Easter and General Conference Weekend

Easter fell on the Sunday of General Conference this year.

The Saturday of Conference, April 4, was Vitamin C Day so our Conference Nachos had green bell peppers and salsa and we drank juice with Vitamin C.

A sister from our ward stopped by between sessions and gave us some rice crispy treats as an Easter treat.

That Sunday, April 5, was Caramel Day so some family members had hot cocoa with caramel syrup in it.

There was plenty about Easter during General Conference. Wonderful talks.

I don't know how many times during Conference this time that a speaker would mention a piece of music in their talk (hymn or children's song) or read lyrics and immediately someone in our home would start humming it. Sometimes it was even me. I love that.

We love to emphasize the Savior on Easter Sunday then it's okay to have a little Easter Bunny fun the next day. We usually do an Easter egg hunt for FHE.

For our lesson, Jr. Jr. led us in one more scripture and thought for Holy Week. For our treat and activity, the kids hunted Easter eggs and we ate candy.

Earlier in the day, the boys cleaned and vacuumed the living room without being asked. Thank you, boys. By the time the Easter Bunny came, there were things all over. Eh, more places for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs. We didn't even bother to pick up a blanket that was on the floor. Eggs were just hidden there. Ha Ha. Nobody complained.

Since Monday, April 6, was Carbonara Day, that's what we had for dinner that night before the egg hunt.

Easter Days

April 19 was Hanging Out Day. I got to hang out with Jr. at another UVU event. 

Besides the lunch they provided, the also had a soda bar and candy bar. We got lots of candy. I got a lemon-lime soda with coconut and pineapple flavoring in it based on Jr.'s suggestion. Thank you, Jr. It was yummy.

At the end of the event, they had a Bingo competition. I won! I won! I won! I won a little air fryer. 

I've used it a couple times since I brought it home, both times to make mini jalapeno popper egg rolls. I love those things.

 

That afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt at home. Jet loved it. I'm sure the older kids did as well. It was fun to see Jet didn't need guidance this year like he has in some past years. He was told which color egg to look for and didn't try taking anybody else's eggs.

April 20 was Easter. We went to church and had a beautiful Sacrament Meeting then a brunch in the cultural hall afterward.

We were able to put together an Easter dinner that day. We had ham, scalloped potatoes (from a Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 2, by Jordan Page), pineapple, and resurrection rolls or empty tomb rolls.

I had everybody come help with the rolls and taught them what each part represented.

Roll dough represents the tomb. A regular sized marshmallow represents Christ's body. Dip it in melted butter then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture to represent the oil and spices used to prepare His body for burial. Wrap it up in the tomb/dough and bake about 20 minutes. When you open the tomb, it is empty for He is risen. That's what it represents.

 

It was a nice little reminder during our dinner of what Easter is really about. Because Christ was resurrected, we will be resurrected, too. All the physical troubles our bodies go through in this life won't follow us through eternity. But the relationships we cultivate here on Earth, whether it's going to church together to learn more about our Savior or making a fun treat together, will last. What a marvelous blessing.

Easter 2024

March did not go out like a lamb this year. Last day of the month we got hail.

March 31 was Easter and appropriately National Tater Day since we like to have a potato dish with our dinner. Ham, creamy scalloped potatoes, rolls, spinach salad, and grape juice.

A couple days later the boys had an Easter egg hunt in the living room.

Spring Break is Over

Sigh. Spring Break is over. School school school. Work work work. Everything else. Everything else. Everything else.

We had good weather for Spring Break. It's been stormy all week. Wind, rain, snow.

Aaaaah. The wind is blowing us.

 

Monday, April 12, was National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.

Tuesday, April 13, was National Peach Cobbler Day. Jr. Jr. was thrilled to see the cobbler when I brought it out.

Wednesday was busy.

Thursday, April 15, was World Art Day. Nichole and I made a large cardboard Easter egg for a Utah County Birders activity.

 

A while back my children participated in a school project for their cousin who was supposed to teach some sign language to children. There became a big joke about signing "bacon lasagna" during their Zoom Meeting. You know- kids. For dinner Friday we ate bacon lasagna just so we could send a video of the kids signing "bacon lasagna" to my niece. She got a kick out of it.

Spring Break- Wednesday

This day was so action packed it gets its own blog post.

We started out early in the morning to head to the Henefer Lek to listen to and watch the sage grouse displaying. It was fun to take the whole family this year. Most of the kids have never gone (like I said it is an early morning trip). It worked out. Jet mostly slept through the whole sage grouse part of it. He started stirring as soon as we got to the lek. It's not so good to have a baby crying while you have windows down. We got him back to sleep, though. 

The boys in the back seat were content because they had devices. 

They did pause to listen to and look at the sage grouse from time to time.

 

Nichole, Jeremy, and I were content because we had a camera and binoculars.

There were a bunch of grouse near the road so we were able to get a good look when we were on our way out. 

After the lek, we headed over to East Canyon Reservoir. It was coooooold.

There were plenty of birds and ground squirrels to take pictures of, though. I even got to hear a loon in real life for the first time ever. I've been wanting to and I did. I was so happy.

We picnicked in the van at another spot along the reservoir. Since I forgot to bring out the Twinkies the day before, we celebrated the anniversary of the invention of the Twinkie Observed on Wednesday and had them with our lunch. While we ate, I gave the kids a background about how the Twinkie came to be.

After the reservoir, we stopped at another reservoir, Deer Creek, to look for more loons. There were at least a couple and guess what. We heard another loon calling. Eeeeeeee. I was even more happy. Two loons at two different reservoirs. Yay! 

Jet was ready to be awake by that point so we decided to go somewhere where he could run around. We went to South Fork Park. This is what we got when we arrived. 

This

vs this

Eventually everybody got out so we could get family pictures with Flat Stanley.

This is what happens when you get out so early in the morning. You fit a lot in. Jeremy and I were even able to get a nap in after we got home before we had an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. Much different from last year when Jet could barely reach the eggs on the living room floor.

He even enjoyed playing with the empty eggs after we got back inside (we had the kids empty their eggs into ziplock bags so we wouldn't have all this candy sitting in eggs for so long).

So it really was an action packed day. We haven't had one of those in a while. I'm so glad it worked out.

 

By the way, April 7 was National No Housework Day. Perfect day for all of this. It was also National Walking Day. Perfect for running around at the park. It was also World Health Day. Getting out in nature is so good for our health.

Spring Break- Monday and Tuesday

For Spring Break I explained to the kids that we can do cleaning in the morning, get some outside time in the afternoon, and watch a movie in the evening. Simple enough, right? Um... yeah. Sure.

When dealing with multiple people who have their own interests or ways of doing things and weather that doesn't always cooperate and a mom who wants to fit holiday celebrating into the activities, sometimes things don't go exactly right. The kids and I planned out our week and... we adapted.

So this is the fun we did have on Monday and Tuesday (because I'm guessing you don't care as much about what cleaning we did):

Monday, the kids and I went for a drive. While we drove, Jr. had us play a game. One person calls out a word on a sign (since we were in the middle of the city for a while, it worked out). Whatever letter that word ends in, another person calls out a word they see on a sign that begins with that letter. You can't call out two words in a row, you have to wait until someone else finds a word before you can do it again. It was pretty fun until we reached "DQ." We were not on a road with a Quick Quack Car Wash, which would have made it simple, so we had to wait until after our outing to continue the game when we did pass a Quick Quack Car Wash on the way home. 

Our outing? We drove up to Big Springs Park and played frisbee. We had "Daddy" there with us as well as Flat Stanley who came home with Lucky for Spring Break.

After we got home we did get to watch a movie. 

Since April 5 was Gold Star Spouse's Day, I printed out a gold star to put on Jeremy's shirt when he got home. 

He is a most terrific spouse. When I'm in the middle of writing a blog post, if I step away (which often happens- Mom, here), some of my kids will sometimes come in and add "My husband is awesome." See, they know it. Sometimes I leave it in. Sometimes I take it out (my husband is still awesome, though) if it really doesn't fit what I was writing right then. So if you're reading my blog and a random "My husband is awesome" is in a blog post, my kids probably wrote it and it's true.

I didn't realize it but while I was making dinner that night, Jr. came up and put a gold star on my back. Aww. What a sweetie.

Tuesday, it snowed. We didn't get out like we planned. I did make a quick trip to the Provo Library to pick up some things that were being held for us. April 6 was Library Workers Day. See my post from March 25 of this year to read my opinion on library workers.

April 6 was also National Carbonara Day. I did make carbornara with French bread on the side.

That evening we colored hard boiled eggs with crayons.

April 6 was also the anniversary of the invention of the Twinkie but I totally forgot to get out the Twinkies to celebrate.