EASTER

BREAKFAST AT THE CHURCH

We had a breakfast at the Church a week before Easter.  It was really good, but of course the kids could hardly manage to get it down because they were so excited to do the other activities!  They had paper bags for the kids to decorate for eggs they collected on an egg hunt outside the church. 

I thought Mackenzie might be too little to get into it, but she loved it!  After the first egg, we didn't have to prompt her to find another she spotted and ran for them faster than we could point them out to her. 

Sadie and Braden were especially excited about the eggs with the prizes inside, while Jason and I were eyeing the candybars that they were putting aside!

Mackenzie knew what the good stuff was though!

CHARTER ACADEMY SPRING PARTY

The next week Sadie had a Spring Party to start off her spring break.  I was on the commitee again so I didn't many pictures of Sadie, but had some down time after setting up for my booth to take Braden and Mackenzie to some of the booths before all the bigger kids came in. 

They made baskets for the egg hunt, bunny face masks, rain sticks, went bowling, made sugar cookies, and played lots of other fun games to win fun prizes.

Here is Sadie with Alexis,one of her best friends from school, and Braden.  We had a snack bar for the kids to get a few healthy snacks to eat along with some of the candy they got from their Easter Eggs.

Afterward, home from the big party, they all fell asleep for a nap.  I think the last time that happened was after the school Halloween party!  Although, I was worn out too and fell asleep along with them!

EASTER SUNDAY

Sadie woke up so excited to find her Easter Basket.  Of course the Bunny stepped it up a notch and hid them a little harder than years past.  Sadie immediately looked where it was found last year and didn't see anything then came back upstairs to tell me that the Easter Bunny didn't come this year.  She was pretty sad.  She thought I forgot to call him or something.  I admitted that I didn't call him so she assumed that there was nothing for them this year.  She was definately sad about it, but actually took it very well and didn't get too upset.  So we just went about our morning as usual until Sadie randomly found one of the baskets!  I can't tell you how excited she was that he really did come and she quickly found all 3 baskets pretty fast.  I thought they were hid pretty good, but once she knew they were there to find she figured it out pretty fast.

We tried to watch conference but had a pretty hard time getting much out of it this year, I'm sad to say.  We were busy with the kids and making cakes and dealing with Easter basket excitement.  I heard there was some really great talks too, so I'm going to have to review it later.

Jason did a great job assembling a cake for his dad.  I made the cakes, chocolate mousse filling, and ganache and he did the decorating.  And it was soooo yummy too!   This is my new favorite cake recipe.  I wanted to make it a Bunny Cake in honor of Easter and my father-in-law's childhood cake past, but wanted something different.  So I found a bear cake mould that I used for the top cake and made it look like a bunny by addding long ears and a fluffy tail.  It was our first time using ganache so it didn't come out perfect when we poured the chocolate over the top of the bunny, but I think it was still somewhat recognizable as a bunny... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We had a yummy lunch at my in-laws and surpised my father-in-law with a special gift pitched in from all 5 of his kids. 

He really means so much to all of us.  He has been through a lot this last year with medical problems and we are so lucky to be able to continue to spend time with him.  It is always fun to hear all of his crazy stories, the best person to go to for info on most any topic (I swear he has the best memory and can give you a million facts on just about anything you can think of), and he is just fun to be around.  And of course a major grand-kid magnant!  What would we ever do with out him??!

Speaking of grand-kids, doesn't he have some cute ones?  These are the Carter cousins, minus Chris and Traci's kids and Tim and Ann's.   What a cute bunch of kids.  :)