Easter 2014

We had a really, really, really great (and productive) Easter weekend.

On Saturday, the kids and I cleaned like mad people inside in the morning while Weston was picking up some bulls.  Then we went outside and mowed the lawn and did cleaned up the yard, and what not.  When Weston got back, he burned some ditches, and hooked the rototiller up to the tractor and tilled the garden spot and dug a small, shallow hole for a sandpit.  We also colored eggs with crayons then put some in jars with boiled yellow onion skin water to turn them red, some in jars with turmeric for yellow eggs, and some in jars with beet juice from a can then put them in the refrigerator to sit all night in the dye.  (We probably won't do the turmeric and canned beet juice again, but definitely the boiled yellow onion skins - they are my favorite.) 

That evening, Spencer and I went out to a spot in a field by the creek and set up (very simply) for our little Easter party the next day.  Then we made tomb cookies.

Then I crashed on my bed in exhaustion.

After church on Easter we had whole roasted chicken with lemon and herbs, salad and brown rice.  Simple (especially since the crock pot cooked it while we were at church) and yummy.  It was the first day this year that we ate on the back porch.  It was probably 70 degrees.

Jiles picked the flowers that are in the middle.  And he put them on the table for me.  What a sweetie.

Mmmm.  Salad.

After we ate, and while Oliver was sleeping, Zoe went with me to hide the eggs.  She was a good gate opener.

The white flags marked the far end of the hunting area.

Hunters ready?

Go!

Jiles and Zoe would pretty much eat their treasure whenever they would find one.

I tore a lamp shade apart, as well as tore up a white sheet (so much destruction) to make that silly looking thing (shown in the picture below) that hung above our door and metal water bin "table".

I have a hard time keeping Easter baskets; they always get crushed or broken.  So this year I took a whole 10 minutes to throw these burlap bags together (10 minutes was all I had before I had to leave for the school Easter party on Friday).  That's pretty much why the E is falling off of Ezra's and....yeah.  I meant to add handles, but never got back to it.  Oh well.

Our tomb cookies shown below.  They were fun and easy to make and had a good lesson as part of the recipe and symbolism with the Savior's crucifixion and resurrection.  Look them up on Pinterest. 

We had a nice Easter lesson out there in the field about our Savior.  

Ezra is very spiritual and had lots to say about it all.  Spencer and Kate did too.  I love that.  

We wanted to stay out there until the sun dropped behind the mountain, so we played little games for awhile, like Mother May I, and visited the creek.  

I love my family!

Too bad we didn't set the timer and do a family shot.

Before we left, Kate asked, "Can we do this again next Easter?"

"For sure!"