Easter 2015

Easter was a busy time, especially since Mallory's birthday was the very next day! But we managed to get all of the important things accomplished. Of course, the most important for us was getting to church. )Not always an easy accomplishment!)

Several years ago, our precious dentist, Dr. Knipschild, got us these "Resurrection Eggs." The girls love the tradition! For the twelve days leading up to Easter (or the days that I remember leading up to Easter) ... we open an egg a day (or however many we need to catch up). 

Each egg has an item inside that tells a part of the Easter story. There is a booklet inside to read with each "egg." The first egg has a little donkey inside. Allyson loves this donkey. Every year she wants to play with it. This year Mallory wanted to play with it. One day I gave in, against my better judgement. That donkey was lost for days, much to Allyson's dismay. Thankfully, the donkey was discovered and is now safely back in his "egg." 

Just before the holiday our church holds an "Easter Express" for the kids. It's complete insanity with music, face painting, crafts, egg hunts, fire trucks and bounce houses and ... you get the picture. Here is Mallory getting her face painted like a bunny.

And Allyson!

Allyson and Mallory were SO excited to have Elsa, Anna and Olaf there! Nicole says she's sick of Frozen so she opted out of this one.

We couldn't believe ELMO was in the house!! Mallory is having an Elmo birthday party tomorrow! Wish I could have borrowed this guy for the festivities...

Egg hunt time!! This isn't much of a hunt. They have fake grass areas and you just grab 10 eggs per kid. My favorite Easter picture of all time was taken here one year. It was of Allyson. So, each year, I try to get another one. I think I'll just be happy for the one I have. This year was a fail. 

Here, I was squeezing my cheek to show her to smile. Instead she just squeezed her own cheek!

Nicole found her friend, Essie (Esther). They went hunting for eggs together. I was suspicious as to why it was taking them soooo long. They were opening up every single egg to get the candy they wanted! Ha! Girl after my own heart.

Time to color our own eggs! We kept it simple this year with just food coloring and white crayons.

That didn't hamper the creativity..

Yes. This one was mom's.

This was a Pinterest idea... you put a little cooking oil in the mix and it makes a marbled egg.

Daddy was all humility...

especially when his egg cracked!

Easter baskets!!

Mallory

Allyson

By far the most popular Easter basket item was Allyson's "pooping chicken." It spit out gumballs from its back end.

Nicole

Easter breakfast: Dutch Baby!

My friend and neighbor, Barb, and I made baskets for each other this year. A fun new tradition we plan to keep! (We were in Target together and picked out our baskets and chocolate. Ha!)

Mommy's basket

Daddy's basket

 Time to hunt for eggs!!

I can't get over how this was Allyson's dress!

We had a lovely Easter dinner with our friends, Jon & Beth Vint. We had ham and potatoes and salad but I only took a picture of my lemon pie. Yum!

We were expecting another friend and her kids but they ended up not coming. No kids table needed!

We had another egg hunt by re-hiding the candy eggs from Easter express.

HAPPY EASTER!!