Non-Generic Easter Greeting

This was a really fun weekend with the kids. In the past we have visited family for Easter, but this year we wanted to celebrate at home. We really enjoyed listening to Conference and celebrating the holiday together, and hopefully pick up a few new traditions.

This afternoon, we had a nice turkey dinner and had an Easter egg hunt with the kids. Most of the eggs had a small treat in them, but some of the eggs had clues in them that revealed where some larger prizes were. Ethan loved the clues since he recently was introduced to "Blues Clues." He even likes to draw in his own "handy dandy notebook." Brooklyn didn't really understand what was going on, but she loved the candy and anything Ethan helped find for her.

On Saturday morning we took the kids out to the Deseret Peak compound in Tooele for their Easter Egg hunt. It was amazing! There were thousands of eggs/books/toys/etc. laid out in a parking lot with probably at least a thousand kids all waiting in anticipation. Ethan was a little wary about going out there with all the other kids, but he got excited when he saw Smarties and Tootsie Rolls. Brooklyn was in the youngest age group but they didn't get to pick up eggs. Instead they just gave all the wee ones treats and a little book.


He did not want to wear his coat, so we didn't make him. He ended up with Kyle's jacket after he realized that he wished he had listened to us.

Some of the eggs had numbers on them for big prizes. We didn't get any of them, but we were amazed at how great the prizes were. There were kids everywhere with new bikes, and even a bounce house. Maybe next year . . .

When we got home Ethan wanted to lay all of his candy out on the rug just like he did after he went Trick-or-Treating (though this time he got lots more candy). We thought it was funny that he lined it up in a row. It's a good thing he's a good sport for letting us limit how many pieces he can have in a day.

We thought it would be fun to make marshmallow eggs for Easter. Ethan was excited to "help" form the egg shapes in the flour. . .

. . . and to lick the spoon!

Brooklyn has been showing much more interest in her baby lately. It has been so cute to see her giving them love.

She's also been obsessed with hats, or making things into hats. (She was losing her balance when we snapped this one and we thought she looked funny).

We've had some crazy weather this week. It was nearly 70 at the beginning of the week, and three snowstorms. Each one dumped a few inches, then melted within a day. Ethan wanted to build a snow man on Friday.

Here he was Sunday (before we smashed him). We think he looks like a duck.

Ethan got this soccer ball for Easter today, and has already had lots of fun with it. It looks like he's already posing for a soccer team photo.

Kyle's birthday was on Tuesday. Kyle asked for a carrot cake. Ethan insisted that Jen make a Doc cake (Doc from Cars) for Dad's birthday (and a Sally cake for Jen's and a Flo cake for Brooklyn's). He was disappointed until we put a blue candle on his piece of cake, then he was satisfied. Notice that once again, Kyle's candles are in binary (29).

Kyle walked in Sunday morning and found Ethan sitting at the computer with Notepad open and the box for "The Princess and the Frog" DVD in front of him. Ethan was carefully copying the letters from the DVD box. Kyle had to point out that there were words between "Princess" and "Frog," and this is the result:

We went to Kyle's mission reuinion on Friday night. Attendance was a little sparse, but that was probably a good thing because Ethan was off the wall. We were sitting down for dinner, and in the silence Ethan turned to Jen and out of the blue blurted out "I love you...your hair is nice" (he might have said "cute" but we dont' remember for sure) and touched her hair. People got a good laugh.