Easter Weekend

We had such a nice Easter weekend.  Jim had Friday off so originally we'd planned on a weekend trip to meet up with my sister in Chicago.  She couldn't come so we chose a different city (we're 3-5 hours away from lots of big cities that we've never been to).  Then we decided that was too expensive and chose a cheaper city to visit.  From there we changed our minds again and thought we'd go camping.  By Thursday we realized it was going to be a bit too cold for camping, so we stayed home.  What we ended up doing was probably just as fun, though.  I think it's funny how many times our plans changed.

The fun started Thursday evening when Jim came home.  We dyed Easter eggs in preparation for a gathering we were going to on Saturday. 

The fancy schmancy tri-colored one was Jim's masterpiece.  :)

After the eggs, we put the kids to bed early and had our own date.  This included ice cream and a good movie in the basement.  After the movie we stayed up even later talking.  I think it was 1am before we went to bed, but I can handle loss of sleep every so often for a really good date!  I'm so glad he remains my best friend.

Friday morning we did some very satisfying yard work (see previous post).  Then we had afternoon naps (at least a couple of us needed one).  That evening we visited a lake (see school blog) that I'd taken the kids to and wanted to show Jim. We explored the fossil beds there and really enjoyed ourselves. There were fossils everywhere! We probably could have done that for hours, but wanted to let the kids play on the beach before the sun went down. So we had our yummy picnic (thanks to having prepared for camping) and played on the beach a while. After that Jim had what he terms "wanderlust" and we drove around the area before heading home.  He had his basement 'campout' with the kids that night as usual. 

Saturday morning/ afternoon we stayed home.  I started the dough for Resurrection Rolls in the morning, and did a bunch of little necessary things as well as some fun stuff with the kids.  Jim did a little work.  I hid a bunch of plastic eggs in the backyard for a hunt in the afternoon.  It took me a while to hide them, but I was amazed at how fast they were all picked up!

Alex found the more difficult ones because he was moving slower than the other two.

My rolls took forever to rise because my kitchen wasn't very warm.  After nearly 2 hours without any increase, I finally put them in the oven to rise.  I'd warmed it just a bit.  That finally did the trick.  Once the dough had risen the first time, I could make the rolls.  These are super delicious, and super unhealthy.  Even the dough had butter in it.  To make the rolls, I had to dip them in butter, cinnamon sugar, and wrap them around a marshmallow.  Then they were rolled in the cinnamon sugar again.  After they rose a second time, I baked them.  They come out hollow in the middle, hence they are called Resurrection Rolls because they are compared to the empty tomb. 

On Saturday evening we went to a gathering with some friends.  They do an annual 'eggroll'.  It's a contest to crack each other's hardboiled eggs.  They had contest brackets and everything.  Each person had two eggs, and we had the funniest outcome!  The final four were two of Alex's eggs, and two eggs belonging to a girl in another family.  She cracked both of Alex's eggs and had to compete against herself for the championship.  It was fun.  Then we had egg salad for dinner and visited for a while.

On Sunday morning the kids found Easter baskets.  They just had a couple of simple things in them, but they were so pleased.  They played with their little items all morning.  One of the things we gave Logan was a poster of 'My Gospel Standards'.  It doesn't even have pictures on it.  Anyway, he came to me with it right after finding his basket and said, "Mom, I REALLY appreciate this."  He couldn't wait to put it right next to his bed.  What a good kid! 

You'd think I would have taken a picture of my kids on Easter morning with their baskets, or at least all dressed for church, but I didn't.  Oops.  Anyway, we had a nice sacrament meeting, and I had a very busy Primary time.  I was helping with Sharing Time, and ended up leading Singing Time.  Fun.  That evening we were invited to dinner with a family in our ward, so I didn't end up cooking dinner all weekend!  (Maybe that was part of the enjoyment of it.)  I brought the resurrection rolls to that gathering and they were a big hit!  We had a really positive visit there and ended with an Easter devotional.  What a great weekend!