Easter Traditions

As I started to prepare for Easter this year, I had the strangest feeling. It is starting to feel like each holiday or celebration is a repeat from past years. A sense of boredom came over me...then I realized I shouldn't feel bored. Instead, I should embrace the occasion and realize we are creating traditions. And traditions are what make holidays fun! Traditions give my kids a sense of belonging to our family. They are a way to build a strong family. And, my kids love traditions! They have memories starting a couple years back, and every time a tradition is repeated, their memories are enriched.

We dyed two dozen Easter eggs Saturday afternoon. We got the same "Egg Dying Party Kit" that we used last year. It has paints, paint brushes, sponges, glitter, jewels, rubberbands (for striping), and all the regular egg dying materials. We put our own crayons into the mix this year, which made for a great addition. Wow, the kids had fun. We sat mostly in silence dying eggs for almost 2 hours during the afternoon session of the LDS General Conference.

Sunday morning was a bit different because of General Conference. We did not have Easter church services to attend. Instead, we watched the morning and afternoon sessions of conference from the comfort of our couches. I still wanted Susie to dress in her new Easter clothes, and she of course was more than willing. :)

I'm really not a fan of giving my kids candy, so both Tyler and Susie got a few fun gifts in their Easter baskets--a couple items from the $1 aisle at Walmart and one slightly larger gift (one that could be played with quietly during the morning session of conference). Tyler loved his new Star Wars Legos. Susie's pop beads were a hit with everyone. Even Kevin enjoyed creating super long necklaces with them.

We had our Easter egg hunt before the morning session of General Conference. This is the first year we actually tried to really hide the eggs. It took the kids about 30-40 minutes to find all 45 plastic eggs. I'm still not sure if that was the total number or not. I didn't count beforehand. The eggs were mostly filled with pennies, nickels, dimes, and a couple quarters. I had to add a few Hershey's chocolate eggs to the loot.

When the table was set for Easter dinner, Janae set a small treat out for each person. All the adults got See's chocolates. The kids, however, got gigantic chocolate bunnies. Mark and Janae decided they wanted to get a big enough bunny to really "wow" the kids. They definitely succeeded.

We really had a great Easter! Hope you did too!

My 7 month baby bump...

Super cute kiddos! Love this picture!

I'm pretty sure Kevin doesn't know I snapped this photo. Hehe.

What a face! Stuffing herself with chocolate when the opportunity presents itself. The week before we ate an early Easter dinner at Uncle Ralph's and Aunt Teresa's house. Aunt Teresa put out a cup filled with candy in front of each person's plate. We let Susie completely devour the entire cup of candy that night. I was seriously afraid she would get car sick on the way home and brought some plastic bags just in case. She takes after her mom in her love for chocolate. :)