Easter and the aftermath

Has it been two or three weeks since we wrote? Oops. Well, here's what we remember.

Last week we celebrated Easter.

For Palm Sunday, we did the donkey race, where the donkey tries to crawl across the house and the kids have to put blankets in front of the donkey fast enough that they never crawl onto bare ground. It's always very hectic and fun.

On Monday we played Clean Up Your Own Backyard. We divided into two teams and used stuffed animals. Mom, Sara, Gideon, and Boo were one team, and Dad, Rea, and Timmy were another team. We made a new rule this year that you can't hold more than one thing at a time, which made it more fair.

On Tuesday we watched Prince of Egypt, which was fun as always. Mike did homework during it, so he missed most of it.

On Wednesday we commemorated the Passover. Alison cut it down severely this year, and it was really nice and didn't take a day and a half, so we will probably do it this way in the future. We had a meal that reminds us of what was eaten during the Passover: lamb curry and rice, bitter herbs (salad), charoset, and rye crackers without any leavening agent. Charoset is always the favorite part, but we used a new recipe this year, and it failed. That was very sad. Next year we'll find the right recipe. We'll also take a little more time and actually make unleaven bread; this week was busy and Alison wasn't up to it, but "whatever's on the shelf at Macey's" was not a good substitute. We lit candles and talked about the symbolism of each dish, but that was all except for the four glasses of grape juice. The kids really wanted to drink each one separately and say something before each one, so we did that even if we were not originally planning on doing it. It was fun and easy and still got the point across.

On Thursday we had a fire in the mountains to remember Christ going to the garden of Gethsemane. This was a new idea last year and it's wonderful. One of the best nights of the week.

Friday Mike took off from work because he cannot accrue more vacation without taking some time off. The entire family went to nature group, and we had a fun time. Then Alison and the kids went to Wildflower while Mike did homework. We didn't have time for our normal Friday tradition (making garden tomb scenes). Oh, well.

On Saturday we had an egg hunt with the Plastows. Alison likes to hide the eggs really hard, but it was a little too hard; she might have to make a map as she hides them next year so we can actually find them all. After that we painted Easter eggs with food-colored whipped cream. The colors don't come out as bright as dying, but you can make cooler designs and everyone can work at once and it's so much more fun that it's worth it for us. The best part of decorating Easter eggs is the decorating not the looking at them afterward, anyway.

Sunday we went on a walk with the Plastows at the Jordan river. After that we had Easter dinner. We ate funeral potatoes, asparagus, ham and lamb cake. Rea and Sara made the lamb cake; angel food cake is hard even out of a box, and it turned out great! Their lamb head and tail were very cute, too. The whole feast was good as always.

On Monday Grandma Julie invited us to go to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was super crowded, but it was still fun. We hunted shoes and found 12 out of 17 that were hidden. We saw all the flowers and watched the fish in the pond, and enjoyed the giant metal statues of Jesus that they had.

Alison got sick Monday night so Mike took off a day and a half from work. Boo and the dog got sick next, followed by Gideon and now Timmy. So it is spreading throughout our family like it often does. Luckily, Gideon and Timmy both had barely any symptoms (they threw up once and otherwise it didn't disrupt them at all), so hopefully everyone else will be fine or have it lightly. Alison felt the worst for the longest. 

On Wednesday (that day in the middle of a sickness wave when no one is sick and we think it's over) Rea and Sara did a sleepover with the Rogers - which was very fun. They learned how to draw little stick people and some animals, and in the middle of the night Aelfric threw up. Fun was had by all (except perhaps for Aelfric.)

Since they were sad about not being invited to go to their cousins' house, Timmy and Gideon got to go to the park with Grandpa Mike, Grandma Sheila, and the Plastows. They had a fun time playing.

Saturday morning kids went to primary activity - Rea took the younger kids, and they all had a great time. That turned out to be the day of poop and vomit everywhere. The dog had diarrhea, Gideon threw up, and Boo pooped in the bathtub. It was a nasty lot of cleaning. (One of these days we really have to replace the kids' bathroom toilet and tub. It's getting absurd how bad they are. It's just hard finding the time.)

Alison also spent all day finishing the My Tech High receipts for reimbursement. So the whole day was no fun for the grownups. When it was all done, though, we got Chinese food for dinner from Ming's Garden down the street. Alison liked their orange chicken better than Panda Express', but not all the kids agreed. The chicken with mixed vegetables was surprisingly wonderful; the almond chicken was a disappointment. We might remember to look at this the next time we order from there, though it's not likely. :) When Mike went to pick up the food, Aunt Amy was there doing the same thing. That was a fun coincidence.

Rea went to a stake activity that lasted half the day - 1-7pm. However, it got out early, and Alison had left her phone in the bedroom when she finally finished doing receipts, so Rea ended up walking almost all the way home before Mike drove over to the stake center to pick her up and passed her on the way. We are going to get a family cell phone with a prepaid plan that kids can take when they're out, and program our phones to ring REALLY, REALLY loudly when we get a call from that number, so hopefully it won't happen again.