This post features most of April, which was complete with Spring activities and everything EASTER!!
I spotted Jeremy on his way to work one morning in the spring fog.
Spring cleaning!
Running errands
Practicing the piano!
I treated my primary presidency to a dinner meeting! Also close to this time, I organized a fun girls night out at the new dessert place called Munch with ladies from church. Amanda, Karem, Anita, myself, and Karrie were there, but I didn't get any pictures.
Bike ride with Dad revealed a deer leg in the road. Just the leg.
Typical sight- boys making posters and pictures at random locations around our house.
I created another field trip experience at the HHH and it was launched this spring, called Healthy History for preschool children. It was very succesful!! We had a group of 16 four year old children from Sumner CLC preschool visit us. That afternoon, we had a group of 3-5 year olds with their parents from the ECFE class visit us. I read the children a story in the living room by the fireplace. it was about Jay Hormel as a little boy watching his parents be healthy. Then we went to the atrium to plant, taste and harvest herbs because Mrs. Hormel loved gardening. Then we went to the banquet room to make protein snack with our herbs, because Mr. Hormel loved protein. The experience was funded by a nutrition grant given to the HHH. The kids were so well behaved and VERY excited to be in the home to learn and try new things. Their energy was infectious!
At this time, Jeremy was working his butt off at Hormel with Peparoni. He also got offered a job by a different company and we were in the thick of trying to decide what to do.
I loved after-school cuddles with Dallin.
Some kid took pictures of dinner one night.
We got to die Easter eggs one evening!
My little 5 year old, almost 6. Wearing a baby blanket for a scarf. And all his cute smiles.
Tanner being very maticulous.
We got some great looking eggs!!
We had a blizzard that brought tan snow. Weather reports showed satelite images of a wind storm from Texas carrying dust up to the north. That means the brown stuff you see on the snow is dust from Texas!!
We got to watch Aleighcia in her spring high school show. It was her last performance in high school. She was the Cowardly Lion, and it was the first time the boys had ever seen the story of the Wizard of Oz. She did an amazing job, I was so proud of her! The boys were mesmerized and couldn't believe she could act like a lion.
Jeremy took me to his fancy company dinner at the country club. The theme was red carpet, so I wore this fancy Thai princess dress that I had made 14 years ago when I was in Thailand. It was fun to get dressed up for the party.
I was also really excited with how my grey hairs turned out when I did my hair. This time, it did a little split on its own, so I went with it, and loved it!!
I caught a shot of one of our primary classes learning about Jesus. This was also Palm Sunday, so during singing time, I helped the children act out the procession, using dancing scarfs as our leaves while we sang Hosanna songs around the room.
That afternoon we had our Feast of the Passover in our living room with friends. (Our schedule didn't work out this year to do it on Holy Thursday). Families that joined us this time were the Henrys, Greens, and Stanleys. I made a PowerPoint show that explained all kinds of cool stuff about Passover and the Last Supper. We watched some of it before we ate and the rest as we ate the food to learn what each item symbolizes. The grown ups and kids seemed interestd in the powerpoint, and I think it helped Tanner & Dallin understand the entire Passover story.
As tradition in Christ's time, we ate at tables low to the ground and sat on pillows. This year we also tried eating without silverware! The haroset was my favorite food item this year. The lamb was good, but a bit dry this time. (Note- don't take it out of the pot until we are ready to eat it.) We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone, some really neat gospel discussions, and it was fun to see the the kids play all over the place. I am really glad I changed up my living room to teach the family music classes, otherwise, I never would have thought to do the Passover dinner with this big set up in our living room.
Then we napped.
We spent some time at the HHH one afternoon, probably for a board meeting. The boys had fun playing tiddliwinks by the fireplace. Finding them in the historic home like this just melts my heart. I have been so blessed to enjoy this place with my children.
A wild turkey waltzed through our yard one spring evening. That was a first!!!
I don't remember what Dallin is reading here, but this is a great reminder that Dallin's reading skills exploded during this time!
We spent some one-on-one time with another friend in primary. We enjoyed Applebees dessert with her!!
Jeremy was enjoying how cute Dallin is and took this picture of him.
During Holy Week, we decorated Easter cookies. I kept it super simple, Betty Crocker sugar cookies that are round with frosting and sprinkles. No fancy cookie shapes, no piping or frosting tools. No other sweets to add to the cookies. And ya know what? The boys were in HEAVEN with the simplicity of it all. They kept busy choosing different frosting colors and sprinkles. I remember this being a calm, slow-paced time with my kids, just like our time in Puerto Rico. We were enjoying the moment, now worries, just being happy.
We delivered thse plates to some of our neighbors.
Good Friday!!!
The buns were especially yummy this year. A fluffier batter than in years past.
That afternon, we had our annual Rice Krispy Easter Sculpture Making event! Friends that were able to participate included the Ekins family and our backyard neighbors. The challenge is to make a sculpture out of rice krispies that has something to do with Easter. It worked out really well to have the two adults and tons of kids. Our coffee tables worked perfectly for the kids to work at, (which is another great outcome from transforming my living room in a space for that family music class!) Everyone had a wonderful time together!!
Tanner chose to use the red frosting to depict the Savior suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, where He sweat as if drops of blood. It was a little morbid, but it did fit with the challenge, so I let him go with the idea. Tanner was really proud of his creation!
The tomb.
My creation was Mary kneeling by the tomb looking for Jesus.
I was really proud of my scupture.
After making the sculptures, the kids ran around and played everywhere. I was really impressed with how well they were all getting along. Tanner and Dallin followed Niels around everywhere, they just love him. The kids all took turns jumping on the mini trampoline, dancing and playing instruments. It was one of those perfectly bilssful moments where you feel so blessed to have friends and where you think "this is what life is all about!"
The weather was gorgeous so the kids eventually made their way outside. Jayne and I got a great visit in! I remember talking to her about Jeremy getting an official job offer and waiting for negotiations to take place. This woman is such a great friend and a great example to me. I miss her way too much.
On the Saturday before Easter, I hosted our church Easter activity with the help of all the primary leaders and children. Our activity consisted of a devotional, 3 service projects, an egg hunt and refreshments. Jon Stanley designed this poster for us that was displayed at church and on Facebook.
The children sang songs and read some scriptures for the Easter devotional. (I was able to get them to sing a cool duet for the Hosanna song and we even used hand bells for two different songs!) The kids were so cute standing in front of this display.
INSERT PICTURES of kids during the devotional here.
The service projects consisted of a drive for the Parenting Resource Center, a drive for the Riverland Student Food pantry and making cards for the recipients of the local Meals on Wheels program. Karem Salas coordinated two of the projects. We collected a ton of stuff for each nonprofit!
We had a great turnout of people, too!
Our goal was for everyone to make at least one card, and maybe two cards. We ended up with over 90 cards!! The families and children all had a great time being creative. As I look through these pictures now, I am so glad I took them, because they are all my good friends, and I miss them so much!!
A card by Tanner. It says: Why shouldn't you tell an egg a joke... (then on the inside) Because it might crack up!!
Matthew and Lonnie Houff came to visit our church and help make cards. The Gabrielson family also came to enjoy the fun!
The egg hunt was super succesful!!! We actually had it OUTSIDE!! The weather was gorgeous. And we had over 500 eggs for the children and youth to find! We used most of the church property to hide the eggs in easy and tricky places.
It was really fun watching the kids open their eggs after the hunt. They were so excited to find all the different treats in addition to candy. Things like balloons, pennies and stickers inside the eggs were all a big hit! Carol Carolan filled most of the eggs this year.
I tried to keep the focus of the event on Christ. The devotional helped a lot with this and right before the egg hunt, I mentioned how looking for eggs represents Peter and others running to find Christ on Easter morning, because the egg is a symbol of new life coming from a tomb. There was no Easter bunny mentioned the entire time, and everyone still had a blast during the egg hunt.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the activity!! We began at 10 am and wrapped things up with the entire building cleaned by noon!! It was a great team effort from all the ward members.
Later, we were able to deliver the donated items that we collected and made for each local non-profit. Karem delivered the items to the parenting resource center and they shared a thank you on their facebook page.
I delivered items to Riverland's Student Food Pantry, and I was very impressed with the system the students have created to help each other fight food insecurity. It started from one student, Oballa Oballa, talking to other students and staff. They found a small closet in one of the buildings that could be used for the pantry. Within months, it became a succesful program!
Easter Sunday finally came!!! With it being on April 21 it felt so late in the year for us! First thing we did when we woke up was cuddle as a family. Then the boys looked for their Easter baskets that they knew we hid. It took them a really long time to find them!
Dallin's was hiding in a drawer of the fridge. He opened the fridge, looked around, and then closed the fridge. He took two steps away from the fridge, then stopped abruptly. His eyebrows bursted in surprise as he realized that he had seen his basket in the fridge! He rushed back, threw the fridge door open and got his basket out. We all laughed a lot at this and I think we got it on video.
Tanner found his basket in the washing machine.
Yay!!
I put three or four simple things in their baskets from the dollar store and they were super happy with it all. So glad that they are easy to please.
Church was really fun and very uplifting!! In Sacrament meeting, the children sang their Easter songs beautifully. In primary, we had fun with Easter Jelly Beans. I found a poem that describes how each jelly bean color represents something from the Easter story, and then I adapted it to work with the Hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth." The children got to eat a jelly bean as we sang each verse. It was a very simple and fun! My favorite part was how joyful the Spirit was in the room during the lesson. After church, we got family pictures outside.
That afternoon we had our Easter dinner of salmon with honey sauce (to remember that Jesus ate fish and honeycomb after he was resurrected). Jeremy grilled the salmon outside and it turned out perfect. I made a yummy chutney with pineapple, cilantro and honey. The meal was delicious, probably our best salmon meal yet!!
The kids watched Easter videos and Studio C for a bit.
Then Jeremy took the boys on a bike ride to some trails at Riverland.
Throughout the following week, we enjoyed our Easter games/stories/presents/books/treats.
This was one of my favorite Easters! I was epecially glad that amid the stress of deciding whether or not to move, we were able to keep all of our Easter traditions alive.
I absolutely love Easter because the sacrifice and triumph that my Savior Jesus Christ performed for me gives me so much hope, peace and joy! Happy Easter! He is Risen!!!
