Hop, Hop, Flop

as you can tell from the title, our easter was fun and memorable- sometimes because of miserable fails lol
i am so grateful for my phone with a camera because i capture so much more since i usually have it with me. however it also means that the quality of my pictures is not the greatest the majority of the time. i guess i am saying to try and enjoy the essence of these sometimes blurry fuzzy pictures. =o]

for the first FHE in april as the activity i gave everyone a new easter book! thank goodness for online shopping! seriously, how did people used to find anything? and drag their kids all around to fifty stores to boot? anyway, my favorite one turned out to be the one i gave "kent"- sadly it was one of those 'i want this so i'm giving it to my spouse' presents lol but he was a good sport about it thankfully. (can i just say, it is so awesome being married to your best friend! seriously, life is so much better. and easier. and more fun! i don't know how i survived before. and i don't know what i would do without him. i feel we hit our stride when it comes to holidays. our strengths compliment each other so well in this area and i'm grateful that he makes up for where i lack!) it was a book full of easter traditions for the week from palm sunday to easter. between that and the activity we got out of the friend magazine, we had such an uplifting week focusing on the Savior and His life. at every meal we would discuss different topics, read scriptures, or even sings songs and for the first time i really caught a glimpse of the power in eating meals together as a family. from now on i am going to be more intentional about our meal time conversations. there have been a couple times in the past that important things were discovered or solidified at the table because of our talking, but this really hit me because it happened EVERY TIME we sat down. (ok, so every time i remembered. there we three times i missed it all together and we had to make it up the next meal, and there were a couple times i remembered half way through, but you get my point. it was impressive!) there were even a couple of times that we called kent and filled him in because i felt sad he was missing out on such special moments! 

and the best part is, this book grows with your family, so as they get older we can do more/different activities and discussions. priceless!

we got our annual easter package from the mackay grandparents and opened that for the next FHE activity. the kids were beyond thrilled! it was cool too because then in a small way we celebrated with both sides of the family, seeing my side of the family on all our trips and connecting with kent's through the mail. good times!

of course we did several fun baking projects. (here comes a flop lol) natalie BEGGED me to make these little bird nests. they were fun to make i guess, 

but i was the only one who actually ate my nest. the kids just ate the candy in the middle. lame! so we delivered the rest to our little neighbors and their mom said they were thrilled (though she could have just been being kind lol)

we made lemon bars. NOT a flop. these babies are delectable. we also delivered a plate of these to a different neighbor, and she asked me for the recipe so she could make them for her company coming for easter weekend. considering we used lemons from her tree that hangs over our shared wall, i obliged. =o]

i think this tradition will continue, but hopefully next year i will not kill the yeast. or use a different recipe.  somethin. FLOP #2. unfortunately we also delivered these to yet another neighbor hot out of the oven friday morning. they just love the kids and so we were going to easter carol to them but they didn't answer the door and when i texted to let them know we had dropped them off they said they were out of town. seriously, yet again they were fun to make but i ruined them. *sigh* sorry little hot cross buns. you had so much potential to be the highlight of good friday.  

(see? biscuits instead of rolls...) 

we did a play of the parable of the 10 virgins. CLASSIC! seriously, i should have recorded it. 

here are natalie and jenna, the wise and foolish virgins with flashlights.

here is caleb, the bridegroom coming at midnight. when i first told them this story while sitting up to the table i just paraphrased it out of the scriptures and it held their rapt attention throughout! the Spirit was so strong as i testified of the truth in the parable and i am grateful for the experience because it was the perfect way to start off the weekend. 

then we had a visit from a real easter bunny that afternoon!

caleb tried to catch it lol

here is our easter puzzle on the wall (there were little activities to do on each piece for the days of the holy week)

here they are on easter bunny day morning heading down to get their baskets!

kent's basket for me =o] all the m&ms are because of this brilliant idea that i had years ago of a 'party mix' bag of m&ms with all the different kinds in it. sometimes he gets several bags so we can mix them up ourselves. though i think it is going to take us MUCH longer to get through these then when we were younger because we really don't eat much candy. seriously, we still have halloween candy in our cupboard! it was sweet of him though. and i got a compliment on my new shirt that day! good times =o]

 my basket for him was FLOP #3. i should have known that he was making a basket for me because he did the kid's baskets, but it didn't really register until it was too late to do anything about it. luckily the dating divas website had some cute ideas for coupons so hopefully they make up for his lack of chocolate and a new tie (though he didn't wear the only easter themed tie i have ever gotten him again this year, so i think he isn't heartbroken over it lol)

he got us the movie 'the secret life of walter mitty' and i'm excited to watch it!

then we got dressed and headed to the church for our easter breakfast and egg hunt. good times!

(about halfway through the hunt they reminded the kids to only get five each to make sure everyone got some. natalie ran back over to an area where everyone had already passed through, and emptied out seriously like 30 eggs from her bag and some little toddlers scampered over for some easy pickings. when i asked her what happened she said she didn't know there was a limit so she had just been getting as many eggs as she could find. lol)

(as you can see caleb had far more than five, and when we pointed this out to him the primary president overheard us and said it was fine, but we still had him give some to some of his friends which they were all more than happy about =o])

seth watching the action =o]

here is a share from caleb happening for his good friends the roger girls 

when we got home we dyed eggs! messy but fun as always! 

(my signature temple egg =o] someday when someone aside from me will actually eat the hard boiled eggs more than a day later, we will get to do more and i will actually get to do more than one that actually just belongs to the youngest child participating!)

they each explained each egg they made. and we had to give out "awards" for each egg. oh my! lol

flop #4 okay, so remember how i said kent did the kids baskets? we are all grateful for that, because i would have done it differently and worse/more boring/more practical. but getting the kids these water park things for our backyard of dirtish grass was a sad muddy mess. it was a lot of work and money and mess for not that much fun. probably also a one time use. ah well! live and learn. 

so we took a bath! and while i handled that kent hid the eggs! it worked out perfectly! the kids were so excited for their second hunt of the day! 

(this is quite possibly my favorite picture of the weekend =o])

that night we worked on getting our mackay family easter program ready, and my RS lesson and cleaning up the house! the next morning was a rush of getting ready and starting dinner and an easter morning devotional and a few pictures all before church (thank goodness!) at 11.  

i love the gospel. i love the church. i love the Savior and i know that because of Him we can improve and try again and be forgiven and live forever with our families if we chose it. what a beautiful message this holiday brings! my lesson in RS was about building up the kingdom of God which was perfect for tying into easter. isn't that what Jesus spent his entire life doing? isn't that what he is guiding us to do today through His Church? i know He lives. i have faith in His Atonement. my greatest hope is to be there with Him when we comes again to the earth. i look forward to that day!

when we got home from church we made resurrection rolls.

(this is what happens with little helping hands on the job lol)

this brings us to flop #, what are we on now? ah yes, FIVE. i made lamb for dinner. this is where you raise your eyebrows in shock. yes i tried making a new kind of meat that i never have before. and never. will. again. nothing but chicken, beef and the occasional ham for this girl. oh and canned tuna which i'm not sure should count as actual meat. it was DISGUSTING to handle. did you know that lamb is red meat? i didn't. did you know that it fills your ENTIRE HOUSE with a distinct smell that has yet to fully leave? i didn't. did you know that i am apparently just as picky as my children but since i am older have just learned to like more things? i didn't. seriously i gagged two bites down and then couldn't bring myself to eat anymore. i tried the supposed "foolproof" recipe i found online that had only 5 star ratings. BOO! kent said he might actually like it if it were barbecued, but as it was it just seemed like boiled beef. that was a kind assessment in my opinion. on the up side, the kids had a choice between trying the lamb or trying the asparagus so they all had some extra vegetables on their plates =o] 

then i put seth to bed while they watched some easter videos and got out the ice cream making stuff. 

unfortunately jenna was on a downward spiral to bedtime since missing her nap just comes with the sunday schedule and a multiplicity of sugar highs from the weekend crashed miserably. this is definitely the saddest of the flops to me. jenna loves the "jesus eggs" as we call them (objects hidden inside easter eggs to tell the story) and so for her to miss the program this year was a real blow to me. but it couldn't be helped once we realized we had missed the window though. next year chickadee. :/ so they made the ice cream while i put her to bed. 

and then we did our program. it has been morphing over the years and i think next year we will have it pretty much solidified. and  it is just so cool to use so many of our senses in remembering the most important event in HIStory! at first it was just the objects in the eggs and retelling the story. then quoting some scriptures. then some songs and pictures. and this year we typed it all out including the JST versions now available that add SO MUCH insight and layers of meaning for me! kent wanted to add some of the bible videos the church has made and it was a great addition, though it made the program twice as long =o] i think this will become as cherished of a tradition as our christmas program for sure!

all in all it was such a wonderful holiday. i love my family!