Easter Egg Hunt

An Easter egg hunt with our cousins has quickly become a tradition that both the kids and the adults (well, at least this one) love.  After lunch, and the stuffing of the eggs, Jon and Jeff headed out to hide the eggs (as much as we could with the limited shrubbery we have around our house). Then it was time to let the kids loose! Matea quickly caught on to pick up the eggs as fast as she could get them! The bigger kids got the more obscure eggs, and to keep Matea entertained would throw eggs back on the ground a little ways in front of her if she couldn’t find any. Cute!

We’re ready . . . we’re set . . .

GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve got the hang of this!

I’ve got to get the the next one quick quick quick!

Jon and Jeff hid plenty eggs in plain sight and covering the lawn, but also hid them in trees, on cars, and even in “the jungle” (as we refer to the empty overgrown lot next to us).  The kids had to look high and low to get them all!

Hey, reindeers don’t lay eggs! Or have them on their ears!

What birdie left this one here?

Three kids under the deck . . . busy de-egging the property.

Off in “the jungle” . . . scary!

After finding all the eggs (we’re pretty sure at least), Matea still wanted to find more. So Noah took an egg out of his basket, put it by his shoes and said, “Matea where can you find more eggs?” At which point she promptly reached into his basket and took one. :) HILARIOUS! From then on Noah would put one on the ground and then hold his basket out of Matea’s reach. Smart boy. Her swiping continued when we got to time to open the eggs. She kept grabbing eggs from Lexi and Tori when she could. Sneaky girl.

Yeah, I see the one by your shoe, but I see a whole basketful in front of me ready for easy pickings!

Noah got smart to Matea’s tricks.

More eggs! I need more eggs!! And I’m not above stealing them.

One of the candies in the eggs were super sour bubble gum. Eli was excited since he loves anything sour, and I thought his faces were priceless as he tried the gum.

First lick - “What is this?!”

Entering the not-so-sure-about-this phase.

Finally, acceptance. Afterwards - “I love this stuff!”

I didn’t notice while the kids were emptying their eggs until my Mom pointed it out, but Eli organized his candy by type when he opened them. I love it! Organizing candy? He’s mine alright!

Easter Baskets

We were hoping to have time for the kids to find their Easter baskets before church, but that didn’t pan out (Eli slept until about 45 minutes before we were supposed to leave), so we had the kids search for their baskets when we got home from the service. Eli was all in to it of course, while Matea wasn’t sure what was going on. Eli found Matea’s first (hidden by the workbench) but had to really look hard to find his basket (hidden behind the fort he’d made out of pillows the night before).

Once they found them they dug in (and then Matea got interested). I knew they’d be getting lots of candy from the egg hunts, so they only had one thing of candy in their baskets and the rest were little things I’d picked up for them over the last few months and hidden away. Eli liked his little Lego set best of all I think (and his Skittles egg). Jon grew up having to search for his Easter basket, and he had such fun memories of it that I’m happy we can pass that tradition on to our kids. And I can’t wait to make the hiding places super hard for them as they get older. :)

What are we doing?

Eli found Matea’s!

“COME HERE MATEA!”

Matea got “Ms” as she calls them – M&M‘s.

Sheep stickers with googly eyes – so Matea. :)

Anything more in there, Mom?

Eli looked everywhere . . . not there . . .

Nope, not there either. . .

It couldn’t be under the pillows, could it?

I’ve never seen pillows fly so fast!

FOUND IT!

“Hot Wheels socks! Sweet dude!”

Spiderman stickers are always a hit.

A Skittles egg, ooooohh!

I like my basket. :)

Easter!

We were blessed to celebrate Easter this year with both my Mom, Jeff and Lori and the kids, and Jon’s Mom and Terry! I love my Jesus, love my family, and love having people over, so it was truly an amazing day to celebrate (and having Terry there to help in the kitchen was another treat for me!).

Beautiful Amanda Marie and Matea Marie!

Posing with her purse (which her Nuk came out of)

On stage at church, and actually looking at the camera.

Eli would barely stand still for any picture.

Family shot!

Playing with Lexi in the bus!

Rolling around on the floor to make Lexi and Tori laugh!

Filling Easter eggs for our egg hunt!

Yep, she actually did fill a few (and opened many more that Uncle Jeff had finished).

Eli got in on the egg action too.

Trying to get to the candy . . . yep, she’s my daughter!

Easter Egg Scramble

We went to the Easter egg scramble at church again this year, but this time we brought along Lexi and Tori as well. After a presentation of the Easter story, the kids were let out of the back of the gym to the hill behind church – which was covered with eggs! They each got their allotted 22 eggs each and then we headed back in the gym to empty our candy (and drop our eggs in the bins so church can reuse them next year). Not a bad way to get the morning started if you ask me! :)

First one out the doors and up the hill!

A field of eggs (and why it’s called a scramble and not a hunt)

Tori’s checking to make sure there was actually candy in that one.

Lexi found the lone egg on the windowsill.

Time to empty and inspect our candy haul.

These were the hardest eggs to open . . . ever. Seriously.

Already hopped up on candy – just look at Eli’s face!

Easter Egg Dyeing!

We did our Easter egg dyeing on Good Friday with Grandma, Jeff and Lori and the kiddies. Besides the traditional dyeing we also had sponge painting, bubble wrap painting, an aluminum foil technique (which wasn’t great), and decorating with stickers and colored sugar. We had an egg-travaganza (pardon the pun)! Even little Matea got in the act.  And Lexi and my feet unintentionally got involved when we spilled a whole cup of blue dye on ourselves. Despite several showers my feet are still tinged blue! Oh well, we still had an eggcellent time! :)

Ready, set, dye!

Not quite blue enough, it’s going back in!

Aluminum foil painting (a bust if you ask me)

Bubble wrap painting was awesome though! You painted the bubble wrap and then rolled the eggs across them.

Matea dipping her egg (in a whisk for it’s protection).

Matea wanted it “Out out!”

Egg! (Matea was SO excited!)

Look, Mom, I dyed my hands too!

The finished products!

A close-up, just because I liked it. :)