Easter Festivities

A week before Easter, our church did a fun Easter activity - food, beautiful musical numbers, and a quick/easy Easter egg hunt for the kids.  We all had fun - and happy that it wasn't the day before Easter like everything else.  Here is Sophia looking silly with her Easter egg bucket on her head.

And Amelia showing us how silly she can look with a huge piece of food in her mouth (sorry, I can't remember what she stuffed in her face) . . . and Ken's cute photo-bomb in the back.

The next week, on the day before Easter, we started our festivities early.  We had so much planned for that day, that the girls are dying Easter eggs in their pajamas right after breakfast.

As always, we dyed raw eggs and the girls did great - only 1 broken egg - out of 20 that they dyed, that's pretty awesome for a 4-yr old and 6-yr old.

Then it was off to choir practice so the girls could practice their song for church . . . then off to the last class of ballet for this session.  The girls are still loving it . . . and Sophia doesn't seem to mind that Amelia micro-manages her in the class ;)

After lunch, Ken took the girls with him to run a few errands while I hid Easter eggs in our backyard.  After Amelia told me last year that I made it too easy, I hid the eggs a bit better.  Amelia found all of hers on the first round, but Sophia had to go back out for a 2nd try to find her last egg.  I think I might have to be even more tricky next year.

But the most important part of our Easter festivities was on Sunday - Easter - when the choir sang the songs about Christ that we have been practicing for so long.  The girls did great on their song and the whole program was wonderful, with a very strong Spirit.  And then we ended our day opening the 12th egg of our Easter advent . . . which of course is empty . . . and writing how we can show our love to our Savior by writing it on a heart and putting it on our wall to remind us.

How grateful I am for Jesus Christ, and all that he has done for me!

Happy Birthday Amelia . . . 2 weeks late

In my defense, we didn't celebrate Amelia's birthday 2 weeks late - I'm just 2 weeks late blogging about it.  Every time I went to our blog, I kept thinking, "I feel like something is missing", but not once did it dawn on me that I had forgotten to blog about my own daughter's birthday!  Oye!  It's been crazy at our house lately.

I taught Joy School the week of Amelia's birthday, so it was a packed week of trying to get everything done on time.  And with much preparation, list making, and prayers, I was able to get every needful thing done - every day!  That in itself was a miracle.

We let the girls choose where we have dinner on their birthday, and Amelia was sure she wanted to do Burger King for her birthday . . . even though she's never eaten there.  But when it came down to it, we ended up at our standard Chinese buffet, where Amelia had French Fries and pizza, while Sophia stuffed herself full of crab legs (she's getting pretty good at cracking open the shells too).

The next day, we threw Amelia a birthday party, with 4 of her friends - 2 from school, 2 from church.  There were a lot of games, including Twister (probably the party favorite), lots of girly screaming, and much fun was had by all.

Deciding on the "cake" for the party was quite a process as well.  First Amelia wanted a cake or cupcakes, but since all she really likes is the frosting, I persuaded her to try something else.  Next she suggested a berry pie.  But then she found out that you can't frost a pie, so that was out.  And finally we hit on the perfect cake - an ice cream cake (with no cake in the middle) and lots of frosting.  Everyone liked that idea!

It's hard to believe my baby is 6-years old, but I love how she's growing up and becoming a beautiful girl - so capable of doing and becoming anything she puts her mind to.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, strong-willed, kind-hearted, ever loving Amelia Bedelia!