Easter!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays (though I have to admit, there aren't many holidays I don't like!)

Here is how we celebrated this year...

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Easter Egg dying is definitely NOT for moms who get anxiety when there is chaos and mess involved, but we survived.  After Charlotte monopolized the pink dye (we had about 10 pink eggs), I think I will buy two dye kits next year.

The Easter Bunny came early Saturday morning and left the kids some toys to enjoy in the beautiful spring weather... kites, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and of course...

lots of CANDY... our new house offered a variety of places for that darn bunny to hide all of that Easter candy

He also got tricky and decorated with plastic eggs.

The kids woke up at 4 AM wanting to hunt for candy.  We being the awesome parents that we are, made them go back to bed until 6:30.

Then the hunt for candy was on.

It went VERY fast, hence the very blurry pictures as I tried to keep up.

 Next, it was time to head to an Easter Egg hunt in a park near my mom and dad's house.  All of the Martineau cousins were there.

Alyza and Charlotte

Even Bronson got to be part of the egg hunting action.

The Rainey boys joined us in the tennis courts

And Ian got to hunt in the park with cousins Garrett and Shay

Mom's were expressly warned not to touch any eggs or they would be kicked out of the hunt.  But they didn't say we couldn't give our kids some coaching and strategy tips... we made a haul :)

 We then convalesced at my Mom's house for some Easter lunch.  I brought the rolls. 

They are so much cuter here than how they "actually" turned out.  By the time they finished raising, they all grew together and were sniffing each others bums.  When I pulled them apart, they ended up looking like pigs.

After a day full of excitement that started VERY early, most of us crashed.

On Sunday, we made our traditional Resurrection Rolls.

They made an excellent breakfast and allowed us a chance to talk about Jesus Christ and the resurrection.  I also had the kids go on a Resurrection Egg hunt.  Each egg had a symbol of the resurrection story and a scripture.  We finished our morning with a video of the life of Christ.  We had a very special day and enjoyed the warmth of the spirit of Easter in our home.

We finished our Easter festivities by dining in Rexburg with Zac's kin.  Zac's mom had a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids and by the time we got home and dumped out all of the jelly beans into a mixing bowl, we ended up with this...

It is hard to tell from this picture, but this is not a candy dish... it is a mixing bowl!  There are literally thousands of jelly beans in there.  We are so going to have cavities :)

Somehow, Bronson kept coming up with mouthfuls of jelly beans throughout the day.

Wonder how that keeps happening?

HAPPY EASTER!