Easter

was not our most graceful holiday.  I struggle with Easter.  I really like Easter--the meaning behind it.  I also think in the grand scheme of things it's more important than Christmas and that it doesn't get the attention it deserves so I try to give it that attention.  But I was just tired this year.  The weekend before I put all my creative energy into Rex's baptism and then we partied all week with the cousins so that by the time Easter came, I was tired and so were the kids.  Nevertheless, we Eastered.

The kids found their baskets in the morning and this year, for once, I think the Easter bunny made everyone happy.  (Have I mentioned how much I hate gift-giving--it is just too stressful).

I spent the rest of the morning making dinner so that when we got home from our 1 o'clock church all we had to do is reheat everything and eat.  Dinner was a failure, but we'll get to that later.

Amber bought all the girl cousins matching skirts, so we attempted to get some pictures before church, that did not go well.

Alice cannot look at the camera to save her life.

Rex, on the other hand, has finally figured out how to take a decent picture

See what I mean, she cannot look at a camera.  Maybe they really do suck your soul out.

We tried to get all the cousins--this is as good as it got.

Henry was having none of the picture taking

Henry still refusing to cooperate

Just look at the camera Alice!

Later at church I somehow convinced Henry he should let me take a few pictures of him--maybe it was because I let him out of Sacrament meeting.

Trying again after Sacrament to get a decent picture of everybody.  We tried.

After church, I quickly reheated dinner where I burnt the mashed potatoes, which were only half mashed potatoes and half potatoes pearls because I thought I had more potatoes than I did, and then over cooked the asparagus.  The rolls were also dry.  The chicken cordon bleu was ok.  The cake was good but I tried to rush it cooling and got a giant crack in the middle.

Then we tried something new this year, we had an Easter pageant, which was a little weird because we didn't have anyone play Jesus for reverence reasons, but I also kind of liked it.  We just read the Sunday morning part where Mary goes to the tomb and then runs to tell the apostles.  It was nice to have more than one female part.  We'll try again next year but with a little more preparation on my part to be sure that we read just the right parts of the story and to improve the flow of the story.

And then the kids went to bed and that was that.  The good: the cake and the pageant.  The bad: the children's photo taking abilities and all the rest of the food.  I guess I just hate when I spend so much time cooking and really want the food to be delicious and it's only mediocre.  It was disappointing.