We love spring and Easter!
Our little Easter egg.
Yearly mandatory Easter photo torture. At least the bribe of the Easter egg hunt makes it a little more palatable for them.
Eleanor’s first Easter!
And they’re off!
We did our Easter egg hunt at the pocket park across the street, and it ended up being a little muddy, so I was constantly yelling at everyone to not get their dresses dirty.
Easter happened to fall during the twins’ Spring Break this year, so we took a road trip to Utah, leaving at 3 a.m. on Saturday and arriving a record 8.5 hours later. I was dreading the driving, especially being uncomfortably pregnant, but it was actually our best road trip ever! Meredith had intermittent bouts of screaming to get out of her car seat, as expected, but for the most part, the girls were great and we only stopped three times for gas and bathroom breaks, making the journey seem short from what we are used to. We may finally be turning a corner on road trips!
Easter was easy for me this year since my mom had bought everything for their baskets and Uncle Mike and Ali put them together for me. They also filled the eggs with candy, a few with dollars and hid them around the backyard. I did absolutely nothing but relax, so it felt like the Easter Bunny really did come this year!
Sunday morning the girls awoke to their Easter baskets and a giant Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Along with bubbles, stuffed animals and a few other crafts and toys, they loved the peanut butter caramel chocolate eggs inscribed with their names– thanks, Grammy! I didn’t have to put in any effort at all!
Meredith, what is this pout face about??!
Meredith wanted to enjoy her chocolate after finding each egg instead of waiting until the end.
Amelia was excited about actually having to hunt for eggs this year, since we have a much smaller backyard!
Samantha shows off her basket.
Ali helps out Meredith with retrieving an egg.
Distracted by the bunny.
Showing off their spoils.
Nom nom.
I brought some silly string and the girls had their first silly string fight in the backyard!
They mostly just stood straight across from each other and sprayed, instead of running around.
Meredith was not a fan of the silly string!
Help me, Uncle Mike!
Take cover!
It was a gorgeous spring day and the girls played outside after all the Easter morning excitement.
Story time.
Grandpa had made a delicious seder meal the night before and Sunday we all enjoyed Grammy’s Easter feast.
Devouring matzoh kugel and fruit kugel the night before Easter for Grandpa’s seder dinner:
Grammy’s yummy Easter dinner.
Yum!
We were so glad Uncle Mike and Ali came down from Wyoming to spend Easter and that we could make it to Utah this year! The girls had their best Easter ever!
Lots of love,
April has been one big Easter extravaganza and I’m pretty sure the twins think holidays are all meant to be a month long. Between preschool crafts, Easter egg hunts everywhere we turned, learning about the Easter story at church, and don’t even get me started on the candy (when did Easter become Halloween?), the girls have yet to understand the concept of Easter actually being on a single day. Even days after the real Easter, they were asking about when the next egg hunt would be. Next year, we will do a better job of educating them and setting expectations!
At the beginning of April, the twins had their spring pictures taken at preschool and they thought it was exciting to wear their special Easter dresses to school. All the kids looked adorable in their Sunday best!
Amelia, April 2017:
Samantha, April 2017:
Miss Debbie said we could bring in younger siblings for a photo op if we wanted to, so Meredith joined in at the end of the morning for a sibling pic. They are such girlie girls and all three twirled around in their dresses all morning.
Meredith adores visiting the preschool and had the playground to herself while we waited for class to end.
Another day, I helped out in Amelia’s classroom with some Easter projects. The kids are always super motivated to “be good” so that Miss Becky will call on them to be next to work on projects with me. We made pictures with “Easter eggs” made out of potatoes and stamps made out of Peeps, as well as decorated their Easter bags for their preschool hunt at the end of the week.
Amelia always acts embarrassed when I am there, but I know she likes it!
Spring crafts and cooking fun! The girls especially enjoyed dyeing eggs at preschool (I was secretly happy I did not have to do that at home this year!) and baking/decorating a giant cookie Easter egg with frosting and fruit at home.
Meredith attended her first spring celebration up at our local park and thought sitting on a giant furry bunny was sorta fun. Amelia flat out refused to be in the picture, but Samantha insisted going with Meredith so that she “wouldn’t be lonely.”
Snuggles!
Flashback to 2015: so tiny and cute!
Last year with Daddy (Meredith stayed at home):
One more try to get Amelia in for a torture pic:
I don’t know how this qualifies as a “hunt,” but at least when we do ours at our house, the girls have to put in a little bit of effort.
I’m pretty sure the girls ignored whatever the egg limit per person was.
Meredith was feeling too timid to ride the ponies, even after Samantha showed her the ropes.
Amelia riding the pony, 2015:
Amanda and the girls show off their face paint.
Being silly with their faces painted, last year:
Amelia was acting cranky that day, but I couldn’t really take anything she cried about seriously because of her face paint! I would just burst out laughing.
Another fun cooking project the girls helped with was making some yummy coconut and chocolate “nests.” The girls have really improved their culinary skills as of late, and it’s getting to actually be fun to have them help out, instead of just a huge hassle. We didn’t get around to half of the crafts and cooking projects we wanted to for Easter, but
Lots of love,
Easter 2013:
Easter 2014: 
Easter 2015: 
Easter 2016:
Ever since Meredith was born, Jake and I haven’t been the early birds we normally are. Instead of being showered, dressed and with breakfast on the table well before the twins get up, the new normal is usually being startled awake by two grinning faces staring at me from the side of the bed at noses length. They may be cute, but it’s not my favorite way to start the day.
The night before Easter, we hid eggs around the house and Jake suggested putting the twins’ empty baskets by their bedroom door so that they could use them to collect their eggs when they woke up. I figured there was no way they would hunt for their eggs without waking us first. I stand corrected.
On Easter morning, I awoke peacefully at 7:30 a.m. with no three-year-olds in sight. Thanks to the Easter Bunny, the girls were happily gorging themselves on the candy they had found in their Easter eggs.
Yep– we missed the whole egg hunt, but the girls seemed content to help themselves, letting us sleep in! I think the Easter Bunny should come every night from now on.
Screenshot from the video camera in their room:
After the girls opened their Easter baskets, we took a walk on the trail and the girls picked some flowers for me.
The hills are alive! 
I saved these cute bunny outfits from when the girls wore them as newborns, but Meredith is too big to fit in them!
So, we had to settle for her Easter dress and a basket shot. She was too big for even the basket.
I’m ready for my close-up.
What a chunk!
Amelia in pink and Samantha in blue.
Hard to tell what this one is thinking sometimes! 
Samantha always has a mischievous glint in her eyes. 
A two-man job.
Being a big sister would be fun, they said. She’ll just sit there, they said.
You’re safe with me, little sis. 
Oh mom… I’m getting too old for this.
I’ll still humor you, mom!
Ok, I’m done.
Meredith and I enjoyed a peaceful afternoon at home while Jake and the girls went to church. When the chaos returned, we subjected the girls to a few more pictures before Easter dinner.
Save me!
Maybe if I stay perfectly still, they’ll leave me alone.
The struggle is real.
I’m cute; pick me up!
Family photo using the tripod and app on our phones that will let us snap the picture remotely. And even with all that technology, we still can’t manage to get everyone looking at the camera!
Daddy and his girls. 
Behind the scenes. It’s never easy rounding up this crew.
Is anyone going to help me? Anyone? I give up.
Happy Easter 2016!
Lots of love,
