Easter festivities

David and Lewis both had fun with their scrambled scriptures and egg hunt.

In the afternoon, each boy hid eggs in the back yard for their siblings.

And, I only have the aftermath of the Easter dinner pictured...I was pretty tired by that point! But, it was yummy!

Easter preparations

With our Covid shutdown, our town Easter egg hunt was, of course, cancelled. Instead, a few people organized for the bunny to come riding through the streets of the Boro in a Jeep, dancing the whole way. It was great!

Then, here are the baskets and Easter breakfast, ready to go!

Easter Bonnets

This was a fun morning!
Just like we had at Dover Court in Singapore, we made crazy Easter Bonnets this year.

It was a lot of fun!
The boys were really creative.
And, I got to use a hot glue gun...the only crafting I really do!

Passover

We really loved celebrating Passover this year. The feast fell on the same day as our last supper Easter reading, so it had special meaning for us.

Mazah ball soup
Mazah crackers for the boys
Lamb chops
Bitter herbs
And a spread of "Jerusalem food

It was really special.

After dinner, we read about Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.

I want to keep this tradition forever.

Last one from Curlis Woods

Love these sweetie pies.

I just found out the day after this walk that NJ is going to be closing all trails and parks. 😢
It's one of the first things that has made my heart feel really heavy with all of this. It has been a joy and gift and a life saver to go for walks and hikes in the woods during all of this.

Cute faces

Boys in nature

They loved tromping and getting wet and light saber stick battles and running and collecting and climbing.

David & Sweetness

Here is the most incredible track David built! He did about 90% and asked me to join him for the last 10%. Love his little mind!

We took a gorgeous walk in Curlis Woods, and David kept collecting wildflowers for me. His sweetness just melts my heart!

Great shot

Here's a cropped version of a precious shot from one of our walks. I really like this photo!

General Conference

The bitter part of the sweet with this conference was that Mike and Lewis would have been there in person, had Coronavirus not hit. Lewis was really sad to miss, but we promised him we'd take him to a future conference.

Beau and Lewis were really excited to watch at home. And, with everything cancelled, we had the most relaxing, focused conference weekend we've had since having kids!

Here's Beau taking a photo of the prophet.
And the boys on Sunday participating in the Hosanna Shout. It was a really lovely, special weekend.

Beau

Cute boys on our walk

Love them!

Gorgeous spring walk

On the morning of Saturday General Conference, the boys and I did the pond trail at the Watershed and had such a delightful, fun time.

We love the boardwalks and adore the vine swing. There were tons of light saber battles and lots of spring mud.

Lewis boy

Lewis has done this puzzle multiple times. He loves it.

Here is our new Devon. We love him. He's much more spritely and active. And we're not over feeding him, so he hopefully won't die!

Finally, here'a Lewis having just registered for his electives for middle school - Mandarin, Choir, and Band! Very exciting! Lewis always knows exactly what he wants and what resonates with him. This was no exception. But, we also had some really great discussion and prayer together before he chose.

More April Fools

Later in the day, we added these tricks together...
- Lewis got on his class online meeting with bandaids all over his face and claimed his brother punched him before saying April Fools
- We photocopied Lewis' birth certificate and then tore it up and left it in Mike's office
- The boys stole the fruit snacks Mike had been hiding in his office and hid them away
- We put salt in Mike's water bottle

It was a day of energy and hilarity!

April Fools Day

I don't think I can even articulate what a fun day this was and how amazed we were at our boys creativity and deviousness!

Beau had stayed up and then gotten Lewis up at about 11:30pm to carry out their April Fools Day plan they had been plotting for days.

We came downstairs the next morning to find the kitchen toilet papered. 

Here are some of their other pranks:
- A "spider" under the lamp
- Playdo on the toilet 
- Later in the day, a hot sauce packet taped under the toilet seat so that when I went to the bathroom, it exploded open. 
- A mud covered, dirty sock in our bed (I think they actually snuck in and put it on Mike's face as we slept!)
- Rocks on the floor

Warm days and chore purchases

We had a gorgeous day for a dinner outside. What a treat!

David earned enough money from his chores to buy a Jackson Storm transporter transformer truck that he's had his eye on. He was pretty darn excited when it arrived!

Scavenger Hunts

We did a scavenger hunt on bikes that my friend created. It ended at Toll Gate.

Then we did an alphabet scavenger hunt in Kunkel. We bumped into a friend there and the boys played on a huge fallen tree together. After that, the rest of the hike was light saber stick battles.

Online class meetings

These are becoming the norm!