Retsae + Easter

We were mostly working on spring cleaning the day before Easter but we did take a brek for a little Retsae fun: the kids did a hot & cold search for their Easter basket, which ended up in the downstairs bathroom bath tub; and they hunted for Easter eggs in the backyard.

Eliza arranged some of her booty in a sugary rainbow.

When Ben and I were stuffing the eggs the night before, I decided to cut down on the sugar
a bit by putting coupons in some of the eggs.  The Get Out of Piano Free Cards were the most
sought-after, and one of them wasn't found.  Ben and Jack went back outside to find it and since
Ben found it, Jack promised manual labor in exchange for the card.

It was nice to have Easter at home this year.  We still got dressed up in Easter-y clothes and had a big celebratory meal, but the rest of the day felt different, just being us.

While Ben worked on a big breakfast, the kids and I tried a new (yeast) Resurrecton Rolls recipe and dyed eggs.  After breakfast, I asked the kids to make Easter pictures while I worked on my Sacrament Meeting talk and got dressed.

Top row: The Stone Rolled Away (J) and Cars 3 Logo (J)
Bottom row: Inspirational Easter Egg (E) and Scribbly Easter Egg (L)

During CFM lessons the week before Easter, we'd talked a lot about the events of Holy Week, so on Easter the focus was on the resurrection and how the Atonement applies to our lives.  For church,Cat played Easter hymns she selected, Eliza shared a story from The Friend, and I spoke about the witnesses of the resurrection and what the resurrection means to us.  Then we hurried outside to brave the cold and take a quick family picture so everyone who wanted to could change their clothes.  During CFM, Ben taught a lesson about what the Atonement means to us, and we watched some Bible videos and Pres. Nelson's testimony of Christ (from the "Special Witnesses" video).  We also enjoyed the Resurrection Rolls we'd made that morning.  It was all really nice.

The Good One

The Really Good Ones

When our church was over, we had lunch, then Ben and I started working on dinner while we watched/listened to the TabChoir Messiah performance from 2018.  The kids mostly played, and Luke put a puzzle together, and we enjoyed a yummy dinner with carrot cake for dessert.

One Easter-y treat that we didn't get around to making Easter weekend was our (chocolate + butterscotch + chow mein noodes + Robins eggs) nests, but we sneaked it in a few days later.

For several days, I couldn't stop taking pictures of the flowering trees (and one bush)
in our yard and neighborhood.  I love the beauty and color of Spring.
As I'm typing this, the blossoms on the trees are already disappearing in favor of leaves.
I call this series "Looking Up."