Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  We had a great holiday this year. 

As you can see, Brooklyn was so excited to put on her Easter dress and celebrate.  She was so cute just smiling and clapping.

This year I made Brooklyn her own bunny basket for Easter.  It even has her name on it.

She was happy to play with it and put it on her arm.  Of course she would not hold still for even a second so I could get a good picture though.  So they are all blurry.  

Now all of the kids have matching bunny baskets with their names on them.  I wasn't sure what color I should make for Brooklyn.  I only had a limited supply of felt and did really want to go to the store.  I thought about purple but then thought it would be too dark.  Finally I decided on yellow but after I cut it all out, I worried it would look like a big lemon.  When I finally got it put together though, I turned out to be pretty cute.  It is bright but I like it.  Brooklyn likes it too. 

No Easter would be complete without dying eggs!

This was Brooklyn's first time dying eggs and she thought it was the best thing ever.  We stripped her down and then gave her the yellow dye because we figured it would stain the least.  She grabbed an egg and just went to town dunking it in the dye.  Then she dunked her hands and splashed around.  By the time she was done with her three eggs, there was yellow dye everywhere.  Not only were her eggs very yellow, so were her hands, legs, and body!  It was great.

All of the eggs turned out so good.  This year I ran out of liquid food coloring so we tried out my old gel food coloring.  This was actually pretty interesting because the dye seemed to be multi colored leaving the eggs looking a little bit tie-dyed especially the purple color.  I think we will use the gel colors again just because of this cool effect.

On Easter morning, the kids were surprised to find their baskets full of fun things like candy and little toys.

Russell also made us this nice Corn-hole game set.  We have always loved playing Corn-hole and have wanted our own game for a while.

At the city Easter egg hunt, the kids really gathered a lot of eggs and candy.

This was Brooklyn's first time going to the hunt and she didn't really know what to do.  She was happy just sitting there with one or two eggs in her hands and watching everyone else.  She just sat and shook the eggs and smiled.  I gathered her a few more eggs to put in her basket.  Meanwhile, Charlotte grabbed a bunch of eggs in her age group area.

The boys really cleaned up in their age group and gathered a bunch of eggs.  They even climbed trees in order to find hidden eggs.  Unfortunately, Emily is too old now to join in the fun of the egg hunt so she got to just watch with the adults.  Oh well sorry Emily...

Before leaving the park, we had to get a picture with the Easter Bunny.  We were happy this Easter Bunny looked normal, not like the creepy bunny in St. George. 

At home, the kids were excited to do their own Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard.

Russell and I threw out a bunch of eggs for the kids and they had to wait their turn to come out.  Brooklyn was first and we just let her crawl around for a while.  She would crawl to an egg, shake it, sit there for a minute, and then crawl to another one.  After like 5 minutes of this, the older kids were freaking out wanting to come outside.  So we stalled for a little bit more before letting them come out.  The eggs were gathered pretty quickly once everyone was outside.  It is amazing how fast they can pick up eggs all over the yard but if you ask them to pick up their toys in the house, they cannot do it.

They all gathered on the trampoline to see what all they got in the eggs.  There was of course a ton of candy so they were all excited about that.

Brooklyn was just excited about all of the colorful eggs.  She just wanted to be covered in them and kick her feet in them. It was like a ball pit for her.

On Sunday I tried out a new recipe called egg blossoms.  They are little rolls in the shape of a flower with a dyed egg in the middle.  The rolls were really good especially with homemade chicken noodle soup.

We had a great Easter holiday.  We are happy to celebrate with these fun activities but we know the true reason for this Easter season is because of the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.  That ultimate sacrifice and love is the greatest gift we have been given in our lives.  I hope we can always remember the true meaning of Easter and remember that Christ rose again on the third day so that he could overcome death.  He did this so that we could also be Resurrected and live with Him again if we are true and faithful and repent of our sins. What a great blessing!