Easter and Birthday Celebrations!

Saturday Flower was still with the grandparents, after spending the night there. They went to an Easter Egg hunt and colored eggs and from what I understand, she had a great time.

At 5:00 we went to my brothers to celebrate Easter with the fam. KG's parents came, bringing Flower as well as Erik and Erina. We ate a yummy BBQ dinner and then had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids.
The kids lined up, ready to pounce on all the eggs.
Mark, get set, GO!


They ran around like crazy people!












After the egg hunt we had a birthday celebration for Flower. Her birthday is next weekend but we will be out of town.
Natalie Zufelt Jangula made her cake! We all loved it! Not only was it pretty but it tasted wonderful. The center cake was chocolate and then two of the petals were confetti cake and two were lemon cake. The little lady bugs were oreos! So cute. Thanks so much Nat!



Next it was time to open the gifts.
She got M&M's and money from the Johnson's.
She got this pretty yellow hair clip and beautiful bracelet from Ryan, Amanda and Lorelai. Stacey made the hair clip and Amanda made the bracelet. Check out their shops to get your own!

She got money from the Madison's.
She also got money from the grandparents and us.

Yes, money seems boring for a 4 year old but there was good reason for it. That's what we asked everyone to give her because once we cleaned her room and reorganized, there were toys we didn't know existed. We also donated a lot of things and are really just trying to simplify. I didn't want more toys cluttering up her room. She also just got a load of clothes and dresses passed down from Kas so she didn't need clothes. We decided a camera would be just the thing. She loves taking photos. The $15 camera we gave her for Christmas would erase the photos everytime she took the batteries out. Lame. We wanted to get her a nice enough one that would last. As soon as we left the party we went straight to Target and let her pick out a camera. She had exactly how much she needed!
So here's the gift everyone contributed to buying!
It's a good durable camera, light weight and simple, without being cheap. She is going to have a great time with it. She'll have so much fun taking photos when we're out of town this coming weekend. Thank you everyone for your generosity and helping her to have a great birthday party!

Sunday morning was so peaceful and we kept with the simple theme. We are trying not to spend money lately and just don't feel like the girls needed a lot of extra things floating around that they won't remember tomorrow anyway! The Easter bunny brought River a bracelet and Flower a chocolate bunny, bracelet and necklace and both the girls got matching dresses. Easy peasy.
I plan to do a photo shoot later in the week in their new dresses if the weather stays nice. For now the above one will have to do.
The Easter bunny brought me this fun new ring. I love it.
Easter evening we went to a baptism. That was after I forced Flower to eat a slice of cheese she begged me for as I was going crazy trying to get dinner ready before we had to leave since I fell asleep and woke up with a heachache! She puked all over her Easter dress. I guess she really didn't like the cheese! :) For dinner I made Stephanie's Broccoli Cheese Soup. It was so good! And it only took a half hour to make. Anyhow, back to the baptism. By the time we got there we ll felt more peaceful again. :) It was a really lovely service and a very special night. We feel so blessed that we were included and are very excited for TL and Theresa's future together.

We really enjoyed this weekend and I'm realizing Easter just might be my favorite holiday. It has the best candy hands down! It's in the spring which is my favorite season. The weather is just starting to warm up which is so good for my soul. It's about renewed hope, faith, forgiveness and repentance. I am so happy and at ease with my life right now and look forward to all that's in store for us.