Happy Easter!

We had a perfectly lovely Easter weekend:

We dyed eggs on Friday night. I don't think we did it last year, so Eva had no memory of this activity. It was a huge hit. I'm the only one in the family that likes hard-boiled eggs, so we do this just for the fun of coloring (and then I get to eat egg salad sandwiches).

On Saturday, I took Max to get an early morning, desperately-needed haircut, and then he went to a service project of collecting green waste from yards all around the ward. They filled up 3 dumpsters!

Then I discovered the crayon in the laundry incident (so maybe not perfectly lovely). But thanks to Stefanie's search, I found a potion to take crayon out! It called for Oxyclean, Borax, white vinegar, Shout, and dish soap. I didn't have Oxyclean or Borax, so I just used the other three items, soaked them for a few hours, and washed in hot water. I'm happy to report that the stains are 95% gone! I am astonished.

We went to my sister-in-law Michelle's house for lunch and an egg hunt. We hid 79 eggs! We had 5 kids, but still. That's a lot of eggs. Fortunately the rain held off until we were finished.

We got home around 7:00 and had dinner, baths, and bed. Then I started working on Easter dinner and filling baskets.

Marc was still in New Orleans, so we went to church on Easter Sunday without him, which was weird. It was a beautiful service, however -- the choir sang 3 or 4 songs, we had a solo by my favorite singer in the ward (Consider the Lilies), and the final number had violin/viola/cello/flute accompaniment. The speaker was a man who lost two young children to untimely death. He spoke about his faith in the atonement and how much he and his wife are looking forward to seeing their children again. It was very touching.

Our bishop spoke about the power of the atonement to heal our every hurt. He read a scripture (Doctrine & Covenants 76:38, I think) that says that every one (save the sons of perdition) shall be redeemed. That just fills me with hope.

Marc drove up just as we were walking in the door after church.

After church I tried to take some pictures of the kids, but apparently sitting still for a moment for Easter photos is pure torture. Max and Lucas were very accomodating, but Eva refused to cooperate. What happened to wanting me to take her picture every two seconds?!

And we were in such a rush to get ready for 8:30 church, that I forgot to put on her little white sweater shrug! So glad we have photodocumentation of that little mothering slip.

Eva helped me make Triple Caramel Cake. She loves to bake almost as much as I do. Sadly, the cake fell big time when I took it out of the oven, but since it's baked in a bundt pan, it still looked pretty when I flipped it over...

Charlotte and Emily came over for dinner and hanging out. I neglected to take any pictures! But I did get the table before we sat down. It's good to have priorities...

Oh, and get this -- when I unwrapped our "spiral-cut ham", it wasn't spiral cut at all! It had two slices and the rest was whole. What a cruel hoax. We also had crab-stuffed potatoes, asparagus, spinach-strawberry salad, oatmeal rolls, and grape juice. Eva had a complete tired meltdown during dinner, but I'm trying to put that out of my mind (it's a much nicer dinner that way).

I taught Emily the basics of knitting and the boys talked the girls into playing Cities & Knights of Catan. I don't know if they knew what they were getting into, because they didn't leave until after 10:00.

So, to sum up, a beautiful weekend of time with family, good food, and pondering our Savior and his remarkable ability to make us new and whole.