Picture over-load for your viewing pleasure. :)
Church Easter Egg Hunt:
They had a pinata for the older kids (12-18) that had awesome prizes like gift cards and cash. Nathan even liked that!
Dying eggs.
This was insanely crazy, but amazingly we had no spills! (I didn't dare say that while we were dying eggs, but I can safely say that now. Whew!)
This was insanely crazy, but amazingly we had no spills! (I didn't dare say that while we were dying eggs, but I can safely say that now. Whew!)
We always dump all the colors in the sink at once to make a rainbow. I loved this from when I was a kid. In fact I think I'll take credit for coming up with the idea.
I thought this was funny. Nathan was looking all over the mantle. He looked left and while his head was turned, Anna jumped right up there and found an egg on the right.
And the resulting tears of my pre-teen girl. I wouldn't have taken a picture of that except that Anna claimed I didn't take any pictures of her hunting eggs. Nice try with the guilt trip Anna, but it didn't work this time because I have lots of pictures of you! 
All dressed up and ready for church. Here's our Annual "Easter Picture by the Fireplace".
I told Katie I wanted to get a picture of her finding eggs and she turned around and said, "But I can't find any." (Still no smile. I promise she smiles in real life.)
Finding eggs.
We put stickers on the eggs that were easy to find so everyone would know to leave them for Caleb. They were fire truck stickers and I think it's cute you can see him saying "fire truck" in this picture.
I thought this was funny. Nathan was looking all over the mantle. He looked left and while his head was turned, Anna jumped right up there and found an egg on the right.
Don't know what's up with these faces.
Nathan was happy he found his "Jupiter egg". (He decorated it to look like the planet Jupiter.)
Lydia found The Rainbow Egg. It was the coveted egg this year. I told them whoever finds the rainbow egg... gets to find the rainbow egg. Ha! They thought they'd get some sort of reward. But even without any prizes, they all wanted to find the rainbow egg.
Michael was caught in pictures and will forever bear Easter Shame. The kids were looking for the last egg. Anna found it in the lamp and went to get it. I took this picture without knowing that Michael would try to take the egg. Right as I snapped the picture, he pushed her out of the way. Little did he know that I caught him on camera. He can't deny it this time! Actually he was pretty embarrassed when I told him, "By the way Michael, I took a picture of that." He said, "Oh. [pause] You did?"
We had an Easter Fiasco this year. I guess I got the hard boiled eggs mixed up with the raw ones. What a nightmare! And of course Caleb had to be the one to figure that out. "Um, mommy... my egg is icky!" This will be a story they'll tell for years to come. I'm sure I'll never live it down. Making Easter Egg sandwiches was... "fun". We ended up having to have scrambled eggs too because I had about 2 dozen raw eggs and couldn't tell the difference. The kids would cheer whenever I cracked open an egg and it was hard boiled.
We did our string tradition. (I'll give my mom credit for this one.) We hide their baskets and then wind yarn all over the house. They have to follow the string to find their baskets.
Anna screamed when she saw she got the movie "Dispicable Me". Apparently I chose her gift well.
Elizabeth got to the end of her string and was utterly disappointed that her string ended and there was no basket.
I asked her where it ended and she said, "The oven." I said, "Well, did you happen to open the oven?" She it was hilarious that her basket was in the oven!
I asked her where it ended and she said, "The oven." I said, "Well, did you happen to open the oven?" She it was hilarious that her basket was in the oven!
Lydia's was in the microwave.
And Katie's was behind the tv.
Apparently I missed getting a picture of Nathan finding his. It was REALLY hard to keep up with them all. So, I'm sorry Nathan, you're just too fast.
They each got a DVD, personalized chocolate egg (yummy!), Crabby Patty Kabob (I don't understand why they like Crabby Patties, but they do) and a small toy. It was a fun Easter, but I think we got too carried away in the commercial aspect this year and didn't focus enough on Christ. We're going to do a few things differently next year. But it was still fun.
