I have 3 wonderful memories of Easter growing up.
1. The mass dying of easter eggs. We're talking dozens upon dozens.
2. The egg hunts that took HOURS. Our egg hunts were not for the faint of heart. We found eggs hidden in parts of the house we didn't even know existed. As we got older (yes we did them until the youngest was in high school, in fact, we were still having them when Brayden was born).
3. Mesa Temple Easter pageant. This is one thing I still REALLY want to take my family down to see. It's such a great way to refocus your attention on the truly important aspects of Easter. Allows you to reflect on the atonement and our Savior's love for us. As we have yet to make it down to Arizona for Easter, we settle with having lessons and stories about the atonement and ressurection. I am so grateful for this time of year and the opportunity it provides each of us to draw closer to the Savior and personalize His love for us and His unconditional sacrifice for us.
Easter this year was wonderful. We dyed eggs, went on an easter egg hunt, tried our best to relate the Easter Bunny and eggs to the atonement, made cupcakes and had a big Easter feast. My brother Tyler (who usually lives up by BYU but is staying with us for the Spring and Summer to save money; we call him Uncle Harry as in Potter more on that later)had his girlfriend entire family in visiting from Brazil (yest we are very international) and they all came for dinner. It was so fun to be able to cook a big holiday spread. With all our family so far away we don't get to do that very often
For some reason I did a horrible job of taking many pictures this year, but here are a few:
Leilei thought the whole easter egg dying thing was GREAT. We did 2 1/2 dozen and she could have done another 5 dozen. She was facinated every time she dropped a white egg in and it came out a different color.
Brayden laboring lovingly over his egg. (note the bucket of crayons, want to try something cool, rub crayons over hot eggs. They melt and you can get all sorts of cool designs)
Tavita with one of his masterpieces
The boys making/eating our traditional Easter cupcakes
I didn't get a picture of the final product but here they are from a previous year
The next day it was time for the big hunt. The boys had to give Kalei a bit of a head start hence the large number in her bag before she even made it down the stairs. All three of them were loving running through the house picking up eggs.
Kalei was very into the hunt until she realized these eggs were more then something to load into a bag. She decided to see why the eggs "shake shake". The look on her face when she opened them was pure bliss. Her focuses changed after that and would only grab eggs in between mouthfuls of candy
Tavita sliding in for an egg
Leilei finding her basket. It had Disney Princess lip gloss (her two favorite things rolled into one) and a Unicorn Pillowpet (at least a rip off version of one). The Unicorn had been on display at our local grocery store and everytime we walked in she'd run over and give it a hug. "Boppy" now sleeps with her every night.
Tavita grabbing his basket. He was so incredibly excited about the Batman toothbrush he wasn't even aware of the fishing pole sitting next to it. We don't have big chocolate bunnies in our baskets (figure they get more then enough sugar from other sources) and instead include a gift. Little did I know that the toothbrush would far outshine the fishing pole (Take a look at his face, he was like that for several minutes after finding the basket. Just sat there gawking at his toothbrush. Ahh the simple things in life)
Brayden with his basket. At least he was excited about his fishing pole. He is so excited (and Tavita too now that the toothbrush is old news) that the weather if finally going to be nice enough this week to go fishing.
Kalei slowly slipping into a candy coma. The boys were surprisingly frugal with their candy. On Friday night my mom was watching them while we went out and they at almost an entire GIANT bowl of candied pops (not the cereal but a weird mixture of popcorn and cheetos of sorts that I've only seen here in Utah. Coat them with sugary goodness and they are oh so addicting) After that night we learned it truly is possible for kids to hit their sugar limit. When we got home and went to say good night to them they were both moaning with soar stomachs. The next morning they sat down for breakfast and saw the bowl of Pops and cringed. "I DO NOT want to eat that for a VERY VERY long time"
That fact combined with their kind hearts made the candy intake quite low for them both. As they were sorting through their loot they overheard my mom and brother talking about how Tyler (my brother) hadn't had an Easter egg hunt for 4 years (he'd always been on a mission or my mom had been here). The boys thought this was one of the sadest things they have ever heard and proceeded to turn over their entire stash of easter eggs to Tyler (only held on to the gum and 2 Snickers eggs that were in their baskets). It was so sweet of them and I was really touched by how caring they were. Even as they found a few stragglers throughout the day, they'd always run it down to Tyler. (I on the other hand am not so charitable and was a little put out my the fact that there was no easter candy for consumption! hehe)
The following pictures are a little decieving. As I said earlier, I was being a space Easter Weekend with the camera and didn't even get a picture of the kids in their Easter best.
Easy fix, just dress them exactly the same the next week for church, and snap away so record shows you were on the ball. Another bonus: it was MUCH better weather which made for nicer pictures.
Nicer weather doesn't necessarily make for nicer subjects. They tried so hard but in almost every picture we had at least one looking as if they were either half asleep or in need of the restroom.
Or in some cases all 3 looking that way
These were the best two we got.
After trying their hardest to sit still we let them take whatever pictures they wanted. They were a crack-up planning out all their poses.
They insisted we did one with bunny ears since it was Easter pictures
Kalei LOVES to twirl in her dresses, even if they aren't the type that fly out. I'm on a mission to find her the perfect twirling dress so she can learn just what a wonder and beauty it could be (it was one of my favorite activties when I was younger).
2 little monkeys sitting on a fence
They spent forever getting ready for this pose, then Kalei came and crashed in on it.
Brayden posing and looking all so handome
Don't let that cute, innocent look fool you. She's quite the little firecracker.
Random picture but wanted to put it up here since it's one of our favorite activities. There are few things the kids look forward to more then "fun nights" aka whole family hanging out eating homemade pizza and watching a movie.
I know many of you are starting to fire up your ACs and pulling out your shorts. Don't you worry that here in Utah, waking up to snow is still a regular occurance. It is a darn good thing that high 60s and sun are forcasted for this week otherwise it could've had catastrophic consequnces in the Shum household at the hands of Mama Shum.
These two are from our most recent "gift" we awoke to yesterday.
"Oh, Tavita and Emma, what are those giant snowballs for?"
"For eating of course!"
However, for some reason, I have been horrible at taking pictures lately.
1 comment:
Brayden is definately dads grandson. that picutre of them standing on a fence. that is a pose/face dad would make.
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