Easter Morning

We decided to forgo our usual jelly bean trail from the Easter bunny this year considering there were 9 kids in the house.... Rather we just hid the Easter Baskets the way the McDonald's do at their house and let the kids find them....without a trail or any hints. It was fun....

Julianna found her basket first

It actually took Christian & Rebecca a while....guess they've relied on the jelly bean trail too long!

Rebecca was glad to find hers

The McDonald's shared one large basket - with candy and a new movie!

...and a banana especially for Owen

Ready for church

We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids after the church service and I got a couple of pictures - Caleb got lots of eggs!

Julianna and her friend Lily Grace

Love this picture - we were waiting on Matthew to arrive for a family pictures so we took some fun shots!




The McDonald family!

Our family

Easter Weekend with Friends

With our friends here this weekend, we really prayed for nice weather. 13 people in our little house would be a lot if it was rainy. On Friday night, the big 2 boys decided to sleep outside under the trampoline. The weather was nice so we had the windows open. About 6am, we heard a huge rumble of thunder, then the skies opened up with rain. We jumped up knowing the boys were out there. Matthew found them huddling in our garage, but they'd left all their gear out under the trampoline. So they ran back out and dragged it all in. Unfortunately the noise and commotion woke everyone up so we had an early morning....and a rainy one at that.

We had hoped to go to a community Egg Hunt that morning but decided we'd rather be crammed into the house together than out in the rain and mud. However by lunch time, the clouds and rain had disappeared and it turned out to be a beautiful day. From that point on, we basically spend the entire day outside playing. I took a TON of pictures that day (imagine that) so these are just a few of the ones I could post on here. It just shows a small amount of the fun we all had together.


An early morning game of Twister for the girls

Watching a little TV - waiting for the rain to end

The big boys hanging out...

A little more action with the Twister game

AHHHHH, the Sun!!

This is how Carter spent his day outside!!

Such a funny picture

Christian & Jordan on the trampoline

Having fun on the swings

Playing a little Corn Hole

Decorating Easter Eggs

Our friends, the McDonald's, came to visit us over Easter weekend. It was so great to see them and have their whole family come this time. They stayed with us, which meant the house was pretty crowded but it was so much fun. There were 13 of us all together!!!

On Saturday night, we let the kids decorate Easter Eggs. It had been a couple of years since mine had done it so they had a lot of fun. Julianna didn't remember doing it before either. They did a great job and we had some very creatively done eggs!!

Most of the crew before we got started

Rebecca & Jordan waiting on the dye.

Tiffany helps Caleb

Owen did a great job with a bunch of stickers on his eggs.

Christian shows off his sunburn lines from being outside all day!

Caleb

Rebecca

Julianna

Gabby

Jordan

Christian imitates his egg

Dylan

Tiffany & Carter

Ryan & the younger boys crash on the couch while the rest of us finished up the eggs

Easter Egg Hunt

While we were at Cassie's on Good Friday, we continued in the tradition of having an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. This year, we decided to try something new....a hunt for the younger kids and one for the older. It seemed to work out well, although Leah is in "limbo" with her age (although her size puts her more with the little ones but her determination and speed will probably move her up next year!) These cousins are all just so cute!!

The Young Group before the hunt

Ruth

Josiah

I love this picture of Leah & Ruth

Julianna

With their goodies!

Caleb searches the yard

Anna Blair

Rebecca

Christian enjoys his findings

Matthew & Justin did the hiding for the big kids and they had to search more than usual. We were laughing at how little they wanted to hunt but just find them on the ground. Uncle Justin even had to show them a bunch that they missed!

The big kids after their hunt!!