easter 2018!

easter weekend was glorious!

I love this time of year with new growth and life all around us. I love that symbolism. what a wonderful time it is to reflect on the life, atonement, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. our family recognizes how important the resurrection is and what that means for us. that we can be together again and even be reunited with our little ones that we haven't been able to know on earth after we die. this weekend was a great reminder of that.

Chris was on call the whole weekend. he worked late Friday night, didn't end up going in on Saturday at all, but ended up going in Sunday morning for a case.

we had rain the entire week leading up to easter except Friday and Saturday. so we did most of our festivities like dying eggs, cascarones, and our egg hunt on those two days.

grandma and grandpa Browne sent a wonderful easter surprise box with delicious treats, adorable stuffed bunnies, and a couple egg dying kits. it was a great kickoff to our celebrations! the kids could hardly wait to dye eggs!

this was Owen's first time and he couldn't get enough. his fingers were dyed black by the end.

we had our couch cleaned professionally on Friday and it took waaaay longer than I had anticipated. so while the guy was cleaning our couch in the living room, I finally gave in and let the kids dye eggs in the kitchen. it was kind of funny to me since I'm usually the one cleaning haha.

after eggs we were playing outside. Charlie hopped on his scooter without shoes and I asked him to please put shoes on. he ran inside, came out with flip flops on, jumped back on his scooter and within a few seconds started screaming in pain. somehow he had managed to wedge his big toe under his brake in the back and then step down on the brake. his toenail cracked right down the middle to the base of his nail. there was a lot of blood.

Saturday before conference started we had an egg hunt!

jack was very wise this time around and left any egg that was heavy and picked up only eggs that were light. those are the eggs that have a dollar in them or a note with a prize like a date with dad or lunch at school with mom. needless to say, he had to share a few of those eggs with his siblings to even things out!

 after conference we played our two favorite easter games:

egg cracking championship (Owen was the winner)

and cascarones (Charlie was the winner)

out of 24 eggs, the gold glitter was in the very last egg they picked haha!

the boys with their prizes: a symphony bar and peeps flavored Oreos. glad Charlie got that because he is our family's peep lover (second only to grandpa Dave).

Sunday morning the easter bunny played an April fool's day trick on the kids. when they found their baskets, all that was in them was some grass and a picture of the Savior. the kids were a little bummed that they didn't get anything else, but then started playing with the grass and said how they didn't know how much fun (ie messy!) the grass was lol! well, Chris had to go to work so he hopped in his car to leave and then noticed some bags in his back seat. he came in and asked if any of us had been shopping (hahaha) and the kids ran out to find they each had a bag with some treats and a couple gifts. they were pretty happy!

we were lucky enough to have our dear friends Doris and Marjorie, along with the elders join us for dinner.

these two sisters are so, so hilarious! 

we were all laughing the entire meal. we sure love them and are so grateful for our connection with them. plus, they are always telling stories about my grandpa and grandma browne, so its extra special when we spend time with them.

I wish we had thought to take pictures of the food because for the first time ever, every single part of our meal was finished at the same time (on time!) and tasted absolutely perfect! it was an easter miracle ;)

and Chris didn't get called in so it truly felt like the perfect evening!

here's what our menu looked like and probably will look like every year from here on out because it was just right:

maple brown sugar ham

rotisserie ham (Chris' own concoction)

cheesy funeral potatoes

french bread rolls with honey butter

roasted asparagus

fresh fruit

romaine salad with poppy seed vinaigrette 

and

lemon blueberry cake with whipped lemon cream cheese frosting

  

(every recipe was from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and I'd totally recommend each one)