Easter was a bit overboard this year, I'm not going to lie. But...I'm sure it will be memorable! We were really fortunate this year to have
Xiana,
Ekco, and Morgan at our house. Additionally, we got to host for Brian's family that is in town. Plus, his parents were still here from the sealing so we had a wonderful time. When the girls woke up the Easter bunny had hidden their baskets in the house leaving clues on the table of where to find them.
Xiana instantly knew where hers was located.
And was thrilled to find that EB kept his tradition of leaving a stuffed bunny (thanks Larissa for starting that particular tradition :)
Ekco's basket took a bit more thought and time to find... but that's only fair. She is 9!
They were thrilled with all their loot.
Including Barbies, bubbles, puzzles, candy, nail polish, you name it... like I said, overboard.
Then, while we waited for the rest of the family to join us I made blueberry and regular pancakes, bacon, and sausage for the group... and the Easter bunny went to work hiding some 300 eggs. It was exhausting on all accounts.
There were a few ground rules, the little ones got the grass area and the older girls had everything else. It's funny because it was significantly easier to take pictures of the little ones. They did a lot of inspecting. The older girls have this down. They didn't waste any time
analyzing their goodies... they simply collected.
There were so many eggs and Kevin went crazy with the extra little side gifts which were spread all over.
Everyone had to empty their bags at least once in order to be able to continue finding.
There is something so beautiful about brightly colored eggs on a green lawn. I remember as a little girl the Easter Bunny hiding eggs in our enormous weeping willow. I also remember years where the Easter Bunny came during church instead of in the night. It's interesting that kids don't catch on much sooner with all these stipulations.
Everyone was spoiled beyond measure. When I was a kid we used to search and then we would make a pile of our loot and distribute it evenly. I anticipated doing the same this year... but they were so inundated with goodies there was absolutely no way that any kid could feel deprived or gypped.
It is so much fun to watch the kids find goodies and get so very excited about them.
They even found some on the trampoline.
Kylee was obsessed with finding all the pink eggs and would completely
bypass other eggs in order to get to one. It was very cute.
Here they all are at the end of the hunt. By this time they were pretty ready to indulge in some bunnies and jelly beans.
They are a darling bunch! I'm so grateful that we were able to have each an every one of them at our house this year. It's so fun to have a big yard and the ability to host events such as this. I absolutely love it.
The parents were more pooped than the kids... in our defense this was a BUSY weekend. We had a lot going on. By Easter I was so swollen I looked like a
marshmello.
The Easter Bunny also had good intentions of getting a
nerf dart gun for each of the kids..er,
umm, I mean for each of the grown men. This
occupied all the boys in the house for several hours... this is not an exaggeration. There were darts flying everywhere. But... you know how it goes, boys will be boys...
Big or small :)
The little ones participated in the shooting games for a while, but the older girls stuck to
Ekco's room playing more sophisticated games like Polly Pocket and Barbie.
It was entertaining to watch. One dart from Brian's gun stuck directly on Mark's forehead which was the highlight of the day.
Then we got ready for church. I looked for an Easter dress for
Ekco and was unsuccessful but she looked beautiful nevertheless.
It was so wonderful to have Cambridge with us. I know that she sacrificed her big family egg hunt in order to be here for our sealing. It meant so much to me. Plus, she cleaned my house while I was at school and, for one day, I felt what it must be like to have a wife. Man, husbands are lucky! She gave Brian and I a beautiful picture of the Reno temple as a gift bringing tears to my eyes as it is something that we have had good intentions of getting for a long time now. I am grateful.... my cup
runneth over.
It took a little while for the colors to dissolve because I may have misread the directions...
But the kids had fun and the 5 dozen eggs looked great.
I was busy getting chocolate fountain together so, for the first year, I didn't dye a single egg... I'm a tad disappointed ;)
The kids were very cute and they did an excellent job.
There was only one minor orange dye mishap and... it was on the tile so it's all good.
What a production! I guess this is what it's like to have 6 kids....I don't know how they did it! 
But the smiles were worth the mess.
We finished the night by setting up the chocolate fountain in Ekco's honor. She had been thrilled about it for my shower, but it didn't work out so I promised we would do it another time. All the kids loved it...
Including Ekco... But none so much as the two biggest kids at the party...
Our dads. I should have gotten a picture but both my and Brian's dads were like two little kids in a candy store. My dad was up all night long repeatedly stating that it wasn't his fault he had never had unlimited access to chocolate before :)
