Happy Easter

Easter was super early this year, and although Aunt Jenni didn't make it out to visit - we had a happy day! And no, much to Darren's dismay, we did not give the kids carrots in their easter baskets - they got good old chocolate.

It's always hard to make sure that the kids understand what we're celebrating - not the arrival of Spring, but rather Christ's resurrection. Luckily the stake was putting on a performance about Christ that we could take the kids to. It was actually the second act of the same show that the church put on in the Conference Center during the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002.

It was a nice addition to the holiday, but Darren and I had a silent laugh at an older sister who was sitting in front of us. She turned around shortly after we arrived - about 10 minutes before it started - and said to Davis (in respons to his slapping the metal chair), "It's cute when you do that now, but after the show starts I'll turn around and give you a mean look." Then she looked me and said snidely, "I had 9 kids you know, but we never took the babies to performances. That's what babysitters are for. " HAH HAH! IF we had more than 3 young women in our ward I might have better luck with that, but even so - isn't the church all about families? Momma mia.

This picture is the night before, Easter Eve if you will.

On Saturday we went to a couple of Easter egg hunts at local parks - one that started at 9am SHARP and was over in literally 30 seconds. The kids just stared at the mayhem and didn't get squat. So we headed to another hunt at Aidan's Place (site of the Christian Bale incident) for a "festival" where they had millions of eggs but kept shouting "only get ONE egg!" Did any kid listen? Of course not, so after everyone caught on, we all dumped their baskets out and took the one egg to trade for a goodie bag. It was weird, but much fairer. And they also had some hot rap music playing while the kids rocked out in the bounce houses. Only in LA. Then the kids got their faces painted by the BEST face-painter ever. NOT. Dalton wanted a spider and as she was painting she said, "All spiders have 6 legs you know. " Then Dane wanted a Harry Potter scar (shock) and she put a big yellow blob on his forehead. Good thing there was no mirror or he'd have been all put out. He's kinda picky like that. Anyway, it was a good time.

Here the boys are with the Merrells and Marshes at Lindburgh Park, the first hunt. The Merrells also have three boys almost the same ages as ours.

On Sunday we had the Merrells and Coveys (family away from family) over for dinner and it was nice to enjoy the Spring weather. Oddly enough, Maegan and I made the EXACT same dessert - strawberry shortcake trifle. Great minds think alike, eh? Hoppy Easter 2008!