Easter 2025

This year Easter was a little busier, but in the best of ways!

Easter baskets were much the same, with toothbrushes, roblox, and candy.

It was a little different, in that Emily, Grace, and Juliet were baptized! (many of these photos were taken behind the scenes and given to me second or third hand!)

It was such a celebration day, full of baptism, tales of old, and music!

At home we had some silly pictures.

And my favorite!

We had our usual color-coded egg hunt!

Afterward, we also had Easter dinner, varied only in that I used a turkey, that I did not use for Thanksgiving, as our primary protein*! Despite the odd dinner, it was a lovely day.

He is risen indeed!

later days

*Back in November, when Billy was in transition between jobs, Sarah, sweetly, offered to cover Thanksgiving dinner at Bob Evans, but I had already tried to spread the cost of our meal into several months, so had purchased a frozen turkey.  After her purchase, the turkey just sat in the basement freezer.  I was excited to use it for a meal!

4-26-25: backdated for continuity

Easter 2024

Easter this year was damp, but not too rainy.  It was on the cold side without the sun though!

My Easter dress selection this year was on point, as three of the four girls have re-worn them to school and on other occasions!

Hunting for eggs in the backyard!

Emily, Grace, and Juliet helped me sort, count, and fill the eggs the night before so that everyone could have the same number to hunt!

Their filled buckets!

Emily wanted to know how much the cookies were.  They were over a dollar a piece!  But I liked that they came in a pack of five. = )

Grace drinking her milk out of a chocolate egg!

 After the at home hunt Billy took the twins to their final egg hunt! (Their birthday falls before Easter next year, so they'll have aged out!*)

Then we ate lunch when they came back. = )  This is actually the picture I sent to my sister offering leftovers, though she is always invited to join us while it's fresh!

It was a pleasant day to think about what a wonderful gift we've been given by Jesus!

later days

*I realize that no one would actually care if I sent them next year, especially since it's a matter of just a few days, but I think we are happy to be done with that chapter!

edit 5-25-24: backdated for continuity.

Crafts and Projects

The past few weeks have been full of projects and crafts and creativity.  Here are some of the highlights!

Alice is entering into an Easter contest with her drawing of some of her favorite dragons.  Her art has come such a long way and I'm super proud of how good her end product looks!  

One of the twins made a tiny envelope out of a fruit by the foot that was leftover from Emily's birthday party goody bags.

Billy designed a birdhouse that was a seven-day print!  Once he finished both pieces, Emily, Grace and Juliet spent some time decorating it.  I don't think any birds have moved in yet, but maybe the next time it warms up?

On our way to pick Avia up from the airport, we saw signs for an estate sale.  Since Emily's party was not until evening, we had time to use up.  I took Emily, Grace, and Juliet with me.  Their prices were awesome!  

We bought an entire box of assorted, hand-picked goodies for $1 and I found a rack for my basement door for $5!!  I'd been keeping an eye on a $26 one on Amazon, but the racks were not nearly so deep as this one.  Billy helped me install it, and in no time I'd moved over my baggies and rolls, found a new home for my flour mill and had one opening for a hand mixer!

I feel like we use very few new baggies, and do a decent job of reusing bags.  This was validated by the fact that we still have two boxes of bags that are from HEB.  We moved here 7 winters ago!!! = )

The very next week, I scored a hand mixer for $2!!!  It even came in this lovely case, with a change of attachments.  = )  Upon inspecting it at home, I found that the handle was very sticky, but it was no problem for some goo b gone!

Moving all of the bags and rolls over, as well as my 'random' bags and Billy's cups left so much room in the cabinet, I now have a place to store my dehydrator!!!  It's also much easier to grab the item that I need, since they are no longer in cases or stacked on top of each other. = )

A few weeks ago, I spied some squishmallow grab bags on Aldi's "Aldi Finds" aisle.  They were $10 each, and the squishmallows inside were tiny.  Obviously, I loved the idea, so I raided the squishmallows, that I've already bought, in Sarah's basement.  I found 5 that were of comparable size/area of interest.

My next step was to cut apart an Aldi grocery bag, turn it inside out, tape on the label, then tape it back together.

I printed off the picture of the 'Crocker Easter Collection' so that they could have the full blind bag experience. 

Next up was squishing the stuffie into place!

And, finally I rolled up the top and bottom, securing them with a stapler.

Each bag has a mark to indicate which child gets which one, but it might be small enough to avoid detection. = )

Grace taped some eyes on her squishy ball.

The wind made a unique pattern on the bacon grease I set outside to cool.

Emily came home with a massive tear in her jeans, but this time I had my washable marker to make the pattern look more uniform.  I think it came out really cute! I did ask that next time she bring it to me when the hole is a little smaller. = 0

Juliet's playdoh creation.

Grace wanted a 'special' cup in which to make her chocolate milk.  So, she and Juliet spent time crafting some character cups using polystyrene that they found in the recycling bin. = )

Looking at the April calendar, I'm not quite sure when we'll find the time to craft, but I'm sure we'll squeeze it in somewhere!

later days