Happy Easter!

Dressed up for church! Notice the suits had to be handed down to the next boy in line...and we had to scrounge up an outfit for Preston. These boys just don't stop growing!

Easter egg hunt before bed (because I'm a slacker and it took that long for me to get up the motivation to stuff and hide the eggs!)

Easter Weekend

Who needs "tradition" - we are making our own traditions!

Yesterday morning, John took Preston turkey hunting. It was unsuccessful as far as meat goes, but Preston had a great time out with his dad. This was his first time hunting and he loved it! No pictures, unfortunately...John said they were having too much fun hunting.

When they got home, we dyed Easter eggs. It was amazing...we had NO MESSES! This was the first year that dying eggs was actually enjoyable for everyone involved. In the past, I have made our own natural dyes out of turmeric, spinach, beets, blueberries, etc., but this year I had a natural egg dye kit that I bought and the colors were much more vibrant. And it was a lot easier! The boys had so much fun, and Preston, in particular, was super meticulous. 

We spent the afternoon with Preston's Cub Scout pack at the ice arena. They skated and played broom hockey. All the boys had so much fun! B, especially, is our skater. He loves to roller skate and ice skate, but it was good for him to have some time on the ice when there weren't too many people around and he could really just practice. Preston did fine on skates, but as soon as he put shoes on to play broom hockey, he spent more time down than up. Archer hasn't skated much, and he also spent more time down than up (when skating)...until John waved a dollar in front of him and he took off! Nothing like some money for motivation!

And then this morning...

Daddy cooked up some yummy bunny pancakes!

We got all dressed up nicely...in the suits that Mommy spent hours and hours neglecting laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc., to make...

And went to church with these handsome boys.

When we got home, we spent time with some friends, and we have been relaxing (and hunting eggs) ever since in the beautiful sunshine.

Life is good. 

So thankful that He died for us. He is risen! 

Handsome

Easter

Archer's favorite part of his Easter basket: chocolate bunny from Grandma & Grandpa!

Squirt guns that they actually got to use OUTSIDE!  After the devastating snow + frigid temps on my birthday, we had weather in the 60's the next 2 days!  That's N. Idaho for ya.

The "grabber" being put to good use by B.

My handsome boys all ready for church.  (And they managed to stay mostly clean despite the fact that Archer spilled bubble solution all over his leg, B was playing in the sandbox, and Preston was practically rolling around in the dirt.) 

Family picture!

Egg Time

We conquered the Easter eggs this morning.  Another ordeal, but what isn't with 3 little boys and only 1 of me?!  Plus, it's snowing like crazy AGAIN so what better time to dye Easter eggs...as if I can maybe fool myself into thinking that it really truly is SPRING?!  But anyway...

I didn't get beets (was too lazy to go to the store just to get beets, and obviously I didn't plan ahead as well as I could have!), but decided to go for it this morning with stuff we already had around the house.  Last year we had okay success with spinach, blueberries/raspberries, and turmeric, but the colors weren't very vivid (except the turmeric).  The boys didn't mind because #1: they got to play around in pretty colored water, and #2: they got to eat the eggs afterward, but I was hoping for more vivid colors this year (a la Paas egg dye kits!).  Yeah, that didn't happen, but we had SLIGHTLY more success this year.  The boys had fun, and Archer threw a couple of eggs around and cracked them so we'll be eating those for lunch!  Overall, success.  Here's what we did:

1.  Boiled the eggs.
2.  Got out 3 different pots and put the following in them, along with water: pureed spinach/green tea, blueberries/raspberries/chili powder, and turmeric. 
3.  Boiled the various concoctions for around 15 minutes or so.  I just checked the water periodically to see if it was bright enough.  The spinach looked SO good...until it cooled!  Then it was kinda blah, but the other 2 turned out really nicely.
4.  Let them cool off a little (while the eggs were cooling), and added some vinegar to them.  I also strained the berry pot but didn't strain the spinach and probably should have.  I thought since it was pureed it would be okay, but we ended up with polka-dot eggs (the boys actually liked this, but I thought it looked kinda gross!).
5.  Plunk the eggs in and let them sit!  I am pretty sure that they would have been brighter if we had let them sit a little longer, but I could only convince the boys to wait for 15 minutes.  And even that was a stretch for them! 

B adding an egg to the berry dye

The berry dye was their favorite, as you will see when we get to the finished product!

Archer was kind of a disaster, truthfully.  He kept throwing the eggs and he made P&B pretty upset a few times when he grabbed their eggs and threw them.  Oops.  Maybe this should have been a 2 adult task!  He did have fun though, and he successfully dyed a couple of eggs by himself.

Arch checkin' out the turmeric dye

The finished eggs!  Front row: turmeric, 2-3 rows: berries/chili powder, 4th row: spinach.  The last 2 rows are undyed, so don't mind those!

P&B with their favorite eggs.  They ended up liking the turmeric dyed eggs the best, and I think they were a little disappointed that they dyed so many with the berries!

Easter Candy

I've been in a bit of a blog slump lately.  Not exactly sure why...could have something to do with the snow we got the other day, or the child who has decided that I can't be out of his sight EVER.  It's been all I can do to throw dinner in the crockpot (and dinner lately has just been soup because I can't seem to do anything other than dump all the ingredients in) and attempt to keep the dog hair to a minimum.  

But last week I almost had time to do something "extra."  I say almost because I started it while I thought the younger 2 boys were sleeping, and Preston was helping me.  We started making Cadbury Creme Eggs (which is - disgustingly, I know - one of my favorites!) and peanut butter cups.  Within about 5 minutes of starting, all 3 boys were "helping" me and it kind of went downhill from there.  I will say that this is not exactly a kid-friendly project if you have 3 boys, ages 5 and under, who are very hands-on.  Unless you want them to end up looking like mine did.  

They still tasted good though!

I didn't have an egg mold for the creme eggs, which probably would've made it a little easier.  Instead I dipped them into the chocolate (while attempting to fend off little boys...which didn't work!).

DIY Easter candy: Peanut Butter Cups & Cadbury Creme Eggs

I'm planning to make another batch of each of these for the boys' Easter baskets!  I think I'm going to make the creme eggs into "pops" next time though, and maybe I'll come up with something else to make too.  We're also planning attempt #2 of dying Easter eggs with natural dyes...last year we tried spinach, blueberries, turmeric, and raspberries.  This year I think I'll try beets for sure, but I haven't decided on anything else yet.