smashed her egg on Isaac who became "It" and got an egg to smash on someone and so the game progressed through a few dozen confetti eggs. Good times.
So much fun! We love living so close to all our family and I hope my kids cherish this time with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. It is a wonderful season of life. Most wonderful of all is the time we have to celebrate our Savior on Easter Sunday tomorrow. He is our Elder Brother and He loves us so much that He suffered for our sins and laid down His own life and took it up again so that we could have the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins and return to live with our Father in Heaven again. His sacrifice and death are the most beautiful miracle this world will ever see and I'm so blessed to have the knowledge of His restored gospel and of His divine plan for me and my family.
Nana helped Bryce hold Baby Joshua!
Liz has Purple Power!!! Bam!
She's airborne!
Clara loves her Uncle Colton. :)
Derek danced his way through
Mitchell vaulted through the hoop!
Sereen had some serious contortions to get through that hoop!
Austin and Mitchell swing Isaac around
Katelyn was very careful during the critical transfer
Go Bryce, Go!
Katelyn and Austin got in a few practice rounds before the game
Great long toss from Colton!
I told Austin to give me his best pose - he really means business!
Austin's best "girl pose," haha!
Colton's best "girl pose." Get it? Lol.
Sierra really got into the Egg Toss
Sierra winds up for the pitch to her dad!
Nathan and Andrew tossed their nearly-indestructible egg back and forth for a long time
Ta-Da!! The magic jelly beans sprouted into candy flowers!! The kids loooooved it!
Say Cheese! Back Row L-R: Isaac, Derek, Katelyn, Preston (hiding), Andrew, Nathan, Bryce, Emeri. Front Row L-R: Oakley, Sierra, Clara, Gracie
Oakley was OBSESSED with the candy flowers. I counted Lanae and David's kids in the number of flowers I planted, so Oakley got the extras. :)
Clara inspected the candy flowers thoroughly
The kids are sniffing out eggs... and so is Jon!
The $5 egg!
Preston was really excited about his "super big egg." It's definitely impressive, bud.
Gracie really was excited about her candy flowers
Katelyn claimed her two candy flowers. :)
My three sweet babies!
These two peas in a pod are thrilled with candy!
Oh, the many faces of Bryce's excitement!
Another...
...and another...
...and another. :) We sure love our Teddy Bear!
Can this kid be ANY cuter?! I just want to eat her up!
All the kids chime in when Derek points out Uncle Jon's hidden egg
Derek is generously assisted by Uncle Austin
The confetti egg chaos begins!
Even Clara wanted to get in on the action!
Pand-egg-monium!
All bets are off when Andrew and Emeri team up against Katelyn
Ouch! Incoming! :S
