Easter

The meaning and message of Easter is one of hope and transcendent beauty. Themes of forgiveness and new life are so important to me on a daily basis because I mess up. A lot. Especially as a mother. Easter was no exception.
This Spring has been incredibly intense. I've been in the thick of interview season and contract negotiations for the school board and recently I was called to be the 1st counselor in the Young Women's presidency for our ward. I love the girls, it's so fun, but it is also a big time commitment. Add to that soccer for the twins and Marc having a ridiculous amount of call and, well, things are a little insane.

I say all this to explain why we were dyeing eggs the day before Easter, right after the birthday party we threw for Benjamin that morning and before I had to get going to the General Women's Session of conference with my friend's daughter. I was supposed to bring brownies. I brought left-over minion cupcakes instead. Also, we had corned beef and cabbage for Easter dinner because I am just that far behind on holidays. With any luck, we'll be having our Easter turkey that's in the freezer for the 4th of July. Clearly, if anyone needs some do-overs in life it's me.
You won't find any perfectly posed adorable Easter pictures in this post. I forgot to take some. What you will find is the truth. It's messy and somewhat embarrassing, but it's real. It's our family. And even though I snap more often than I would like to and experience high stress levels and sometimes cannot believe the destructive powers of small children, I really do love it. Love them. I hope someday to love them as much as He does- the One who we celebrate at Easter. I'm not there yet, but the good news of Easter is that I can always try again. And again. And again. Happy Easter.

These are some of my favorite dyed eggs. Adorable, right? Getting them dyed was extremely stressful. We broke five eggs, shot rubber bands across the room, knocked over two cups of dye, and made people cry. The things we do in the name of art. They made some delicious deviled eggs today though.

The boys were good sports about getting dressed for church BEFORE getting to look at their Easter baskets. The Easter bunny brought them each a kickball, a Star Wars cup, a package of gum, a Reeses Egg and a dinosaur t-shirt. Nothing says new life like creatures who have been dead for millions of years, right? Also, please note the small bucket on the right side of the picture. That, my friends, is what the Easter bunny left for the good little guinea pigs in our house. I may or may not have had to make a late-night run for cilantro, yogurt-covered guinea pig pretzels and a wooden chew toy with a bell. This is the only picture I got of all five of them in their Sunday best on Easter. Nailed it.

 After church, we had the boys model their new dinosaur t-shirts. From left to right the shirts read RAWR!, Robot dinosaurs are cooler than real dinosaurs, Science! Consider yourself warned, Hugasaurus Rex, and Elijah's shirt doesn't say anything but it's a really cool picture. After we got this "nice" picture we told them they could act like dinosaurs for the next picture.

 Instead, we got the zombie apocalypse.

At this point, I had to run screaming from the room.

 For my part, I changed into my very festive bunny shirt after church. I tried to get a picture of it in the dark, but it is surprisingly hard to take a picture of glow-in-the-dark things. Anyway, the bunny turns into a ninja in the dark. The boys think it is pretty much AWESOME.

 We had the post-church Easter egg hunt in our backyard. The boys told me I did the best job of hiding the eggs this year. Of course, after they found all the eggs I was informed that I ruined Easter. Apparently, our family's goal to eat less candy this year should not have extended to the quantity or variety of candy inside the plastic eggs. I also learned that stretchy frogs, even if they glow in dark, are no substitute for stretchy rabbits.

 I asked each of the boys to show me one of the eggs they found so I could take a cute picture. Unfortunately, Gabriel is in a ridiculous face phase. It's almost impossible to get a picture of him without his tongue sticking out.

 At least Elijah was cooperative.

 David John was too spaced out, apparently. Eye on the prize and all that. I love that he decided to do the egg hunt in pajamas.

 Benjamin is so cute when he's delighted.

 Tobias was remarkably good at finding eggs. He even found a few of the really hard ones I had hidden for the older boys.

 And here is the epitome of Easter. A handsome man in a suit, eating a carrot and hunting for eggs with a plastic bag. I always hide some for my grown-up kid and candy addict.

 I couldn't resist posting one more of Tobias in his adorable vest and yellow tie.

 Benjamin just saw someone else getting an egg that he wanted to get.

 David John was single-minded and so cute. I love the way he holds his bucket with just a few fingers.

Elijah and Gabriel actually found an egg from LAST Easter somehow. I had forgotten that one of the eggs never turned up last year. Whatever candy was in it had been eaten by wild animals but it was filled with a lovely mud mixture. Does anyone else think that Gabe looks like he's been caught doing something wrong?