Easter 2025

Easter celebrations started on Palm Sunday for us, a week before Easter. Our stake created a Holy Week experience commemorating the final events of Jesus Christ's ministry on Earth. They had different rooms set up for each day at our stake center. It was well put together. The only hiccup was the fog machine letting out too much fog and causing the fire alarms to go off. We had to go wait outside for a little bit while they figured that out, but it continued on just fine afterwards. We would go from room to room until we ended in the gym to eat desserts. Our ward was assigned to bring desserts and so I signed up and made lemon bars. I hadn't made those in years, but they turned out good. We filled up on desserts before going home to cook dinner. I felt so sick from eating too much. 

Lemon bars for the event. We actually cut these bars in half after I took this picture so that more people could have them. I'm so glad we did because I ate a whole one and it was a lot for a lemon bar.

This room was about Jesus going to the temple. 

The Last Supper

The crucifixion.

In the last room where the stone was rolled away and he wasn't there. He has risen and is alive! And because of him all of us will be resurrected someday!

Originally, Stillman's whole family was going to come stay with us through Easter weekend. Unfortunately, their family got sick from their friend's little boy who had come over sick to their house a couple weeks prior. Most of Stillman's family was better by last week, except Michelle. She suffered from a bad sore throat and other things so she stayed home. And since she stayed home, Stillman's family came just for Saturday so that we could still go to do baptisms at the temple, which was part of our original plan. It was Keaton's first time. We were able to do 5 names each, so 35 names! It was a perfect thing to do on Easter weekend, as baptism represents death, burial and resurrection.

I said let's get pictures before going in to do baptisms. Thankfully we got there in time to be able to do that.

The four cousins.

After the temple, we got some Papa Murphy's pizza and cooked it up at our house. Then we played Ticket to Ride and Bank. Stillman and the boys didn't head home until just after 9pm. I'm so glad they were able to come. It just would have been better if Michelle could have made it also. 

Charlotte made a little cross out of the yellow cheese in honor of Jesus and Easter weekend.

Here's a closer look.

Got a picture of us before Stillman left for home.

The girls got in bed early because they were excited about Easter and the Easter bunny coming. Alice is the only one that still believes in the Easter bunny, but Charlotte plays along for her sake. The girls set out a plate of carrots and Alice wrote a note. It was pretty cute. And I have to say, the Easter bunny is a lot healthier than Santa. Ha ha  I did tell Alice that the Easter bunny and the parents both put stuff in the baskets.

Baskets are ready to be filled and hidden.

"Dear Easter bunny, I know it's hard to go to a lot of houses, so here is some delicious carrots." 

I wanted to get pictures of the kids with their Easter stuff but that didn't happen. I was hoping to wait until they got dressed but then they disappeared with their stuff and started eating their goodies. This year, the only treat they got was one main treat that they would like. We're trying to tone down on the sweets. Garrett got a pale green tie, a book light, a temple recommend holder, a watch and a Reese's bunny. Jack got a pale purple tie, sunglasses, a temple recommend holder, a watch and a small container of Nutella. Charlotte got new white sandal shoes for church (which we ended up taking back because they were too tight by her toes), lip gloss, a 3D printed golden dragon and egg, a chocolate bunny and a necklace. Alice got the same white shoes (which fit her fine), lip gloss, a 3D rainbow colored dragon and egg, a box of gumball eggs, and a necklace. And I gave Curtis a new pale-yellow tie and bought a new outfit for myself. I needed some lighter spring/summer colors! I never thought I would buy a white skirt, but I found one that I love at Burlington. I bought two other skirts as well. One from Burlington and the other from Goodwill. This year I wanted to make sure we got a family picture on Easter, so we did it right after Sacrament services and Jack's friend Cam took the picture of us.

Garrett, Jack and Cam

Garrett needed a picture for his missionary paperwork, so we got individual shots as well. This is the one we used for his missionary account.

Wearing her new necklace and showing her long, beautiful hair. I only wish we would have had time to curl hers.

I did have time to curl Alice's hair. And she's wearing her new shoes and necklace.

I also never thought I'd buy a shirt with gems on it, but again I really liked this shirt, so I did!

It was a very good musical Sacrament meeting with one main speaker. Jack and I both got up to sing with the choir for one number, which was unexpected since he hadn't been to any of the practices. 

The rest of the day was fairly relaxed. I requested that we have smoked chicken thighs again with red roasted potatoes, salad and homemade rolls. Curtis took charge of the meat while I got the rest of the food prepared. I love that the kids love my homemade rolls. It makes it worth making them. Curtis also mixed up some lemonade. We did a simple dessert of ice cream later while watching a new documentary we bought at the church bookstore about Porter Rockwell. It was very interesting.

The girls received some bubble guns from Brother Brown because we had helped them with several parades from his judge campaign last year and they didn't need the guns anymore. So, the girls had a great time playing with those all afternoon. Then after dinner we played a round of croquet. Charlotte won. It was a nice Easter even though we were by ourselves again.

Playing with the bubble guns.

That's a high swing for croquet! LOL

Getting ready for a picture. I took a test one. I liked it because of their smiles. I set the camera up on the picnic table.

I had to crop this picture later so we could see us better.

Charlotte's golden egg and dragon.

Alice's rainbow egg and dragon.

I was able to get a picture with Garrett and his stuff (except the temple recommend holder). He ate his chocolate, but I had told him to save the box for a picture. 

The funny thing is that we didn't do any egg hunts this year. We also bought and boiled some eggs for coloring but didn't end up coloring any eggs during the weekend. The girls did color what was left (because some got eaten) on Monday, the day after Easter.