Easter Weekend Blowout!

FRIDAY:

We started out our Easter Weekend with the first day of Spring Break. I spent the morning blowing out eggs for decorating. Some people have questioned why I do that instead of boiling them, since it is more time consuming. Jillie's the only one here who really likes to eat hard boiled eggs. Not that he ever liked that type of egg, but in the last 6-7 years Greg developed an allergy to eggs. But my biggest reason blow out and not boil is so they can be used as Easter decorations. Who wants to make pretty eggs and hide them in the fridge anyway? So next year, find a large needle or a nail and poke a hole in the end of an egg. Gently swirl the nail around in there to break up the yolk. Poke a hole in the other end as well.Now, blow. Yes, it looks gross. Some about make you pass out from blowing so hard. Breaking the yolk is important to staying conscious. :)I used to make french toast out of the blown out material, til the family decided it was just too gross!Rinse eggs, blow any water out, and you're ready to decorate.
You can tell we have some "tweens" in the family as evidenced by the David Archuleta eggs.
SATURDAY:

The Easter Bunny arrived over night! He brought Jackson a Webkinz Jr. dog that Jackson has named "G". Kobe got a Webkinz lemur who is now called "King Julien" after the character in Madagascar. The Easter Bunny hacked into the girls Stardoll sites to renew their Superstar status.

Then the hunt. We had to hunt early since Jillie and I went to the Palmyra Temple on a youth temple trip.(Jillie and her friend Corinne walking up to the temple)
(Jillie and I at the temple.)

Jillie got to do some family names (baptisms and confirmations). Mom sent out 12 female names and I think 7 males. Our Bishop's grandson did the men. They had Jillie wait until everyone else was done to do her baptisms. When she got out of the font she sat in a chair right there by the font for the confirmations. I felt especially excited for the 5 (?) sisters Jillie was baptized for today. I imagined them all together and so excited that Jillie did this for them.

SUNDAY:

After church was the usual plethora of pictures of everyone in their new clothes...

Our friends- The Lewis' and The Christensen's- came over in the afternoon for dinner. We had 6 adults and 12 kids. Good food. Good times! (And I was happy with how the egg centerpieces looked on the tables!)After dinner was the Easter Egg Hunt. Since we began celebrating Easter with these families a few years ago, we've added some money to the eggs per their traditions. Our kids couldn't be happier that some eggs have cold hard cash in them. Most of the kids are old enough now that they couldn't care less about the candy- just the money! Jillie figured out that she should just walk around shaking eggs and only keep the ones that rattled.Checking the loot- adding up the money!

It was another wonderful Easter Day. Most importantly we are so thankful for the amazing gift given to us by our selfless, perfect Older Brother, Jesus Christ, so that we might live again with our Father in Heaven.