Easter Weekend

Happy Easter! I hope you felt the Savior's love during this special holiday.

I forgot to dye Easter eggs on Wednesday night, Jason's only night off from the play, so we had to do them Thursday night without him. :( The hole left in our family from his absence was so obvious, and he was really missed. Despite that, we had fun, and the boys loved it. They always do.

And they did such a good job. As soon as the dye tablets started to fizz in the vinegar, they were hooked. It was so dang cute!

Friday afternoon we did some trick-or-treating on Main Street. No, that isn't a typo. If you take your Easter basket around Main Street in our hometown on the Friday before Easter and say, "Happy Easter!" they give you candy. Lol! The boys always love it.

The city also started doing an Easter egg hunt/collection type of thing. We went to that, and it was a DISASTER! It was so terrible! Kai's age group was the 0 to 3 year olds. The parents were allowed to go with this age group since they're so young. So as I was in there with Kai, people lost all sense of Christ-like love or decency. It was terrible. Kai didn't even dare bend down to pick up an egg. I grabbed 3 for him, and then I spotted a 2 year old girl being KNEELED ON! The lady doing the kneeling could see her and hear her screaming, and she still wasn't moving. I was furious! I grabbed that little girl out from under her and held that sweet child while hugging Kai to my leg to make sure the same thing didn't happen to him. I kept calling out, hoping her mother would answer, but no one claimed her. When all the eggs were gone, a lady with more than a dozen eggs in her basket finally looked around for her child. She hadn't even noticed that her girl was missing. The whole thing made me livid and sick to my stomach at the same time. As we were walking away, many children were crying because they didn't get even one egg. We gave one of ours to a little girl with none.

When Seth was going in with his age group (the 4 to 6 year olds) I told him over and over that the eggs were not worth getting hurt and that I would buy him candy on the way home if things got too rough and he backed out. Luckily, the parents weren't allowed in with this age group. (Isn't it sad that the parents are the trouble makers in this situation???) Seth ran after a yellow egg, thinking it was the golden egg. It wasn't. That was the only egg he got, and he was so sad that he hadn't gone after other eggs.

Uncle Z and Aunt H came up for an Easter weekend with an adoptive grandparent. They spent Friday night with us and Saturday night with them. They watched Jason's play and I think they loved it. I do feel bad though; cousin Br loves bunnies, and the play has a bunny in it that turns out to not be so nice. I think she was a little devastated. I haven't been told of any nightmares about it or anything though, so I think it all turned out okay! While they were there, we took the youngest two boys in their family and had a movie night!!! Cousin E was there also! (She's the baby in the picture.) The kids had SOOO much fun watching Frozen. I had bought it earlier and was saving it for a special movie night, like this one!

Every time I took Cousin E with me to the rocking chair, she cried. She just wanted to be near her cousins, which I thought was precious! We played a couple board games after Uncle Z, Aunt H, Cousin B, and Cousin Br returned from Jason's show, which was SOOO fun.

They also came to Seth's first soccer game this season. (Kai totally photo bombed the picture below! Lol!)

Aunt H and the cousins were at Seth's first soccer game last season also, and Seth beamed with pride to see all the support he has in his life. I'm really grateful for their efforts in staying extra time for Seth. We have awesome family!!!

My mom, dad, and sister came up for Easter weekend also because Aunt A had basketball games. We got to see them Friday night, and all three of them went to Jason's play on Saturday night. Mom and Dad went last weekend, but Aunt A didn't get to go because she was sick. I was really glad she got to go this weekend. Having so much support from family has really made Jason feel loved.

Thanks to ALL the family that has come out here for him. Each and every person is appreciated. We know it takes so much effort. My parents and sister were able to stay for Easter Sunday, and Seth and Kai were THRILLED. They LOVE having a lot of people around. I think this place is empty for them with just the four of us here sometimes. Here are their Easter baskets:

Aunt E and cousin E were able to come up with my parents Friday night. cousin E isn't even a year old yet, so she was a huge hit with my boys! They love babies, which is seriously funny sometimes.

Aunt E headed to a relative's house Saturday night, but they were able to come back midday Sunday and they brought Uncle K with them! So along with my mom, dad, and sister, our big Easter meal was eaten surrounded by family, which made it feel more like a holiday, more special and poignant.

It also made the Easter egg hunt much more fun!

Aunt A and I sacked out in the hammock afterward, and it was great to just relax and spend time with her.

Everyone came over and laughed with us. I know this seems like the least important thing to mention, but it was one of my favorite parts of the day, because I was totally at ease, and there was nothing urgent about the moment. My whole family got to just be themselves, and it was like a bunch of puzzle pieces fitting together for a moment. I can't really describe why it was so perfect for a moment, but I loved it.

While we were relaxing in the hammock, here is what the kids were doing:

Lol!
The whole weekend was packed and crazy and wonderful. There were so many special moments. It was so fun to know there was someone sleeping in every room of the house. It was great to see the different moments when different people connected.

We read a childlike version of the Easter story where everyone has a word they shout out when their picture comes up in the story. It was fun to sit around and giggle and teach my children about our Savior and about the love of family.

Today, Kai and Seth both pointed out things that reminded them of the Savior's resurrection. I was so glad to see that the message had sunk in. Above our stairs, we have a picture of the Savior. The view is from behind him as he walks out of the tomb. The boys and I sat at the top of the stairs and looked at that picture for quite a while today, discussing why it was there. That was my favorite moment today. (Though Uno with all four of us, including Jason, was also especially fun!)

This evening, I saw Jason's play for the final time. It was bittersweet. (Bitter because I hate to see a good thing come to an end, sweet because I can't wait to spend more time with Jason!) I went with some amazing friends. (You've seen their picture before on this blog!) And it was great to sit and laugh with them.

Jason, as always, was spectacular. This play just got better and better the more times I saw it! I brought Jason a huge bouquet of flowers since this is his final performance. He isn't really fond of cut flowers. They just aren't his thing. So I also brought him some bagels and cream cheese. Lol! My reasoning for this was twofold:
1) He plays the only Jewish person in the show, so I thought bagels were fitting.
2) He loves bagels, and we just recently started eating gluten again, so he can actually have them! Yay!

(We went gluten free for 90 days to see if it would help my back. It didn't. I'll try other things for a bit. We'll see.) So that's what we've been up to. We've had ups and downs, and it's all been so so fun this week. I was really happy to have this week, and I am really happy to have life slow down for a bit also. I'm starting another book for my proofreading this week, so I'm not completely off the hook, but that's not so bad. Life is great! It's thrown so many good things in our path!

Watch the video below to see how Easter goes around here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laGPs5VaIEE&feature=youtube_gdata_player