Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  Our Easter festivities began on Saturday morning when we went to church for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

The kids were a little bit excited as we exited the van.

 We arrived a bit earlier than the 10am start time because although they put out about 4,000 eggs every year, many many people from the surrounding community comes and the hunt is mostly over in literally 5 minutes.

It was a little bit chilly and so the kids decided to conserve warmth by doing a "penguin huddle"--they learned about this from one of the nature shows they watch.

There is a section dedicated just for 0 to 3 year olds.  This is where the boys were.  The girls went to the 4 to 7 year old section.  This is nice as it evens out the playing field for the kids.

 And it's time!  Xiao Yu gets his first egg.  The challenge is that he wants to open the egg, instead of getting more to put into his basket.  (Yes, we are using Halloween baskets, but hey, it works!)

Gabriel got his egg too; orange, of course!  Elvin put him in bright orange pants so that he'd be easier to spot in a crowd.

After a minute, the boys wanted to go find out what the girls were doing.  We found Karina with a basket chock full of eggs!  She had a successful hunt.

She wanted to see how Gabey had fared...

And being who she is, she started putting some of hers into Gabey's basket.

And then she did likewise for Xiao Yu.

We also caught up with Eliana.  Although most of the eggs were accounted for, she was searching for the golden egg.  Every year, they hide several golden eggs.  If you find one of these, you can turn it in for a special prize.

After the hunt was over, it was time to dig in!  Elvin let the kids eat as much candy as they wanted.  The theory was that instead of having a battle with the kids over when they could eat candy, if they ate it all at once, then there would be no candy left.  They ended up eating most of their candy instead of eating lunch!

Later on in the day, it was time to dye eggs!

 The kids enjoyed dipping the eggs into the dye.

This was Xiao Yu's first time dyeing eggs.  His was yellow, as he thinks this is his color.  (His sippy cup that he always uses is yellow, as is his towel.)

The next morning, it was Easter basket time!  The kids looked through all the goodies they got in their baskets, such as Peeps, electric toothbrushes, and some other small toys.

Eliana made individualized Easter cards for everyone and passed them out.    She even sacrificed some of her own candy in doing so by giving them away to others.

 Xiao Yu was very excited about this basket.

 Then, for breakfast, we ate the eggs that the kids dyed the day before.

 And as dessert after breakfast, Gabey had a Peep.  His was an orange Peep, of course.

After going to church, and then coming back home, in the afternoon, Emily's parents and brother's family came over.  We did another small Easter egg hunt at home...  Xiao Yu knew exactly what to do.

 Gabriel found a bunch too!

 We got to watch Karina in action--she is QUICK!

 Gabey needed help in reaching some of the high up eggs.

And here is the crowd, happy after their hunt.  We let them eat all the candy out of all the eggs.  We put one mini-marshmallow in each--so it's not that much candy and the kids think it's the best!

 We then had some dinner with salmon (actually steelhead) and ham.

And finally, it was time to go.  Grandpa always insists in taking pictures of each family unit as they leave.  Xiao Yu, ever the ham, decided that he needed to take a picture with his cousins' family!

Hope you had a good Easter!