the one about Easter

We had such a nice Easter weekend. It was very casual and not very exciting, but that is fine. We have had lots of stress and craziness lately, so a nice quiet weekend was PERFECT. On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dinosaur Museum for an Easter egg hunt. This is probably our favorite egg hunt. The kids get to go through the museum and find eggs. When it is all finished, they turn in their eggs for prizes. Not a ton of candy, like most of the egg hunts and it is fun and different. Brayden went with us (Brennen was with is Grandma) but he was too old to hunt eggs at the museum, so he helped Quayd. Quayd doesn’t really need help anymore, but it was fun for them to go together. Quayd even let Brayden get one of his prizes. This is right before it started. They were at the first of the line!

After this, we went to the baseball park for another egg hunt. All of the eggs are real, and the kids don't just love that. They break it up in different age groups and in each group they have one plastic egg. If you get it, you turn it in for a big prize. Brayden found the winning egg in his group! Quayd met up with his friends Rylan and Jeff. They hunted eggs together and had a blast.
After this, we went to Grandma Lane's Church for their egg hunt. Grandma loves it when we can go to this and it is a lot of fun. They hunt for mostly real eggs, but a few candy ones too. After the egg hunt, they have lunch at the Church. We always have fun when we go to this. Grandma with all of the big egg hunters!
We got to see Brynn and her sweet boys. Beau'D loves Quayd and they had fun playing together.

Saturday afternoon consisted of a nice, long nap. Then I made a nice dinner and we just hung out for the evening.

Sunday morning, we were woken up to a phone call at 8:00 am. It was Brennen calling to see what Quayd got from the Easter bunny. Quayd was still asleep, and didn’t wake up until almost 9:00. And that was because we woke him up! Quayd was so excited to get up and see if the Easter bunny came by. Of course, he did!
Quayd got 2 Nintendo DS games, some clothes, some tech deck mini skateboards, a kite, a jump rope and a special note from the Easter Bunny. This is what it said:

Dear Quayd,
The rest of your gift will be well worth the wait,
You'll share it with two other boys who are great!

You will get it for sure when the week is complete,
but you must promise to be really sweet!

My basket was already full to the top,
but here's a hint... it'll make you go Hop! HOP! HOP!

Happy Eater!
Your friend,
The Easter Bunny

Brayden and Brennen got the same note! Since our trampoline was totally falling apart, and we had to throw it away, the boys are sure it is a new trampoline. I guess we will see what the rest of the week holds! ;) The Easter bunny also hid eggs for Quayd to find.
There were TONS of them and they were all over our living room! And, all filled with Quayd's favorite candy. Laffy Taffy, Jolly Ranchers and mini Snickers. (or as he calls them, "sneek-ers!) Brett and I had to laugh, because you could tell that Quayd was an only child by the way he hunted for eggs. He totally took his time and after he found one, he opened it up, looked at its contents and marveled at how the Easter Bunny knows just what he likes. Quayd was in NO HURRY through the entire egg hunt. It was so funny.

My Grandma had a special egg hunt for the boys this morning, and Quayd found the prize egg.... $10.00! They also got a few other eggs with money and candy. Brett, Quayd and I had lunch with my mom. She cooked a ham for croissant sandwiches and made deviled eggs, and I made potato salad. It was so nice with just the four of us and we had a great time. THANKS MOM!!!

We had a nice nap this afternoon, then went to Aunt Debbie's at 5:00 for dinner. It is our family tradition to play Bingo at all of our parties. This one was no different. Brett is always the Bingo caller, and there are prizes for both kids and adults. It is so much fun! They do cool prizes too, but there aren't very many, so you don't always win. We didn't win anything at Christmas, but we all did awesome for Easter! Brett won a $30.00 gift certificate to Canton City and a $30.00 gift certificate to Casa Rios. I won $30.00 in scratch and win tickets, but I only won $3.00. Bummer. And Quayd won a $20.00 bill! It was cool, we were all super excited!

It was such a nice Easter and I am so glad we had peaceful and fun weekend together. Now we need another day to recuperate! Quayd and I get one, but poor Brett has to go back to work. Somebody has to pay for all of our Easter fun!!!

the one about coloring eggs

What would Easter be without coloring eggs? Well, it just wouldn't be Easter. On Friday night, Brayden had been hanging out with us. He stayed and had dinner then we decided to color eggs. Brett did the ones that have the sleeve thing that you put over the egg and dip it in boiling water. That is about the extent of his Easter cheer, but the boys and I had a BLAST! I always just buy the cheap, old fashioned PAZ egg dye. We don't get the fancy schmancy stuff. This year, they had added new colors, and they were awesome! They were so bright and fun! Our kit also had the clear crayon, which is always cool for custom designs! (I sound like a salesman for PAZ Easter egg dye!)

Before:

After:

Some of our favorites said, "Mom + Dad," "Brayd-O is AWESOME," "Quayd is #1," and, sweet little Brayden made this one just for me... "Coolest Aunt Mandy." Sweet huh. I love that kid. He just turned 13 and he still likes to hang out with me. He got a cell phone for his Birthday and he sends me text messages. Love it! He is such a great kid and so sweet to Quayd. He was our buddy this weekend. Anyway,we had a blast coloring our eggs. The boys were both so creative and we just had so much fun. Here are a few more pictures of the evening. Quayd couldn't stand it. He wanted to smash the eggs so badly. He was banging these two together and he acted surprised when they cracked. What a nut!!

the one about Easter

I have kind of been an Easter scrooge this year, for a couple of reasons.

#1. It was just to early this year. Easter should not be on March 23rd. I don't care what you think. We need a couple more weeks to get ready.

#2. HELLO!!! There is still snow on the ground!

#3. We ALWAYS go camping for Easter, but not this year.

It was a cause and effect thing. Because of my reason #1 and #2, we didn't get to do reason #3. Errrrrrrr!

But I tried my very best to be a good sport, and I think we ended up having a nice weekend. It was super relaxing, and that was wonderful. A few weeks ago I bought a new book, and I was able to start and finish it. If you are looking for a quick good read, I reccomend it. I really love Nichols Sparks, and his newest book is called The Choice.

I got to take Quayd and do a few fun Easter things on Saturday. As I mentioned before, we are usually camping and I don't think Quayd has ever been on a real live Easter egg hunt. Let me explain what his idea of an Easter egg hunt is..... When I first married Brett, I went with his family for a fun Easter campout. I was told there would be an Easter egg hunt, so to bring candy. I was glad to! So we had been camping for a few days, and on Saturday it was just about time for the big event. I gathered up my candy and I was ready to hide it. Well everyone started walking toward this big dirt/sagebrush clearing. I wondered where on Earth we would hide it, but I went with it. All of a sudden I notice these crazy women throwing their candy all over in the dirt! Again, I just went with it. When it was time to turn the kids loose, they just freaked out! They loved it! They just ran and picked up nasty dirty candy and they were all really happy about it. I seriously thought it was the strangest thing I had ever seen. Until we went to "roll" eggs. That came later that afternoon. We all hiked our butts off up a big scary steep rock. Once we got to the top, everyone throws their eggs to the bottom. It is a game to see whose can tumble the farthest before breaking. The more eggs you take, the more fun you have, so each kid brings as many dozen eggs as they can carry to the top of the rock! WEIRD! But now, these silly strange things have become a major part of my Easter tradition. I love it and I look forward to it every year. I really missed it this year. For another "in-laws" side to this crazy Easter tradition, read Brett's Aunt Tara's blog post for today. It was super funny!

Something else that Brett, Quayd, Brayden and Brennen did on Saturday, was putting firecrackers in hard bolied eggs and blowing them up. They did this for hours and loved it. Boys!

As I metioned before, I couldn't really get into the Easter spirit this year. Until yesterday, my whole purpose for celebrating Easter was for this... (I LOVE these things!!!!!)
Seriously, that was all I really cared about. But then Brett and I had a nice long talk about religion, Easter, spirituality, love, family, and I finally remembered that Easter is really about this. And most importantly, this...