Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny left goodies at our house last night...and a note. Each of the children (except Kate) had to find a pail full of candy (the girls received princess pails and Zach got a Dora pail), 5 plastic eggs full of candy, and a wrapped surprise (chocolate bunnies). Each of the children had a certain color to find. Zoe had green, Emily had pink, Eleanor had yellow, and Zach had blue. The Easter bunny was tricky with Zoe and Emily's eggs, so it took them awhile to find them. One of Zoe's eggs was hidden in a basket filled with Christmas lights that I use as a night light in our bedroom, so when she found the egg it was very warm and when she opened the egg she discovered the chocolate had melted. Not very smart, Easter Bunny! Eleanor slept through the excitement. When I woke her up an hour later, Zoe and Emily showed her where her pail was. She was very excited to see all the candy and sat down to feast on candy for breakfast. She had no interest in hunting for eggs. Zach had candy for breakfast as well. Emily has outgrown the candy for breakfast and had cereal. This was Zoe's first fast Sunday since she turned 8 and she wanted to fast. So no breakfast for her. Zoe's not a big breakfast eater, so I'm sure skipping breakfast was not a problem. The challenge would be getting through church with no snacks. But she did it, even with a special birthday treat her teacher brought in for her class (it was her teacher's birthday today). Her teacher told me that Zoe thought about whether to eat with her class or not and decided to continue fasting. The Primary children received even more candy before they went home as they gathered eggs that were in the Primary room. My Mom usually provides snacks for our girls during the ride to my parents' home after church, but since Zoe was fasting today, there were no snacks for anyone. Zoe was starving by the time she arrived at my parents' home and she ended her fast. This was a tough day to start fasting and I am proud that she did as well as she did. She really wants to choose the right and she is a great example to us all.
Here are some Easter morning pictures...



Emily ate breakfast after getting dressed and managed to spill milk on this dress, so she wore a different dress to church.

Here is Zoe writing a letter to her friend about her morning...a friend she would see at church.


The Primary children sang "Did Jesus Really Live Again?" for the closing hymn today during Sacrament meeting. I had e-mailed parents this past week to ask them to be at church a little early today so we could practice with the children. I have no idea if the practice happened because we were a few minutes late getting to church. We might have made it on time if Zach hadn't undone his buckle on the way (or maybe he wasn't buckled to begin with since I had Zoe in charge of getting him in the car...she claims he was buckled), so I stopped to buckle him in. Another couple we know arrived just after we did, so I asked the husband to bring Kate in for me since I had the diaper bag, church bag, and a sleepy Zach to bring inside. He went into the meeting which had already begun and set Kate down by my parents and then the husband sat by Kate. I sat on the opposite side of the pew away from Kate, so when Kate started crying during the opening prayer, I was too far away from her to do anything. I debated whether to get up during the prayer, walk to the front of the chapel, and go around the pews to where Kate was, but decided against it. I wondered why my parents weren't picking Kate up as she continued to cry and the prayer continued. Finally the husband picked her up, but she was too upset by now to be consoled. The prayer ended and I went to get Kate. Later on I found out that my parents thought it was the husband's baby (who doesn't have a baby and they know that!), so they wondered why HE wasn't doing anything about the crying baby sitting beside them. Ugh. To make things worse, in our rush to get out the door this morning I left Kate's binky at home, so we had a church day without a binky which was not fun!
I stood in the back of the chapel with Kate until after the Sacrament. During the passing of the water, she pooped...and of course got it all over her onesie, underpants, and tights (whenever I put her in a dress she poops on it!).
After Sacrament meeting, I had a crying Kate AND a crying Zach to deal with...more fun! Luckily Zach likes our nursery leader and I was able to get him settled into nursery pretty quickly. Throughout the rest of church, I nursed Kate to keep her happy and my Mom held her when she slept. (My headache is coming back just from writing about my day!)

Let's show some more pictures that were taken at my parents' home...




We had a yummy ham dinner and we enjoyed visiting with my parents this afternoon. My Mom and I discussed her new calling...Stake Primary Secretary...which means she will be released as a Primary teacher (another bright spot in my day...now we need to call a new teacher and my Mom won't be with us in Primary anymore :-( I think we need her more than the Stake, but I'm sure there is a good reason this is happening. Maybe I should have stayed in bed like Eleanor wanted to do this morning!
It was nice to hear Zoe say in her prayer this evening that she was thankful the Easter Bunny gave them each different colors to find this morning so they didn't fight. And this morning Emily was heard saying, "This is the BEST Easter ever!"

Now for some randomness...

Here is a picture of Thursday's snow...


Here is Kate on her 2 month birthday!(which was Friday)...

Kate discovered her hands on Friday. She loves to smile and coo at her siblings. She's starting to grab onto things for a few seconds. She likes to have me hold her while I'm standing up...so the sling a friend gave to me today could come in very handy!