Easter and a Birthday

We had a great Easter weekend. The Saturday before Easter we had the most beautiful day of the year- it was seriously the first fully sunny, warm day of 2011. Everything is more fun with sun. That is pretty much our family moto.

Saturday morning we headed off to our community Easter Egg hunt. Our homeowner's association puts on a great hunt, divided into age groups.

This was the twins' first year participating and they looked so sweet with their little baskets, but they had no idea what was going on. Not a clue.

They could sense the excitement around them.

When it started, Chloe walked around with Leah and Ben walked with Lexi. They had no clue what to do and without their "helpers" I don't think they would have gotten more than one egg.

They were sure excited to see candy inside those eggs.

Then it was Mitchell's turn... Oh, Mitch, Mitch Mitch. He doesn't have a hurry bone in his body. I am a very competitive person and while it's not all about winning, Easter Egg Hunts ARE about candy and I knew he'd be sad if he didn't get much candy (and I knew I'd be sad if I couldn't have some of it too. Our community puts in the best candy- all name brand chocolate- twix, snickers, milky ways, hershey kisses, reeses peanut butter cups, etc).

Ben and I gave him a few pep talks before the race, going something like this: "Ok Mitch- when they lady says go, you run as fast as you can and pick up as many eggs as you can. Don't open the eggs to see what is inside (that is what happened last year), just drop it in your basket and run to another egg. Don't stop getting eggs until you hear us call you to stop."

Well, I can't say that he got the most eggs (not even close) and I can't say that he was aggressive (not at all), and I don't think his "run" qualified as hustling, but he had fun and got a few pieces of candy. Lucky for us, the eggs are double stuffed.

Bless his heart for getting one egg and being totally satisfied with that (until he heard his mom yell "Go get more! You're not done!")

Chloe's race was next and while she is not overly aggressive, she sure hustles.

She had many more eggs than Mitchell for sure.

My favorite part was getting everyone in a picture with the Easter Bunny.

The babies found out that the Easter Bunny gives out treats- he's not so scary!

As soon as I woke up Sunday morning, even before seeing what the Easter Bunny brought, the kids did an Easter Egg hunt for me for my birthday. Inside each egg was a number, and the number corresponded to a gift. It was very cute and I got very spoiled.

Here was the card that Chloe wrote me for my birthday. She is getting very good at sounding words out all on her own. In case you can't understand it, it reads: "Dear Mommy, Happy Birthday. I hope you get some good presents from your family. Me and Daddy have some good presents for you. So does your family. I love you. Your Daughter,

Chloe"

What a special holiday to share a birthday with. I was curious to know if my birthday had ever fallen on Easter before (I couldn't remember) and so I did a little research. The date of Easter can vary between March 22nd and April 25th (a big gap!) The last time Easter was on April 24 was in 1859, so I have never had an Easter birthday. It has only fallen on that date 5 times total, ever. The next time Easter will fall on my birthday will be in 2095. I think it is safe to say I will never have an Easter birthday again. Not impossible, but I would be 111 years old. Fun experience to have for my birthday, and even more special that I got to share it on a holiday where we remember our Savior and the resurrection and Atonement.

After my gift opening, the kids were very anxious to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.

Chloe has been wanting a Pillow Pet for a long time and was thrilled that the Easter Bunny brought her one.

Mitch loved his too.

The babies got new toothbrushes and toddler safe toothpaste, but their favorite gift was their own spill proof bubbles.

Alexis caught on very quickly on how to blow her own bubbles. I was quite amazed at how good she was. Leah... not so much.

When bubbles would come out of her

wand she'd yell "BUBBLES!"

Of course everyone loved the candy- Mitch and Chloe devoured theirs in record time and the babies loved opening new eggs to see what new treats were inside. Unfortunately, my cream couches and cream carpets were rainbow colored after that.

Chloe and Mitch put their Pillow Pets to the test after the candy was gone. I'm not much of a stuffed animal fan at all and I was back and forth about them having them since these are SO BIG, but since they are technically a pillow and have a double use, I was ok with it.

A little Easter love from my two sweetest little bunnies.

Easter Family Picture

The birthday Mom with all her babies

Everyone got new Easter clothes- and these two 18 month old babies went to their first official nursery day on Easter (talk about a Happy Birthday gift to me!) It would have been the Sunday after General Conference, but we had sick kids 2 weeks in a row.

After a delicious Easter ham dinner, we finished up the birthday celebration with the most amazing Carrot cake from Costco (to die for, really). The kids didn't like it much, which meant more for me and Ben.