Easter Fun!

Well, our Easter this year was bound to be better than last year, because we were all together… and it was!  It was also very busy, though, so prepare yourself for lots of pictures! :)

So, sometimes it seems like too much work to hardboil and dye eggs… but after watching how much fun the girls had, I’m glad we did!  Nothing spectacular, I just got the $1 dye kit at Walmart, and hardboiled the eggs we had (9).  Which was about the right number, since they each did several, and then lost their attention span, so Daddy and I got to do a few, too! :)  

Tolerating her mother… I can’t wait until she’s a teenager…

(PS, check out the 2 year old fit being thrown just off screen.  Nice.)

Audrey was not really all about the let-it-sit-and-color technique.  She subscribed to the thrash-it-around technique instead.  She was constantly digging in the water.

Like I said, Audrey liked to dig, so this is what the purple egg ended up looking like… not exactly smooth! :)

All of the final products…

On the Saturday before Easter, our church had an egg hunt for the kids, and the youth helped out, so of course we were all there!  They played some fun games, which Laney absolutely refused to participate in (stick in the mud), but both girls were all kinds of excited when it came to actually finding the eggs! 

Audrey didn’t really get the idea of grabbing as fast as she could- she wanted to pick them up and open them one at a time!

Laney, on the other hand, was moving so fast I had a hard time getting a picture of her!

Laney and her friend, Layne, comparing hauls!

After the egg hunt, the youth took off to do an Easter themed scavenger hunt.  We sent them all over the place to find eggs, sheep, purple robes, flowers… lots of randomness!  We had 2 teams and 2 other leaders, so we sent the teams with the other leaders while Josh, the girls and I chased them around taking pictures.  It was pretty fun!

The teams!

Miss A, helping us track them down!

After the scavenger hunt, we surprised the youth kids with a trip to Kart Kountry.  This is a really neat place about half an hour from Etown where they have the longest go-kart track in the world- 1.5 miles!  And they have a huge arcade, putt-putt, bumper boats… just about everything!  It was a little rough at first with the girls (I didn’t know to bring a stroller, and when we got there Audrey ran one way while Laney ran the other, and I was kind of at a loss), but once we got everything under control, we really had a good time.  And both Laney AND Audrey got to take their first go-kart rides! 

Laney, all buckled in for her ride!!

And… she loved it!!

And Audrey spent that whole time trying to squeeze through the fence and saying “Ride!  Ride!  Ride!” over and over.  So, even though I thought she was a little small, I figured she could take a spin, too!

I was taking Laney on a ride, so I couldn’t take pictures of A as well… but here’s a quick cell phone shot of her car as Daddy strapped her in!

Both girls LOVED the go-kart rides, although Josh and I will probably both feel better about Audrey doing it next year, when she’s a little bigger!  After go-karts, we headed to the putt-putt course, which was quite entertaining, what with a 2 and a 4 year old and all! :)  But we didn’t even get Audrey a club (she mostly chucked her ball down the course) and Laney played the hockey-style putt-putt, where you just push the ball around until it lands in the hole (c’mon, we’ve all done it!).  Audrey was quite entertaining, because she didn’t get the whole leaving other people’s balls alone thing, so she would walk to the hole after we had all made a first shot and start picking up balls and dropping them in the hole.  Pretty entertaining, but don’t think either of them are ready for the majors!!

Check out the pose… this girl is something!!

Too busy to pose- Audrey spent a lot of time digging Smarties out of her pockets, which usually involved yanking her t-shirt up to her armpits!

So, the youth party the night before, and Sunrise Service early Easter morning made for a short, short night!  But we managed to get the girls up and dressed (along with making biscuits and gravy for the breakfast, and Easter baskets made in the quiet).  and they looked pretty darn cute! Love my girls!

I put the Easter baskets out while Josh was loading the girls in the car, so they were surprised when we got home from church.  We thought it’d be better that way- a good reminder that church is far more important than baskets on Easter.  But, the baskets sure were fun, too!

We might have overdone it with the little gifts (chalk, books, etc), so we had to make an entirely separate basket for candy for everyone to share… can’t have a basket without Reese’s and Snickers eggs!

Audrey’s basket with all of her favorite things- sidewalk chalk, crayons, a movie, a book, and bubbles!

And Laney’s basket, which was obviously a bike helmet instead of a basket, which she loved!  Plus the usual goodies- bubbles, a VeggieTales, and a book!

Digging in!

Laney had to try on her helmet first thing, of course!

After digging through baskets (and sampling a little candy) we had a quick lunch and took good, LOOOONG naps!  We all needed them!!  Afterwards, we headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, and have a little egg hunt of our own!

Audrey was ready to go enjoy ALL of her new Easter toys!

Audrey did a pretty good job finding eggs this time… and she was quite excited about it!!

Laney was quite determined to get the eggs… she even started climbing the wall!

Anyway, after some outside time, we capped off our Easter celebrations with a yummy spiral sliced ham and all the fixins!  Pretty delicious!

It was hard not to spend this Easter with our extended family, but I was so happy to at least have our family back together!  We had a great time celebrating our Savior, and remembering the joy of the day He rose from the grave.