Easter Fun

  A few years ago I bought a great book called The Christ Centered Easter. I love it. Starting on Palm Sunday, and then each day until Easter Sunday, you do activities following what Christ did leading up to Easter.

 We didn't do it last year because we were on our road trip (Easter was celebrated in Texas). We didn't do it this year either. Aria's blessing was on Palm Sunday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm on Monday, etc... But no excuses. We should have done it because I really felt a lack of the spiritual this year. I'm not one that feels the need to do the secular Easter stuff on Saturday and the spiritual stuff on Sunday. I like to do plenty of both all week. But like I said, the spiritual stuff fell by the wayside this year. But there was plenty of secular stuff!
 We went to Knott's Berry Farm with lots of the extended family and Knott's was doing something called

The kids went to different areas of the park, got a card stamped and then turned it in for a prize (an Easter egg with a candy inside).

 Wednesday was the last day of school for Melodie before spring break. And she got sick. She started throwing up the night before and was very sad she couldn't go to school. I went (my dad was here so I had volunteered to help in the classroom) anyway and picked up her eggs and basket.

The bug only lasted 24 hours and then I got it! We had already paid for an Easter event at Pump It Up (a place with a bunch of inflatables), so Rocky took the day off work and took Melodie and Aria to the event (he took Aria because I was so sick). Normally I don't pay for Easter events, but some of her friends from school were going, so for $13 (including lunch) I thought it wasn't a bad deal.

24 hours later I was fine too...just in time for Saturday Easter fun. Every year we go to various city events (we live on the border of 4 different cities, with a few more just minutes away). We started off at one that had a pancake breakfast, the Easter bunny, and crafts.

It's very unusual for me to put headbands on babies, but the only "First Easter" onesie I could find that I liked was a boy one. So, to make Aria look more like a girl I stuck a headband on her. All the pink girl onesies said some variation on "Somebunny loves me" which I didn't like.
 Both city events we went to had an "egg hunt". Really it's just candy thrown on the ground and the kids make a mad dash to see how much they can get. Melodie got way too much.

But she was so happy and declared it the best day ever in her life. Oh, and I made her shirt. I messed up the iron on transfer a little, but I thought it was still cute. I used the Chick-a-dee scrapbooking kit by ScrappyNat.
 Later that day we dyed our Easter eggs, always a favorite thing to do for all of us.

We ended the day making resurrection rolls. They are floating around pinterest now, but I've done them for years (from the Christ Centered Easter book). They are rolls with marshmallows in them. When you bake them the marshmallows melt and they are empty...just like the tomb Jesus was put in.
 For church on Easter Sunday, Melodie and Aria wore their new-to-them Easter dresses and I did Mel's hair in a fancy 'do.

This is another one floating all over pinterest. The basket weave (inspired by an Easter basket) is on various hair sites. This is our version.
 I tried to take a beautiful picture of the girls at home, but Aria was not cooperating. We ended up taking more at church that did turn out beautifully (including one of the whole family).

At home we did a real Easter egg hunt (the eggs were actually hidden and required some effort to find).

And, of course, I had to get Minnie in on the celebrating.
 We went to the Anderson house for dinner (like always!) where Mel had ANOTHER egg hunt. We had a yummy dinner. The Andersons always get Mel an Easter basket (I think they were astonished when Mel was little and they found out I don't do Easter baskets). This year the basket was a backpack filled with goodies. Aria got one too!

I just had to throw in some pictures of Aria's pjs. The tail on her bottom was so soft and the bunnies on her feet were so cute.
 I hope you had a Happy Easter too!



CANMT Trip: Easter

We don't normally do Easter baskets. But when we are in someone else's home for a holiday we go along with whatever they normally do for the holiday. We told the kids the night before not to go downstairs when they woke up until we were all there. They waited. Then Jennifer and I wanted to go downstairs first with the cameras and Melodie had threw a fit. I realized that she had no idea what was going on, but once she started crying it was a chore to get her to stop. She eventually was able to come down, but you can tell in the pictures that she had been crying and she's not quite as excited as she would have been had she known what was happening. I should have explained it to her better. After all this it occured to me that I could have told her we were doing something like we do on Christmas. She waits while mommy goes first, then she comes out with daddy to see what is in the living room. Didn't occur to me to explain. She was quite happy once she saw all her goodies.

We were going to go to Denton to go to church with the Hunts. Rocky was suppose to get directions, but he thought we'd just rely on GPS. I didn't know this until we left. I don't know why he did that since when we drove through Dallas the first time our GPS got all confused. This did turn into a fight. Sure enough, we got very lost. Then, when we found a freeway that would take us to Denton, it was stopped (the same one that Josh knew away around when we were going to Fort Worth). Completely stopped. By now it had been an hour and we weren't anywhere close to Denton. The Hunts church had already started. I was mad. Melodie was crying because we weren't going to see the Hunts (and because I was mad). Rocky still wanted to try to go. I didn't see the point, but he tried anyway and didn't make any progress (remember that our GPS doesn't like Dallas?). We started heading back to the Gamlens trying to find one of our churches, but the closes one was a half an hour away. So that was out. Now I just wanted to go to any Christian church. It was Easter for goodness sakes! And there is definately a lot of churches in Texas. But, by the time we got back to the Gamlens, they were already home from church. We decided to throw in the towel. We really did try and spent 2 hours in the car doing so. It felt wierd not going to church on Easter.
Jennifer was very excited that this year she would be able to hide eggs outside. After lunch we saw clouds rolling in. We checked the weather. It was going to rain. We debated trying to rush and beat the rain, but decided not to. We quickly took pictures outside before the rain really started coming down.

Melodie and Cassie wanted to take a picture together.

Melodie started feeling the drops.

They are so adorable!

Of course, there has to be a silly picture.

 Jennifer and I took the kids in the kitchen/dining room to make resurrection rolls while Rocky and Josh hid the Easter eggs. Resurrection rolls are something we've made for years and has recently been making the rounds on Pinterest. I was thrilled Jennifer wanted to make them. Especially since we didn't make it to church, I was desperate for something religious. It was great to hear the kids tell the Easter Story as they made the rolls. They all know it really well.

The put the rolls in the "tomb" and it was time for the hunt.



They each had a certain number of eggs they were allowed to collect and then there was one golden egg with their name on it. If they found someone else's egg they were not suppose to say anything. They had a blast! Melodie collected her eggs but was still looking for her golden one. We finally told her what area it was in. She kept walking right by it. We then played hot/cold with her. She finally found it. We thought this was hilarious.

Each golden egg had a dollar in it. Again, this is something we've never done before, but the Gamlens do it. I loved it! We may start doing it. Dinner was great and even Murphy had a special dinner.

This was our last night with the Gamlens, so we let the kids play a bit before we ate the resurrection rolls and bed.

After the kids went to be we played our last round or cards. Eventually we had to go to bed, but knowing it was our last night with them, it was hard to stop. We had so much fun!

CANMT Trip: Dallas and My Birthday

Our first Texas BBQ meal was yummy. The fried pickles were so addicting. I know! Fried pickles!

The kids were exhausted but full of enegy at the same time. That made for an active lunch. The Hunts went home, and we headed back to the Gamlen house. On the way we saw some Dallas sights.

Informart - modeled after They Crystal Palace

American Airlines Center - hockey is played here!

The Grassy Knoll

Southfork Ranch - Where "Dallas" was filmed. Actually not in Dallas. It's in Parker, TX, very close to where the Gamlens live.

Jennifer made Dr. Pepper cupakes for my birthday.

That was so sweet of her! I'm not sure what recipe she used. I know she changed one up a bit. I'm now on a quest to find the best one out there! After the kids went to bed I opened a few presents that Rocky brought and that my sister gave me when we were in Mesa, AZ.

Then we got things ready for Easter. Jason had the cute idea of leaving a carrot for the Easter Bunny along with a note. In return the Easter Bunny left a note and Easter baskets.

The Easter baskets

The note Jason wanted to leave with the carrot, the response, and the filled eggs waiting for the next day.

CANMT: Fort Worth Stockyards

 On Saturday we all piled into the Gamlens van and went to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Luckily, Josh drives to Dallas for work, so when we hit traffic that was at a dead stop due to construction he knew how to get around it. The Stockyards were a perfect Texas experience!
 We chose Saturday to go because there was an Easter Celebration that day.

I just love this poster. So Texas.

We started off by scouting out the different egg hunting areas. They were divided by age. Then we looked around a bit. The first thing we saw were the cowboys.

Aren't the ears cute? They are the ones we bought the day before at the Dollar Store. They didn't wear them long, but for the time they did they were adorable. I'm not sure why Melodie was making that face. We shopped a bit and I went into Dr. Pepper overload. I didn't know Dr. Pepper was first made in Texas. I love Dr. Pepper. Oh, and did I mention today was my birthday? So Rocky told me I could buy whatever Dr. Pepper products I wanted. Before we left the Stockyards I had bought Dr. Pepper in bottles, Cherry Dr. Pepper Dessert Topper, and Dr. Pepper beef jerkey, marinade and BBQ sauce. I tried to buy a cake mix with frosting, but they were sold out. Dr. Pepper!

 But back to the shopping. Melodie really wanted boots and a cowboy hat. The little girls walking around in their sundresses and boots were so cute. But they were real boots, which means they were expensive. Sorry Mel, your feet are still growing and I wasn't going to spend that much on something she could only wear for a few months. But a hat would be fine. We spent the morning comparing and trying on all different colors and shapes of cowboy hats. The Gamlens bought some Texas sized jelly beans.

And there were some great photo ops around the shopping area.

There was a clown making balloons, so all the kids had one made.

I love the balloon long horns.

I caught Melodie in a strange look, but I needed to show off the final product. Mel asked for a heart flower. What she meant was a heart on a stem. This is what she got and she loved it.
 Then the Hunts showed up! They are our friends that live in Denton. But you'll meet them later. They joined us just in time to see the cattle drive. The Long Horns were huge!

 Now it was time to head to the Easter egg areas. Our group had to split into three different areas because of age differences. Here's our 4-5 year olds waiting patiently.

Of course, the waiting got more and more difficult. It was funny to see all the kids inching forward by the ropes. Ours were by a wall, so they couldn't get much closer. Then it was time and they were off!

Not wanting to get in the way, I stayed behind the wall. That made it difficult to take pictures. Most kids stayed in one area and grabbed what they could. Mel would grab one egg, then run off to another area, grab one egg, then run off to another area...you get the idea. She was having a great time. It was over really soon.

Checking out what candy she got.

I love these kind of egg hunts. I know they're not really hunts. More like egg grabs. At home we go to around three different city ones the Saturday before Easter. I love them. I don't think the Gamlens or the Hunts will ever go to another one. They weren't that impressed. Not much reward for the effort I suppose. But I don't think the kids care. As long as Mel has fun, we'll keep going to them.
 We all gathered together again and let the kids eat some candy. Some things I saw while we were just hanging out:

I love how pretty this horse is...all ready for Easter.

Protecting everyone while in a cowboy hat. Love it.

We were wating for Cow Camp, so we did a little more shopping and a few more photo ops.

When in Texas...

Tractor fun

It was finally time for Cow Camp. We waited and waited and waited. There were other people waiting too. Strange. We saw that it was scheduled online and it was on the paper that listed the activities for the day. But nothing. Eventually we gave up. We were starving. All the places to eat were so crowded! I'm not a big technology fan, but everyone (except me) pulled out their phones and found another Riscky's in Fort Worth, but not at the Stockyards. Before we left we bought Melodie the cowGIRL (we kept being corrected by Melodie) hat we decided on.