Easter Week

We had such a fun, eventful week leading up to Easter Sunday.  I feel so blessed to be in a community surrounded by so many people who are in the exact situation as we are; students, young families living away from their own families, young moms trying to keep their young ones entertained, etc.  Because of this fun "community" in which we live, it seems like we always stay busy during the holidays and they are always extra fun.  Once we leave here, I know I will miss it so much.

So to start off our week, Monday night we had a FHE lesson on the meaning of Easter and why it's so important.  Which leads me to the question: how do you teach the complexity of the "Atonement" and the "Resurrection of Christ" to a 3 and 1 1/2 year old??

Not to mention the "Crucifixion," which is another topic that seems so violent and convoluted for a child to grasp....

well, we did our best. ;)

Tuesday we met up with my cousin and her family in Mesa for dinner and then to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple.  This was our first time watching this presentation of Christ's Life and the Resurrection.  They did a fantastic job of telling the story.  I'm glad we went!  I did, however, have to answer these kinds of questions for 3 curious, little girls (between our 2 families we have 5 girls under 6 years old).
 ...the questions were constant:

"what are they doing?
"why are they doing that?"--referring to singing
"why are they walking?"
"why is that angel up there?"
"why are they doing that?--refering to angels blowing trumpets
"why is there a donkey there?"
"what is Jesus doing?"--referring to Christ talking to people
"why are the bad guys doing that?"

It was hilarious. And most of the time I didn't have an answer so they would continue answering the same question until I gave them an answer...sometimes this required maybe a not-so-true answer. :)

The next day we went to the park for our Annual Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt.  It's always a good time.  The girls knew exactly what to do.  Even Seryn knew what hid inside those colorful eggs.  She didn't hesitate a second to pop open her first egg and start practically inhaling that first piece of candy.  Sailor really wanted to wear this adorable headband so of course I said yes.  I got one picture of her wearing it and then the second later, "Mom, I don't want to wear this."---of course not, it's just too incredibly darling to wear for more than 15 minutes. :)

Like I said, always a good time and always surrounded by good friends!

   Sailor was such a sweetheart helping Seryn find eggs.  I noticed Sailor stopped picking eggs up for herself and would run them over to put in Seryn's basket.

I've decided recently that Seryn is just like me (for many reasons I will have to document another day).  One reason, though, is her love of chocolate and peanut butter.  In this picture for instance, she sat down and devoured a couple Reese's Cups right off the bat.  She went into those morsels without ripping the wrapper entirely off.  She decided there was no time for that meticulous work, so the next easiest thing was to suck it out....

I guess you wouldn't find me sucking out candy out of wrappers, but sometimes peanut butter and chocolate would make me consider that if I could get it in my system faster. ;)

Then, later that day we were so graciously invited to a friends' 6th birthday party.  It was a costume party which was a hit because the kids all looked so great!  Sailor had a blast running around with the crowd while Seryn tried to sneak treats and escape the back yard- Seryn has become quite the handful these days.

The kids made purses or treasure boxes for the "treasure" they found inside of the pinata, face-painting, mask-making, and cookie decorating were the activities.

The following Saturday, Chase's school put on their Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Chase wasn't able to come with us since he had an important class meeting, but the girls & I went and enjoyed ourselves.

At this event, lots of crafts are available, snacks, bounce houses, the Easter Bunny makes an appearance, and the 5-second long egg hunt.  Each year I am amazed at how fast those hundreds of eggs are picked up, and I swear each year it went faster and faster.

And FINALLY, later that evening we colored our eggs.  The kids were entranced by the fizzing color dye pill that dissolved in the water & vinegar mixture.  My kids love to eat hard-boiled eggs, so before we were even done using the dye, Seryn had dove her fingers into egg trying to peel the shell off and Sailor did the same has she finished decorating the eggs with stickers.  They turned out darling!