Classic Easter Photos

One of many attempts... Trying to remain calm...

My favorite of the kids...everyone loves Paige's energy and expressions. (She does the same thing after she says Amen when she prays.)

The best group shot (after deleting the first 10 or so because Paige's panties were showing)! It was a wonderful Easter Sunday. The hunts were over and we were able to focus on the real meaning of Easter, the Resurrection of our Savio, Jesus Christ.

Clever Bunny

It was getting late Saturday night and the kids wanted to do an Easter Egg Hunt at home (which Rick despises, thinking they've had enough fun and candy already). So while the kids bathed and got their jammies on the Easter Bunny came. Since they hadn't eaten dinner yet either, the Easter Bunny left a special note/treat this year. It was a card that read something like "If you eat some of my food, you can have a treat too. Love, the Easter Bunny." It was a plate full of carrots, apples, etc.

The kids saw right through my scheme, but they cleared the plate and the had fun hunting for candy and toys!

Neighborhood Annual Easter Egg Hunt

We had beautiful weather for our Easter Egg Hunt this year. There were lots of kids and lots of chocolate. Kate is off...

Paige is thrilled.

Tyson is loaded.

Bradley is frantic. (Looking for a penny to turn in for a prize)

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving ended up being a two week celebration including:
A giant snowstorm and subsequent freeze lasting several days.
A visit from Great Aunt Kay, Grandma and Grandpa Hoyle, and a surprise visit by Brian, Jessica, and Zachary.
A wonderful meal at our house, my favorite food being the fresh cranberry sauce
Black Friday shopping, of course
Dancing at the Center House, Seattle Center
A Christmas Story, premiering at the 5th Avenue Theater
My first visit to the Seattle Art Museam
Annual visit to Maple Valley's Community Center light festival and Santa
And much, much more including Paige learning how to say Pepsi and copy! (coffee).
And Kate asking Santa for a white poodle that she was going to name Fluffy. When Grandma said she wasn't sure Mom would go for that, Kate quickly replied "Doesn't matter, just asked Santa!"


Paige was scared of Santa

Aunt Kate brought oragami, like she had brought to me when I was young, the kids loved it.

Halloween Trickery

Halloween 2010, Ward Party/Truck or Treat

It was a menagerie of costumes, but everyone was happy. Rick as himself, I mean a nerd! myself as a bumblebee, Tyson as Jack Sparrow, Bradley as an astronaut, Kate a cheerleader, and Paige a unicorn with her belly hanging out. And all I bought was a shirt from Value Village that I cut into Tyson's vest. And I made Bradley's space helmet out of paper mache (Ok, I just upcycled a paper mache pumpkin from last year so all I had to do was spray paint and cut!)
We went to our ward party, trunk or treat and an Egyptian themed carnival.
Since Halloween was on Sunday we chose not to trick-or-treat, but thought we'd be neighborly and hand out candy, which the kids enjoyed doing. The Hatch family joined us. We went to decorate brownies and discovered that Bradley and Kate were missing. Sure enough they had gone out trick or treating, Kate wearing a red and black tutu and a random t-shirt and a witch's hat, and Bradley with his astronaut costume, but a baseball helmet. It's no wonder a few neighbors asked where their parents were. They had gone to half the neighborhood and had collected quite a haul of candy, which of course was confiscated for disobeying. Their story was that they decided to just go next door, and then they just couldn't stop....(can't wait for them to be teenagers). When we asked if they had gone to their friends' house, Bradley replied "Of course not, I'm way too smart for that!" When Rick went to that friend's house to see if they'd seen him, his friend said "Man, he's so smart!" So I guess Rick and I got the trick that night....

Easter Events

We headed down to Kent Station for the second year to the Easter Scavenger Hunt, Egg Hunt, and picture with the bunny.You would never guess that two seconds earlier Kate was screaming and bawling because she was scared of the bunny, even though she knew it was 'just a person dressed up like a bunny'-classic.

I headed up the neighborhood hunt again. This year we had about 24 hunters with 400+ eggs. It poured all day Friday and into the night. Luckily it was a dry morning, just wet grass.

Paige did quite well, she actually collected eggs instead of just opening the first one she got.

By the time we hit Kent Station Paige had a hard time being limited to her 5 eggs, she wanted them all.

We had bagels, muffins, donuts, and hot chocolate after the neighborhood hunt.

Later that night we did one at home. I decided that to make it fair for the girls Tyson should have his legs tied together and Bradley had one arm tied behind his back. They thought it was fun, and it worked out well.

It was Bradley's favorite hunt.

Kate loved her chocolate bunny and furbee baby.

Rick thought 3 egg hunts were a bit excessive, demeaning the real meaning of Easter. We debated this on the way down to Kent Station. Luckily Kate saved me by giving an accurate account of the Ressurection, completely impromtu. Pheww!

By the end of the night Paige had figured out which chocolates she could open herself so she didn't have to bother asking for assistance.

We ended the evening with egg coloring.

Sunday we watched conference and had the Hatch family over for Michelle's birthday dinner- Happy 37th sis....wow we're getting up there!

Easter Events

We started our celebration by coloring eggs and decorating sugar cookies at the Gealtas. Thanks Rebecca for all the prepping.

Then we had our annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt that I am in charge of. We had about 25 kids from the neighborhood split into three age groups. We filled over 400 eggs for them and had 9 prizes for those who found a penny in their egg. It had rained over night and was still raining at 7am, but by 10am it had stopped and the kids had fun. We had hot chocolate, cookies and doughnuts afterward, to make the event last longer than 10 minutes! It's a great way to meet new neighbors.

Paige hung out in her carseat in the car while the kids hunted!

Afterwards, we went down to Kent Station where Kate got to do another hunt (limit of 5 eggs) and the boys did a scavenger hunt around some of the businesses.

Then we got our picture taken with the Easter Bunny.The kids favorite part was after the event, when a guy found 2 boxes of eggs they hadn't put out for the hunt and he dumped them right in front of about 10 kids and let them go to town. They ended up getting a ton of eggs (with amazingly good chocolate). They were thrilled.

I had a few things for the kids so we had another small hunt at home on Saturday night (after their baths). Because even though Bradley had said it was the best day ever (again), he still said we needed a hunt at home, like we always do.

Kate got princess dress-ups.

The boys got a nerf football/basketball set. Even Bradley thought Kate's new earrings were great.

Sunday we were able to focus on the real meaning of Easter, the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was nice to be able to go to church, have dinner with the Hatchs' and have a spiritual lesson (thanks Emily) the end the evening. A few pictures of us in our new duds (which are actually last years' clearance of course).