Our Easter Festivities!

The backyard, pre-hunt

When Easter time rolled around this year, I knew I wanted to take Landon to a proper Easter egg hunt because with all our traveling, he had never had this experience. Two years ago, we were in India, and last year, we were in a hotel in Brussels, Belgium for Easter. As I thought more about the atmosphere and frenzy of community egg hunts, I wanted to avoid that, but still give Landon an egg hunt experience. While in the shower one morning after a particularly rough night with Owen, I had the brilliant idea of hosting a hunt at our house. At first, I thought perhaps we should only invite those who didn’t have family in the area with which to do their own hunt, but I ended up inviting Landon’s whole Sunbeam class, which ended up being 8 classmates and their families! Everyone came and it was great to get the families of his classmates together. Although it was a lot of work, it was worth it.

Release of the hunters!

We were so lucky/blessed that it was a pleasant day outside (for March, in the Chicago area). About thirty people came in all, and there was no way to accommodate everyone inside at the same time comfortably. We had our guests use crayons to color eggs and papers while we waited for all the families to arrive. When everyone was ready, we released them into the backyard. We filled about 100 eggs with goodies, and had a special golden egg with a bigger prize. Austin did a great job supporting me- staying up late to clean and arrange furniture with me, and then hiding all the eggs early the next morning! Everyone found some eggs to take home, and while they hunted I finished prepping our lunch potluck. After the hunt, the kids hunkered down in the backyard to discover their candy treasures. With a bunch of 3-4 year-olds, most of them sat there and ate all of the candy they had found right then and there! Families took Easter pictures in the backyard, and just enjoyed visiting together.

Potlucks are awesome! Everyone steps up and it really rounds out the meal. I provided baked ham and cheese sandwiches, lemonade and cupcakes. Our Easter feast included fruit salad, cut fruit, a veggie tray, quinoa salad, chips and salsa, and sugar cookies too! Yum! Although I was super stressed about having enough food, we ended up with plenty and it was yummy!

Post-hunt candy eating

Cupcake station

After the hunt, I wanted to have a few activities to keep the kids interested and busy so the adults could have some time to interact as well. We had two stations- a cupcake decorating station and an egg decorating station. I made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting shaped like a nest. We set out Peeps, jelly beans, and Robin’s eggs candies to decorate the top. I think more of the candy made it into the mouths of the Sunbeams than actually on the cupcakes, but it was simple, and a hit with the kiddos. For egg decorating, many families brought hard-boiled eggs, so we had plenty for the kids to color. I had the normal colored water with vinegar to dye them, but then we also tried to do tie-dyed eggs with shaving cream and food coloring. I will say it worked OK if the eggs were sitting right in a pile of food coloring for long enough. We tried using gel food coloring for that and I think we really needed the normal liquid kind. Oh well, the kids had fun playing in the shaving cream and were sent home with some neat eggs.

Easter morning

We had this hunt on Saturday with the intent that Easter Sunday would be dedicated to the religious observance of Easter and focused on our Savior, Jesus Christ and His Resurrection. In the morning, the Easter bunny came, but he left numbered eggs that had little symbols and scriptures about the last week of Christ’s life. Landon liked opening the eggs and finding what was inside, I’m sure he’ll continue to get something out of this activity for years to come! I sang as part of a double quartet in church, and we had a yummy Easter dinner of ham and potatoes.

Opening eggs

Happy Owen baby!

As for Owen, he slept through almost the entire party on Saturday, and continued to be his happy baby self on Sunday.

Owen's first Easter

Sweet brothers

One of my favorite pictures, ever.

Strike a pose...

I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for all He has done for me. Because of Him, I can repent of the things that I do wrong, and be cleansed from sin. I can call upon Him to help me through any challenges I may have in my life, and through His help, I can overcome anything. Because of Him, I have the hope of being with my husband and children FOREVER and ever. That means the world to me. That's what Easter is all about! For more about what I believe and a really neat video about Easter, click here.

I love my boys!