Happy Easter!

We've had SO much fun with all the Easter Celebrations this last week.

Papa Tom and Nana threw a Easter Egg Hunt Monday night.  Mitchell was so excited to see Nana.  I tried to get a picture of Mitchell on the egg hunt, but he and his father found all 8 eggs at lightening speed.  Goo-goo went at a more "find egg.  open. eat all the contents. find another egg."  speed.  And then she totally crashed on the way home and Mitchell kept taking her binky (curse.) and waking her up, and laughing, and Ali would do a dreamy sort of laugh.  And I'd tell Mitchell to stop it.  Vicious cycle.

Mitch had so much fun jumping on the trampoline and playing with toys with my cousins (weird, right?) and Ali was just starting not to cling to me by the time it was time to go. Actually,  I found her in line with 3-4 other 6 year olds, and Mitchell, ready to jump off a little table to a love sac a few feet away.  She wouldn't have made it.  Little Daredevil.

Saturday, my mom and step-dad threw another egg hunt with all my siblings, which I love.  And Mitchell loves Sam's kids so much, and I'm so happy they play together nicely.  Again, Mitchell ran out with lightening speed and found his 13 eggs (13?! mom's trying to kill me!) I only got one picture of him, and it's not very good.

Ali took her time and she and I found all the eggs Amy had hid up in the tops of the trees.  Nice.  But we had so much fun.

And then Mike and I decided we didn't really want to go home, so we went to Sam's Club to check out their laminate flooring (since, you know, after finding 5 houses, and being under contract for each and every one of them, we've started having better luck, and we're even passed the inspection and the meth test came back clear.  hooray.)   And the laundry/office flooring needs to be replaced.  And Sam's Club has flooring.  And an Easter Bunny, actually.  And Ali wasn't scared of it/him/her/that creepy thing, and gave it a high five.  Sweet.

And after looking at the flooring, and the lawn mowers, and the barbecuers we decided that we were getting a little ahead of ourselves and took the kids to a dollar show.  Which is not a dollar anymore, it's two.  And only one and under is free, lame.    We saw "We Bought a Zoo" which Mike thought was "pointless and had no plot" haha. It was cute.  Our kids got sick of it about an hour and a half through it, so we'll have to keep that in mind since this one was almost 2 1/2.  I love seeing movies with my kids though, it was soooo fun.

And then Easter morning was wonderful.  We hid Mitchell's basket on top of the dryer this year.  And he woke up, saw Ali's on the table and said, "oh.  I left my basket in the car." not sad, or even disappointed, just....factual.  When I did, finally, lure him to the laundry room and he finally caught on he was pretty excited.  The baskets this year, well, were ginormous.  I came back into my bedroom to find Ali and her basket sitting on my bed, and she had carefully unwrapped a (big) cadbury (caramel) egg and was eating it.  That's my girl.  Mitchell was more interested in the Mickey Mouse markers and a new activity book.  Sweet.  Then he didn't want to go to church.  Not an option.

And Ali's in nursery! Hooray! Which means, instead of taking her to our class, we go to *her* class.  After leaving her for 15 minutes, the nursery leader came into sunday school with a very uncontrollable sobbing Ali.  I held her for awhile and started walking back to nursery and she got so upset again. So Mike took her on a car ride (He said it was to calm her down, I believe it was because the lesson was on Jacob's Allegory of the Olive Trees) and then took her back to nursery where she was mad, but not crying so hard she was barely breathing.   For the first time in a really, really long time, I listened to the entire relief society lesson.  So nice.  Ali did alright for her first day.  I think dad needs to drop her off though.  Both kids know that Dad means business and sometimes I think my parenting and/or discipline is confusing since I tell them not to jump on the trampoline and that laughing is not allowed.  I'm joking, but then when I say "stop drawing pictures on the couch with a sharpie" I think they think I am, also, joking.  (Rubbing alcohol, white sponges, and naps for everyone!)

And for the first time, ever, I cooked a holiday meal on a holiday! We had ham, and mashed potatoes, and green beans, and homemade rolls and a cheesecake (from Sam's Club.  I'm not that ambitious.)  And I got everything done at the same time! Success!  Being with my little family is. the. best.

And when we tried to have a little lesson about the resurrection and the meaning of Easter and Christ, Mitchell insisted we talk about Nephi and the boat.  I feel like this might actually be the only story that sinks in.  At least it's a good one.