Easter Sunday

Mike worked the morning of Easter Conference Sunday.

Mason and Hailey were at their other dad's house.

I was home with our 2 girls trying to clean but that seemed hopeless after about 2 hours of cleaning the same room.

But things went much better in the later afternoon. We had family come over for a Egg Hunt/Potluck.

A few days earlier Ducati and I made this Easter-Jelly Bean- Resurrection Egg- Tree. Each egg has a small token with a scripture about Jesus's Resurrection. We've had this tradition in our lives for years but I thought it would be nice to share it with our extended family.

But it was a small task to keep away little hands from eating all the jellybeans. :)

But once everyone was here it was nice to stop and reflect the meaning behind this amazing day. Everyone took an egg and read the scripture and helped bring the spirit into our home and into our festivities.

Afterwards we shared our family our other tradition of Adult/Kid Egg Hunt.

All the kids hid some eggs in our backyard. They tried to be sneaky but c'mon now. They can never trick us! Especially my little niece who found ton of eggs and gave them to Mike. She loves him!

After all the eggs were found it was our turn to hide the eggs for the kids. Mwahahaha!
We let the kids out from youngest to oldest with a 10 second delay so each kiddo could have a chance to get some eggs.

Dax was content with finding 1 egg then hanging out with Aunt Julia. He's such a cutie pie!
But with over 200 eggs everyone had a chance to find some :)

 With everyone running around looking for eggs things got interesting since the uncles/dads gave the kids the most challenges. Eggs up in trees.

 Eggs hung up on our clothes lines. Eggs on top of our shed. Eggs inside wired fence. Eggs inside our dryer vent. Eggs everywhere!

All the kids loved it! Their eggs were filled with stickers, candy, money, chocolate, jelly beans, and prize tickets. Through all my amazing shopping skills I've collected tons of toys, prizes, treats, gift sets and I divided into 2 boxes.

Prize box 1 had oatmeal cookies, fruit snacks, nail polish, applesauce, playdoh, candy eggs, etc.

Prize box 2 had games, Legos, My little Ponies, Mr. Potato Heads, Journals, big bags of candy, gift cards, etc.

So the Build-Your-Own- Basket station was a big hit. Everyone (14 people) picked their prizes for their Easter baskets and it cost us maybe $20. I love that!

 Lily traded about 95% of her candy to her cousins for their money. Mike helped her count it all and she collected $5!

 Ducati redeemed her prize tickets for a My Little Pony doll. She loves MLP :) ♥

Lily traded some items for a MLP doll too. This girl has really picked up on our "trading up/flipping" skill. :)

Ari got some great prizes for her DIY basket but she wanted Jack to be in her basket more than anything.

For my Easter gift Mike got me BUNNIES!

I introduce MY bunnies EB (named after the bunny in Hop), Snow White (the momma), and Jack Sparrow (named after the pirate since he is always escaping his cage/carriers/hutch)

So Snow White and her 2 boys came to live with us after their previous owners didn't want them anymore. So instead of splitting up their family I volunteered to take them all. So now I have a cute,cuddly, bunny family.

Anyways.... Mike and I have made it a point to teach and guide our kids in all things honest. So they know the truth on Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc. They know their parents are their gift givers. So we've made it a point to still have fun on these holidays but always keep focus on Christ.

We add our own twist to things celebrated. We kick out what we don't want and emphasize on what's important. Eggs and bunnies have nothing do to with Jesus Christ. They are the things that can distract us from the real reason Easter is celebrated. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, just like he said he would, and showed us the power of Heavenly Father but also that all those that believe in him and follow him will have eternal life. And this is something I don't want my kids to ever forget.