Easter!!

This Easter was a a bit different for us in a couple ways, the main is that last year my nephew was living with us. Last year had a couple challenges we didn't have this year. For starters the "Easter Bunny" didn't have to accommodate for the large gap in egg seeking skills. Also last year Joey woke before everyone else and found EVERY single egg, Easter basket and present. No joke he had them all laying on the couch and woke us to show just how proud he was from finding them all, all on his own. We were all less than pleased in his job well done.

Jordan has found some of the plastic candy filled eggs for the past 12 years and know just where to look from his years of experience. Last year he complained that the eggs were always too easy to find. This year the Easter Bunny left him a letter stating that he has gotten too good at locating the eggs, that only eggs were hidden for the younger boys. Jordan was given the opportunity to either have a letter left for him or to look like the kind older brother who decided to just let the boys find the eggs. He thought it would be more believable if the bunny left a note. He still received the same amount of candy, which he munched upon while we watched the boys find their goodies.

Grandparents and the Grandsons

Jordan, Julie (me), Julee, Matt, Joey, Jacob, William, and Matthew

After getting a small intake of sugar we dressed to impress and headed down to Papa and Grandma's to attend mass with them. After mass we spend the rest of the day at their house. My brother, his girlfriend, and their boys came to celebrate with us. We took our annual pictures in our Easter best. Shared a lovely meal then after my niece showed up it was time for the kids' favorite part, the egg hunt. We did things different this year. We normally give the kids a set number of eggs to find. The problem is that with the difference in ages the easy to find eggs are quickly found and the younger kids are stuck finding the harder to find ones. So we color coded the eggs and had the boys pick their color from drawing from a hat, Raven as the only girl got stuck finding the neon pink eggs (she didn't mind). While Grandma and Papa kept the kiddos entertained in the house with the curtains drawn us parents set about hiding the eggs in the yard. (We can't do this a head of time because the kids usually play outside until after dinner and would sneak peeks.) We hid the eggs for our own children based upon their seeking skills. This was nice for the older two because they actually had to seek out their eggs.
 

The egg hunt went exceptionally well and we'll probably use this system again next year. It went well with only one little hiccup, two of Joey's eggs couldn't be found. After hiding 15 eggs per kid, I hadn't a clue where I had hid them. Actually I wasn't counting as I hid them so there may have been a mix up and only have been 13 yellow eggs (Joey's color was yellow). While everyone was helping search for Joey's missing eggs Papa made an egg with a special prize inside. He didn't know at the time we were still searching and hid his special egg, and it was a yellow egg. After some seeking Jacob found the special egg and earn the prize of money. Joey's two missing eggs if they are out there are still out there, we never found them.