Easter Festivities

I have a BUNCH of Easter time pictures that I want to post, so here we go. I LOVE spring! I think it's the happiest time of the year. Everything is fresh, growing, the air smells good, blossoms and flowers are popping up everywhere, and it means winter is over. YAY. We've had a lovely spring so far, and we sure took advantage of all the fun Easter festivities. I must admit, I should focus more on Jesus and the actual  reason for Easter, and not so much on the Easter Bunny and egg hunts, but they're just so much fun! And they start weeks before Easter actually comes, so why not enjoy them along the way.

We found a super fun kids club at the mall near us, that happens once a month. Radio Disney comes and plays music and games, and gives out fun prizes. This was our first time, and Cami and Lex had fun doing crafts at different stations, getting balloon animals, and meeting the Easter Bunny. Cami's in the very right corner. :) She's shy when it comes to these kinds of things, so it required a lot of encouragement for her to actually get in the picture.

We also won 3 tickets to the Thanksgiving Point Easter Egg Hunt, which are normally 10 bucks each! Cami answered a true or false question about dinosaurs from the Radio Disney announcer, and won the tickets! That was quite exciting. :)

We went to my old assisted living center, Canyon Creek, for their annual Easter egg hunt and to meet the Easter Bunny. I think this is the same bunny suit Jake wore when he came to help when we were just married. :) I hadn't been back in months, so it was fun to go and see friendly faces and old co-workers. Holy cow, they had sooooo many eggs for the kids who came! It was mostly great grandkids of residents, so there weren't all that many kids. Cami had so much fun walking down the hall, picking up eggs left and right. Her basket was totally overflowing, along with every other kids'. Lexi got to collect eggs in the Alzheimer's unit with Daddy, and all she wanted to do was open the egg and eat the candy once she picked it up. :)

She looks so cute with her Elmo basket!

THEN, two days later, on Monday night, we had a Yospe family Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Yospe's. We were going to do it at Wheeler Farm, like we have the past couple years, but we decided to move it to their house this time, and it was so fun! Grandma Yospe hid something like 300 eggs, all around the backyard and front yard, along with Capri Suns, fruit snacks and ring pops. :) Lexi loved it.

Here they are, checking out their loot on the front walkway.

And here are all the grandkids! (Minus Emmy Rae, who was just born yesterday as I write this). Each kid was allowed to find as many eggs as they wanted, but then at the end we made sure every kid had 30 eggs. Even the babies! Grandma and Grandpa like to play it fair. I think it's such a fun tradition, and I know it's such a fun memory for all of us!

And yet it continues. The day before Easter was a day of egg hunts, starting with a Candy Scramble at Smith's grocery store. haha it makes me laugh. They serve free breakfast and then let the kids gather candy scattered on the floor of some of the aisles, separated by age. It's a fun little thing to do on the way to the real egg hunts.

Woo hoo, what kid wouldn't enjoy this?!

I don't know why I even let my kids do this. I don't like them eating a bunch of candy, so we get it and then bring it home and put it in a big candy bag stash in the basement. I think the act of doing it is just fun, but I don't care if they never see the candy again. And neither do they, really! They forget about it. :) I'm sneaky like that.

Cami with sugar lips from her powdered donut for breakfast!

From there, we went down the street to the South Jordan City Park, for their egg hunt. We've gone the past few years, and it's always crazy busy and crowded, but fun. Munchkin Radio, a fun online radio station for kids, was there doing games and giving prizes. And of course the girls loved playing on the playground while we waited for it to start. Then we go to the assigned area for the different ages and wait for the big fire engine to come and sound its siren, and that means go!

Cute cheesey smile with her bunny basket.

I love this picture. It shows how crowded it is, with people crowded behind every perimeter of each egg hunt area. You can see all the eggs and candy scattered on the grass. And I like Cami's pretty hair and the mountains in the background.

Ready, set, go! Holy madness. Cami had lots of fun, though, and was all smiles.

Lexi and Daddy fared well again, too. Then from THERE, (holy cow, I feel like a crazy person, dragging my family to all these things, but I promise it really was fun), we went to Thanksgiving Point. Here's me and Cam posing with their Easter greeting set-up.

The girls got to make and wear paper bunny ears, and this picture of Lexi makes me laugh. I love her little cheeky grin.

They have tons of stuff to do, and then you can choose which egg hunt to participate in, cuz they do a new one every half hour. We did one for Lexi first, and then one for Cami later. In between, we danced with Radio Disney, played on the bouncehouse and played little games.

It was fun, but I definitely wouldn't pay 10 bucks to get my kids in. I'm glad we had free passes! (I bought a ticket online for one adult, which was only 5). The good thing is, admission to Farm Country is included in the egg hunt tickets. So we went over and visited all the farm animals, and Cami and Lexi got to go on a pony ride! I love how happy Cami is in this picture. She got to ride the BIG horse, and looked so grown up!

Lexi and Daddy with her pony. I didn't catch it in the photo, but she was grinning from ear to ear and was SO excited to be riding.

And finally, real Easter came! The girls got up and looked at their easter baskets and new bunny stuffed animals.

We refrained from doing another candy egg hunt, since they did NOT need any more candy. But I hid the boiled eggs that Jake and the girls had dyed that week, outside in the yard. It was a beeeautiful morning!

And then we got ready for church, and celebrated the REAL reason for Easter. Christ's Atonement and Resurrection! We had a lovely sacrament meeting program at church, and I was able to sing with a group of girls I'd gotten together. We sang a pretty arrangement of "Heavenly Father Loves Me". The girls looked adorable in their Easter dresses from Grandma Toone.

After church, we did a little spiritual egg hunt, with 12 different eggs I'd hidden around the house and filled with scriptures and objects having to do with those scriptures, and the events leading up to the resurrection. Cami enjoyed it, and it was nice to focus on our Savior. We went to Brittney and David's house for Easter dinner, and we repeated the spiritual egg hunt there with the Britt's kids, and they were all into it. Here's some cute pictures of the kiddos!

Cami and Ari went on a little scavenger hunt that Aunt Bree put together for them, while the boys did their own. Such fun family time!

We ate a super yummy, healthy dinner too. Roast beef, roasted zucchini and carrots, asparagus. All things I could eat! Britt's so good at catering to my needs. I love my sisters, and Cassity- my other sister!

Happy Easter!