Rice cakes and Flax seed Easter bunnies

Matt was telling the boys all about Easter trying to get them excited for all the fun upcoming events. He told them there would be Easter egg hunts with eggs full of goodies and there would be Easter baskets with chocolate bunnies. Then he paused and said..."actually, knowing your mom you will probably get eggs full of little rice cakes, and Easter bunnies made of Flax seed." Matt was pretty excited Easter morning to find goodies and LOTS of chocolate bunnies!! I really am not a fan of candy but I hope I'm not crazy enough not to have chocolate on Easter.

This year the boys had four different egg hunts. three different parties, lots of chocolate, lots of presents from grandparents, a visit from the Easter bunny, and some fun egg decorating. It was a fun Easter!

This is Nathan with his chocolate.

They got fun little banks with a dollar for each of them.
Daniel would never finish his egg hunts. After he would find the first egg, he would open it right then and tear into the candy.

They LOVE packages from their Grandma's.

After we colored the eggs, the boys wasted No time cracking them open and chowing down.

Daniel peeled his eggs so carefully and got every last piece of shell off. I was pretty impressed.

Easter bunnies have always been a little creepy looking to me, but the boys seemed to like him.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter season!!

Answering some questions.

Some of you have been asking me all kinds of questions about this whole Cinderella thing(from my post below.) I guess I need to clarify some things. No, I do not just have a random Cinderella dress in my closet waiting for such an occasion when someone might just ask me to be Cinderella. The person I did this for bought the whole costume(including the cute glass slippers) so I could use it to look the part.

A friend from my ward told her sister-in-law that I would make a good Cinderella for her daughters birthday party. I had never met any of these people because they are from a whole different ward, but that is how they found me. They are a very cute family, and they have an adorable little girl. The little girl didn't say much to me just stared at me a lot. I wasn't sure what that meant but later her mom told me that Cinderella's visit was her favorite part of the party, so that made me feel better.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to make this my new part time job. I really have no idea how to act, and a few times I almost started just busting out laughing at myself....especially when I first walked up and saw a friend from my ward standing there, I didn't think I would know anyone there, and kind of wanted it that way, so seeing her made us both start laughing. But I quickly contained myself and remembered that Cinderella shouldn't be seen doing such silly things.



The best part of it all was remembering the days when I was a little girl and really believed in fairy tales. It is so wonderful to be a child and really believe that "some day" all your dreams will come true and life will all work out perfectly. I have since learned life IS NOT a fairy tale. However, I have decided I need to have more amazement, wonder, belief, hope, faith, and dreams that little children have. They are bursting with energy and filled with happiness. Those are two things I can always use more of.

Feeling like a princess.

It's not everyday I get to be Cinderella, and show up to surprise a party full of little girl princesses, having complete strangers taking my picture and little girls asking me if I came all the way from my castle for a birthday party. Yes today I was Cinderella, my favorite princess. This experience was definitely out of my comfort zone but I have heard you should do something that scares you every day. Matt made sure to get some pictures of me before I left so I could share them with all of you. The morning was full of princess fun but once it hit noon I was back home to my tired children and my messy house and I quickly turned right back into a maid, but it was fun while it lasted!!

Later that day I told Matt that playing Cinderella made me pretty tired. His reply, "Now you know how I feel, it's not easy being Prince Charming everyday!!" That's typical Matt for ya!

Kind of sad today.

I was told the other day by one of my friends, that my boys look like they are getting so tall. A harmless comment that has started me thinking that maybe my babies aren't babies anymore. I have to admit that many things are easier these days. I even went to the Zoo today alone with my boys, and nothing tragic happened like them running in different directions, or both throwing a tantrum at the same time, or both wanting to sit in the same seat in the wagon. In fact they listened to me, and even somewhat obeyed me. We had fun together and my stomach wasn't in knots, and I wasn't in a hurry to get them home in time for nap, or worried that they would get a deadly disease from playing in the germ infested fountains. In fact it was more fun than it was work and that's something I haven't been able to say much in the last two years. So why is all of this making me so melancholy?

I love how excited my babies get over a simple balloon. How hard they laugh just from chasing each other around, how excited they get when daddy comes home, how they love me to kiss their owies, and feed their stuffed animals, how they still look so cute dancing around in nothing but diapers, how sweet they are, how they love to be tickled and cuddled, how they remind us to sing them their bedtime song, how they speak in their own little language....and actually understand each other.

I am thankful they are growing and they are learning and changing. I am thankful that things in many ways are so much easier than they have been. So if it's getting easier.....why is this so hard?

"Little boys should never be put to bed. They just wake up another day older."

-Finding Neverland