Easter

We normally go to Pasco for Easter, but that wasn't an option this year with the stay at home orders, so we just enjoyed the day by ourselves.

I wanted the kids to remember why we have Easter so we did our traditional Easter resurrection rolls the Sunday before Easter.  I think it helps set the mood for the week as we talk about Jesus.

The rolls were tasty.  Some of us wanted to keep licking the cinnamon sugar covered marshmallows.  I think the kids (most of them) realized that Easter isn't about the eggs and candy.

My mom gave us some eggs to dye for Easter. Hannah liked to stick them in for two seconds and then crack them against the edge of the cup.  So we kept a close eye on her.

Everyone used white crayons to write words and make designs on their eggs.

Megan pulling hers out to see if it is ready.

Look at the colorful creations.  We had a contest for the whitest egg, but it's a little hard to tell from the picture.  I think Will and I tied.

We made an Easter craft - marbled bunnies by actually rolling a marble through paint onto some paper bunnies.

We used them to make this poster for our friends in the ward.  Don't worry, we practiced social distancing while we dropped it off.  I think the bunnies turned out cute.  And it was an easy craft.

We also gave them some "nests" we had made.

Easter morning was fun.  Hannah was super excited to see candy all over the house.

Will is helping Adam reach some taller candies.

A family in our ward egged us. The eggs had little toys in them, so that was a nice change from all the candy. 

I did a few harder to find 'dinosaur' eggs.  Everyone could only find one.  They were each numbered and then the kids got to pick a bigger Easter candy.`

We decided to take a few family pictures. Everyone tried to dress up spring-y.

And using the slide to take a picture.  I love this family.

Anyway, we had a great Easter.

April Fool's Day!

April Fool's Day is always hit or miss at our house.  Sometimes we do stuff and sometimes no one is really feeling it. This year my kids got old enough to get into the action.

This one was annoying, but quite effective.  You had to untie the yarn to get into the fridge.  Then I would sneakily retie it so Rachel and Megan didn't think I messed up their trick.

Having to go under yarn to get from room to room.

Whitney tied yarn all around her sister's room so they would have to follow the path to get to the bathroom where she could jump out and scare them. Apparently, yarn is the best April Fool's Day trick tool. Whitney also glued a quarter to the sidewalk outside but I didn't get a picture of Rachel trying to pull it off.

I stole a friend's idea and covered the family pictures with stick drawings. 

Even sneaking into rooms and covering their cross stitched baby pieces.

And I decided to make rainbow pancakes for breakfast.

They were delicious.

Because we are stuck at home, the kids have learned how fun it is to take selfies.

Whitney likes to Facebook message with her friend Madison.  They take a lot of fun pictures of themselves. 

Happy April Fool's!

Our Collages

Being home all the time has been hardest on the school age kids.  I hear a lot about being bored.  But I came up with an art project that was a winner for my crew.

I found all my old magazines and put them on the table so kids could cut out pictures and make personal collages.  I helped Hannah with hers.  She really loves babies and Mickey Mouse, bubbles and cookies.

Adam is just learning how to correctly use scissors so he did some cutting and I did others. Adam was especially proud of his Lightening McQueen car picture and the huge Batman.

Megan decked hers out with mostly food and animals. She went around afterwards asking everyone their favorite picture and we pretty much all picked out the MnM's climbing the wall. 

Rachel loves everything and decorated both sides of her poster. Hers was probably the most well rounded poster with everything from popsicles to princesses to a fill-in-the-blank story page.

Whitney found her old Ranger Rick magazines and pulled out lots of pictures of animals doing funny things. She also squeezed in a little fried chicken and a hamburger.  I guess all those animals gotta eat.

It was a fun project and actually took us almost two hours.  So score on finding something fun that all the kids liked that didn't require the use of electronics. And thanks go to my mom for donating a bunch of magazines.