Easter

This Easter was great.  I guess since our kids haven't really been old enough for it to matter we had never discussed our Easter traditions as far as egg hunts and baskets were concerned. In my family at some point on Saturday you go and dye eggs, then the Easter bunny (loosely called such since I never remember believing in such a person, I always knew it was my dad) hides the eggs and baskets in the yard.  We always had money in the eggs and most years I remember that we had a specific basket with our name on it.  Sunday was all about religious meaning and a ham diner, we didn't really do candy or bunny sort of things on the actual Easter Sunday. If it was conference the egg hunt would happen between sessions on Saturday and there would be jelly beans available for all the sessions. 

Stuart (I should have him write this up) from what I understand they did their egg hunt Saturday with their own basket.  Then when they woke up they had to search the house and find their filled basket.  I heard there were some pretty creative hiding spots (such as the inside of the piano!) The Fuller cousins made a regular pilgrimage for Easter and Stuart often talks about dozens of eggs to be dyed and I'm sure there was a veritable feast with all those fun cousins. 

So the question this year was what should we do with the baskets?  We haven't formally decided yet, but we decided to do our egg hunt a bit early while Mom Larsen was still here and the kids used their baskets then. We also joined the Laws for an egg hunt at my dad's house (I don't ever remember $50 dollars at egg hunts growing up haha)vvvv  Sunday morning we put their filled baskets on the table.  I think maybe next year we will try hiding the baskets before we leave for church and letting them look for them when we return (candy filled kids during sacrament are not my favorite experience). After church we took a picnic to Azalea park and enjoyed the flowers in bloom and a quick photo shoot.  I guess this is the year we should decide how we will do things so that we can establish a tradition...it's so fun Chiara is now able to participate in holiday celebrations.  I also made a sort of Easter advent with little symbols of the events leading up to the Atonement, Crucifiction, and Resurrection that I think will be nice to use in future years.

Mostly my favorite part of this Easter was spending time with family.  I really love when Stuart is able to be home with us.

Yay for Grandma!

I have the best mother in law ever. Seriously. She is just fun to be around, I don't feel stressed when I see her, she actually makes life about 100 times better by helping out without making me feel like I'm a failure...that's a talent.  I never know what to say when my friends complain about their mother in law's because I have yet to find an annoying trait about mine.  Actually, if anything I wish I was more like her. It's pretty amazing. 

It also was awesome that she got to come visit for Spring break...the weather was a little chillier than we would have liked (weird unseasonable cold snap), But we sure did have a good time.  Some of the highlights were the beach, downtown Chucktown, Magnolia Plantation, Chiara's ballet lesson, and Monkey Joes.  I didn't take as many picturs as I should have (I was too busy enjoying all the fun), but here are some goodies for you to feast your eyes on.

Chiara and Asher were also in heaven with Grandma around.  Everyone knows she is the best for reading books and playing cars (which happened about a million times).  She also taught Chiara a fun new (made-up) game called silly smoothies where you can make anything into a smoothie, for example rubberband smoothie.  That game and a repeat visit have been requested everyday since she, sadly, left back to Colorado.  Thanks so much for spending your Spring Break with us!

The Big Top

The circus came to town just in time for Stuart to go this year...we had to take advantage.  Chiara was as enthralled as last year, Asher was mildly suspicious of all the commotion until he got his shark balloon and then the balloon was the only item of interest to him the rest of the night (silly buddy!)

too excited about all the animals and shows!

 Chiara can't pass up pony rides...we might have to look into horseback riding in another year or so.

 This was one of the last things that we were able to do with our good friends the Laws before their move to San Antonio. We miss y'all!

 Nikki and the clown...clowning around

So much fun!