Blessed Easter

Another Easter to be thankful for! I'm thankful for my life with my girls, the wonderful family and friends I have and most importantly that I know that my Savior lives and loves me! I am most thankful for His atoning sacrifice for me and that because of Him I can live with my family forever! 

The Easter Bunny came last night of course! Then we enjoyed the most wonderful church day to celebrate Our Saviors resurrection. I was definitely uplifted and filled! And tonight we had the Fosters, the Texas Ginns, the Frenchs and the Sundwalls for dinner. Great food, lots of laughs, an egg hunt and several rounds of bean boozed. That game is hilarious and perfect for Easter! 

2016 brought us a very great Easter. We are so blessed! 

Oh boy! 

Keagan set up an elaborate picnic for the little kids all by herself! 

The big kids got a table which we moved to the living room. 

Egg hunt! 

Cousins!

Perfect Hunting!

Today may have been my favorite Saturday of 2016! We had a ridiculous amount of fun so it probably earned the title of best Saturday yet.

A couple weeks ago I got a crazy idea to organize an Easter Egg Hunt. I haphazardly created a sign up and threw it on Facebook. 75 yes RSVPs later I figured I was pretty commited to the idea. Thank heavens Nikki helped and made it 10 times better by renting a bunny suit for sweet Elle Gruewell to wear and bringing confetti eggs! It was the best!

We held it at Hillcrest park and so many of my favorite families came! We had two seperate hunts, one for the littles which Riley participated in and one for the big kids which Keagan participated in. They both went great, everyone got plenty of eggs and there were even some money eggs mixed in! Then we had a delicious pot luck with an abundance of great food! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and everyone ate and chatted while the kids played. It was a classic spring day and a beautiful friend Easter celebration! I just loved it!

We then went straight to Gamas gym and played hard with all the Blacks and Reagan. So much fun flipping, climbing, running, and playing as always! 

Then we came home to get ready for the big day tomorrow. I may have told the girls that the Easter Bunny will only come if the house is spotless! I'm a genius! That meant both girls helped vacuum and straighten up before putting out their Easter baskets! The cutest thing ever is Keagan made a darling book for the a Easter Bunny! It is pictures of all his family and their homes! She worked really hard and I have no doubt the Easter Bunny will cherish it forever! Just like we will cherish this fantastic day forever too! 

EGGcelent

Once again we survived the great Easter egg dye of the year! I was actually pretty impressed that there was very minimal chaos and mess. That is a serious success! As always I am so glad we did it and I am so glad it's now over. The girls loved it of course! Now I'm hoping the dye washes of their hands by Easter Sunday!

Too School for Cool

I am weird. We all know this. 

But one of my very weird quirks is even though I take a gazillion pictures of my kids, I have a strict no school picture policy. Ok it's not really strict, I just don't buy school pictures. I never have. I figure it's a waste of money. Once a year I have the girls pictures professionally done sometime around their birthday and I take pictures of them almost every other day of the year. So school pictures, with their one akward pose and funky backgrounds just aren't my thing. 

But I gotta admit, this year I was tempted. Because man my kids are so stinkin cute! Yeah for the free proof sheets that I get to keep! 

But I definitely always buy the class picture! That is an absolute must and is reasonably priced. Seriously could these classes be any cuter?! 

That Went Well

In the midst of a super busy Monday where I did 5 loads of laundry, went to the grocery store AND did my taxes, I made it a huge priority to plan a great Family Home Evening for tonight. It was a fun lesson and game about Easter. I thought it was very impactful and clearly explained the meaning of Easter with all its parts AND it was fun. Once we were having FHE, I was super happy because Keagan was answering the questions I asked and even added details to parts of the story I was telling! I seriously had the thought "she really did listen last year! Man maybe I'm actually teaching her something!" 

And then she goes to bed. I am laying next to her and it's quite. Of course I am thrilled thinking she is asleep. It's only then that she busts out with "hey mom, what is even the point of Easter? Why do we celebrate it?" 

For the love! Back to square one! 

Wearing the hat she got from her golf lessons and both girls with the bunnies Sa got them for Easter...

Their new favorite spot at Sa's house...

Spring Break, Day 6

So technically today is Saturday and I don't usually consider it part of Spring Break. But we continued to party hard today like it was still Spring Break!

After going to bed way too late last night for the cousin sleepover with Campbell, we were up early and out the door! We went to Zube Park to ride the awesome Houston Area Live Steamers. I have been wanting to do this for years! They are miniature trains that you sit on top of and ride along the most darling track full of bridges, small houses, tree branch tunnels, etc. And it's free! The darling Riesbergers joined us and we all thought it was absolutely so much fun! We rode twice and then checked out the even much smaller steam engine trains. My favorite part was seeing the Union Pacific trains like the ones my Grandpa Harrold used to be the engineer of and the fun conversations that sparked with the girls!

Afterwards we enjoyed lunch at Cracker Barrel where a pure miracle happened when I solved the famous Cracker Barrell puzzle/game! I'm pretty sure that is my greatest accomplishment ever! After we ate we sat outside for quite a while rocking away and playing checkers in the amazing weather! 

Then it was an afternoon of crazy cousin shenanigans and a hodgepodge dinner with Taryn, Reagan and Todd at the very funky and fun The Shack where we ate and played hard! 

Today we finished off Spring Break with a bang! I'm so thankful we were able to do all the fun things that we did! What great memories we made together! I'm so thankful for my beautiful girls and the amazing life we have created together! It's sure far from perfect but it sure is fun and fulfilling! And so was Spring Break 2016! And now we rest.