The boys never tired of Egg Hunts and had fun participating in the third one of the year at Grandma and Grandpa Shadel's house. They borrowed my mom's idea of color coding the eggs. This time Peter was orange.
Ammon, of course, was still green. He LOVES green and would be devestated to not have that as his color.
I feel like I can't really do this post justice. Obviously we had a busy Easter weekend with lots of fun, but none of it would mean anything if not for the resurrection of the Savior. It is so fun to have a holiday kicking off the spring time to remind us of the new life we can have both physically and spiritually because of the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
We spent a three hour chunk of the afternoon the same way as we do every Sunday - by going to church to learn of Him, to renew our devotion to Him, and to work hard on becoming more like Him.
It was a good day and I'm glad for the opporunity we had to worship and focus specifically on the true meaning of Easter.
I couldn't believe it, but we actually got away with starting Easter morning with the boys eating breakfast. The Easter Bunny didn't provide much in the way of candy, but any candy is enough to make me squemish in the mornings. As usual, Andrew woke up before the rest of us, and he went to work on a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. Perfect!
The boys were most of the way through their meal when Ammon spied the Easter "baskets". I am horrible at keeping baskets from year to year, so the Bunny always brings his own variation of container with the boys treats to be left in. This year they were storage bins which are now being used to hold toys. Oh, what a clever Easter Bunny we have...
Peter had fun getting piled in the grass and having the one on one attention of a grass fight with Daddy. It was cute to watch. The two of them also had a good time playing with the ball Peter got in his basket.
The boys enjoyed hunting their eggs. Peter's were left in very obvious places (like the floor in the middle of the room) but Ammon had to hunt a little harder (see on top of toaster in the corner and behind the plaque on the window sill...) I think he enjoyed the challenge.
Church wasn't until 1:00 so the boys had time to play with the new playdough from the Easter Baskets. It was a really fun morning.
Ammon working hard on his own eggs while Peter squealed in delight at his turning color!
This year for Easter, my family decided to get together in a more casual atmosphere the day before. We had a great and easy dinner involving sandwiches and chips. Of course, what starts out as easy with my family tends to turn into overdone so we had WAY too many foods to choose from and way more than we could eat. We enjoyed it in the days afterwards though, so it worked out well.
My mom was also mindful that we didn't want to give our children too much candy. So, instead of hiding candy in the eggs, she hid pieces of papers with numbers on them. Then, she brought them into the living room where she had hidden several numbered prized. That way they were able to get things from their hunt that wouldn't have fit in the eggs themselves. They got a visor with things to decorate it, pencils, magnets, cars, and other things like that. She also ended up giving them a fair amount of donuts and other pastries, which I thought defeated the purpose. But - oh well, what can you do? It was a good idea...
We started off our Easter weekend by going to the city Easter egg hunt. It was lots of fun. Last year Ammon's cousin Kylie was in his age group. With the way their birthday's fall, he was actually grouped with Carolyn this year. It is fun that he gets to hunt with his cousins. Although Carolyn is much more dedicated to it than Ammon is. Her basket seemed to be overflowing when she was done. Ammon, on the other hand, bailed out early and headed over to the playground once he felt he had found enough candy.
After the hunt was over, we all walked over to a less busy playground and let the kids play there a while. They had a great time. Then my brother--in-law Jeremiah invited us over for some amazing waffles. He served them with syrup and freshly whipped cream - a combination I never would have thought of but that was amazing to eat! 
Last week Ammon went to the Gale Center with his cousins Michael and Sophia. There is tons of stuff for kids to do there and they had a blast together!
Ammon enjoyed all of the activities while Michael fell in love with the fishing. That is what he did almost the entire time. Sad for him there are no real fishers in the family - someone is going to have to figure it out because Michael is in love with that sport!
After Ammon finished the various farm activities and Michael finally pulled himself away from the fishing activity, they enjoyed a fun game of checkers. The museum was a pleasant step back to simpler times. It was a fun afternoon.
My adorable baby is getting so big! 2 years ago we were just meeting this cute little bundle of joy. Now, I can't imagine life without him. He has a tender heart and joyful spirit! He LOVES morning time and is so happy and bouncy in the mornings. He loves to eat - especially cheese, yogurt, crackers and cereal. He sometimes talks in sentences. Sentences like: "I'm hungry," "Let's go eat," or, "I want food." He is a bit OCD which can be concerning at times, but mostly it is just really cute. He puts things back in their places, makes sure doors get closed, and is very particular about how things get done.
Happy Birthday Baby Boy!
Tim , Derrick , Andrew, Dale... we meet up with our husbands for a late dinner and good conversation. We tell them about all the fun stuff we bought and they fill us in on the meeting they had and the things they learned. It really is a fun time for all and I am glad that it was all four couples together this year. Fun stuff!
