It was so fun to start our easter festivities with Aunt Beka here on her last day and a neighborly easter egg hunt with ward friends! What a happy bunch!!
Then, after Aunt Rebekah left, we kick started our own family traditional activities!!! Even though it was a week late, we couldn't miss these traditions for the world!! AND these little ones were sure hapy to keep us all on track! The Saturday right before Easter, we did our best to die eggs the night before, so we could have colorful egg-died Golden-Rod Eggs for breakfast!! This recipe has been passed down for more than 5 generations!! It was one of my first favorite foods! So sweet to see our kids excited about something I was always excited for as a kid, to have colorful creamed eggs on toast on Easter morning!
Little J and his "pop pop"
Look at those pretty eggs!
So many beautiful colors and many hands make for light work!
Happy Easter morning!! Complete with all of that TRADITIONAL yumminess! My grandma Pat and great-grandpa June would be so proud!
One night when I went to tuck in Nathan after putting Joshy down and saying goodnight to the girls, this was how I found Mr. Speed Racer-man....soo cute. I thought THIS was THE SWEETEST THING, seeing he had fallen asleep with his flashlight and upright hand-holding position of his book all still in tact! He sure loves this book series right now, the Magic Treehouse books, one of the first chapter books he would take on reading all by himself! woo hoo N racer-man!
Here are some scriptures that stood out to me this week. I loved remembering how Jesus Christ is THE ONLY WAY whereby man can be saved. All of our eternal happiness and comfort, peace, strength and joy in this life can only be made possible through HIM. I know that is true with every fiber of my being. I am thankful for Him and so eternally thankful that I can yoke myself and partner up with him through my very best efforts and his infinite love and mercy and through the power of the Atonement, make it back to live with Him and my family forever someday. It is my fervent prayer that I can live each day to remain close to Him as I seek to serve and lift others as he would do.
I also loved the reminder that a "strong youth program" is not defined by the charisma of its leaders, "rather it is one that gives EVERY YOUNG PERSON the OPPORTUNITY TO LOSE HIS OR HER LIFE FOR THE SAKE OF THE SAVIOR." I love service and what a powerful quote to help us remember that IS what THIS LIFE IS ALLLLLLLL ABOUT! SERVICE IN OUR HOMES, FAMILIES, with our friends, neighbors, anyone we may meet. As we SEEK to SERVE those around us on a DAILY basis, and incorporate our youth into that SERVICE, they WILL FEEL THE SPIRIT as they DO THE LORD's work. :) What a beautiful promise and I know I have felt guided by the Spirit as I have tried to serve those around me and have sincerely felt of HIS great love for them and us all.
We had the chance to go to a local organic farm with our homeschool co-op group and the kids had a blast!! We sampled their purple and orange carrots, went on a bug hunt, got to see lots of their successful growing practices and even plant our very own seedlings! SUCH a fun day, these outings are the best when we can go learn about nature and the beauty of the earth around us wih great friends. It was a definite score!
So interestingly, I had a friend in our homeschool co-op group who was interested in learning our LDS faith views on the nature of God. I described how we believe the godhood to consist of three different beings, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as three distinct beings. He then went on o ask me when I thought Jesus was glorified, or if He always had been a God. It was a very interesting conversation and I was excited to have him open up about his quesitons/beliefs and allow me an opportunity to share some of mine, and also for me to say that I was going to go and study some of those questions out a bit more and we could continue our discussion again too! So, here were some scriptures and references (especially those in the Bible, which he does believe in) describing who our Savior is and how He could be both the son, and a God, and still fulfill the mission He came to fulfill from before the foundations of the world. This sparked lots of more intense scripture study for me and I went to work finding references and manuals describing the divine nature of God including our Savior, Jesus Christ. I LOVE gospel conversation and discussions like that!! I FEEL in a small way that ITS LIKE I am getting some MISSIONARY experiences and OPPORTUNITIES, even though I never had the chance to serve a full-time mission myself! The Lord works in marvelous ways and truly knows the desires of my heart! <3
Flying paper airplanes contest at our homeschool co-op!! They had lots of fun with this science activity!
Nathan's class!
Katelyn's class!
Our lon awaited egg-drop experiments!! Woo hoo!! Our awesome insulated design with Nathan's group ALMOST worked when they were all dropped from a tall ladder! Katelyn's group decided to be creative and crafted a parachute for the egg container to ease it's velocity and impact upon landing! Clever girls!! Nice work! Super fun memories!
Silly faces eating tortillas for lunch! AND AN AWESOME book list from Katelyn's 2nd grade work curriculum, she has to read 3, so she read, "A Lion to Guard Us," "The Sword in the Tree," and "Pirates Promise" by Clyde Robert Bulla. Great reads!
The Easter week wouldn't have been complete without reading the scriptures to cooincide with each day of the holy week, and watching the lds.org Bible videos to go with them, nor without having our very own improvised traditional PASSOVER MEAL!! We had fish sticks, olives, lentils, and grape juice to remember what the food might have somewht resembled when Jesus lived on the earth and had dinner with his disciples one last time in the Last Supper before Passover! 
My handy-man awesome husband trying to fix the SQUEEEEEEAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLINGGGG noise of our very much loved and worn Civic. After two solid trys, HE FIXED it!!! Go Daddy!
Katelyn's first Stake activity day girls activity after being baptized! They did this super cute lip sync where our ward performed the Moana song with blue ribbon wands. It was super cute and fun to see her let some of her singing and dancing talents shine!
Our belated Easter morning, revamping a Christmas tradition into an Easter one, morning pictures on the stairs!
Fun new surprises and remembering the gift our Savior gave to us of His life and the miracle of His Resurrection. We are so thankful for Him and cherish remembering Him all week long through our Easter week activities and it is my motherly prayer that we can carry this kind of special remembrance of our Savior not just on the big holidays when we celebrate His life and gift to us, but that we may remember Him each and every day!
Happy Easter! Love this fam of ours!
