The Spirit of Easter

After I posted on Facebook about my new Easter dress, one friend commented that his wife had recently explained to him that wearing a new dress to church is the true meaning of Easter.  I am so grateful that even though my dress truly was adorable, {insert ego here} wearing it was not the highlight of my day.

Here are the moments worth remembering.

[BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS]
As part of our ward choir Easter program, I asked the children of the ward choir members to help us out with one song.  As nearly 20 primary aged children gathered together on the stage, I was struck with just how dedicated my ward choir is to leave these littles for an hour each week to dedicate their time and talents to bringing the spirit to our meetings.  And then they began to sing their little hearts out:

Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love,
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to to that above.

I'm not generally the outwardly emotional type, but as they started, I immediately choked up.  I mouthed their lyrics to them, unable to sing through the spirit I was feeling.

Thanks, kiddos, for bringing the Spirit to my holiday.

[BECAUSE IT'S EASTER TODAY]
Over a breakfast of Apple Spice Pancakes brought by the Easter bunny, we discussed the atonement, Heavenly Father's plan, repentance, and the reasons we celebrate Easter.  When we got to primary and were led through an explanation of the 3rd Article of Faith, Alex kept chiming in with, "That's because it's Easter today," whenever they mentioned something like "atonement" or "so we can say sorry."  I was so proud to see that he'd understood and remembered what we talked about.

[SUIT UP]
I know I've said it before, but with our lack of little girls around here, I always look forward to Easter suits and ties.  This year was no exception.  I was a little bugged, though, that the Easter Bunny brought suits the boys still need to grow into, so I spent time Sunday morning hemming the pants.

Alex suggested taking some "rock star" pictures with their new sunglasses, too, and I'm glad he did since those turned out to be some of my favorites.

[TROUBLE WITH BEES]
I made the family head out to the front yard for some Easter clothes pictures, because my cute little redhead is impossible to photograph in indoor lighting.  As I was crouched down to take a picture of all the boys, a bee landed on my shoulder.  I have what Kirk calls in irrational fear of bees.  Rational or not, my fear is very real and nearly debilitating.  I froze, trying hard not to set a bad example for the kids, but I was terrified.

"What do I do?" I asked Kirk.

"Just shrug your shoulder," he suggested.

I willed my shoulder to shrug, but I could not make it happen.  "I can't!" I said.  "At least take a picture of how ridiculous I look," I said as I used the opposite arm to begin passing the camera.

Just then, another bee flew right by my head.  I lost it.  I jumped up and started running across my lawn, which would have been fine if I was not wearing adorable stilettos.  As my heels sunk into the grass with each step, I could feel myself losing my balance but could not right the situation.  I fell on my knees in the grass and started laughing.

But the damage was done.  Adam was terrified and began several minutes of crying/begging to go inside.  I did not get good pictures of the boys with their dad or with me, and we finally just called it.

{I do love this one of me and D, though...}

I finally coaxed Adam back outside to take a few pictures of Kirk and me.

"How many is a few?" he queried.

Normally a pretty good photographer, he cut off heads in most pictures and often did not wait until we were ready.  I did get two decent pictures, though, my favorite being the one where I'm smiling because, just before taking the picture, Adam said, "Pickle juice!"

[THIS IS THE BEST EASTER EVER]
On route from Fife grandparents to Casdorph grandparents, Adam explained to me all the reasons why this was the best Easter ever, one of which included getting to see all his grandparents.  We talked about how lucky his is to have so much family so close, and it was great to see him so grateful.

{Kids at the annual Easter hunt at G.ma and G.pa Fife's house.  Alex and Dylan were in the little kids group, but once Dylan found a sucker, he was happy to sit on the steps and eat.}

{Adam got moved up to the big kids division this year, and he was SO proud!}

I also enjoyed watching him read signs during the drive.  He read words like "exit" and "Carmax," which seemed right on level.  Then his face scrunched up with concentration, and he announced, "Toyota?  Mom, I skwear (someday maybe he'll learn how to pronounce 'swear') I've seen that word before!"  I'm betting he recognized the logo, but it was still pretty funny.

[UH OH]
Dylan only says one word: "Uh oh."  After discovering he could squeeze the hardboiled eggs until they cracked, he labeled the eggs, "Uh oh."  He also spent the morning's egg hunt rearranging Adam's o.c.d. arrangement of eggs.  ("Mom I have an 'awesome' row, a 'hair' row, and a 'bald' row.")



[COMIC ALIEN CHASING FLICK]
To end the day, we spent time with my family including Michelle who came down to see my show and hang out for Easter.  We played one of our favorite word guessing games, Buzz Word.  Often, the inflection of the clue makes a big difference for the guessers, and when my mom read the clue, "comic alien chasing flick," my dad interpreted it as a funny alien chasing someone named Flick.  As we laughed about an alien chasing Flick from "A Bugs Life" and threw in a few Flicka jokes, I was grateful to have a family who loves spending time together.  And, by the way, the comic {pause} alien chasing {pause} flick was "Men in Black."

[BOYS AND THEIR DADDY]
Oh, and if you've made it all this way, scroll back through all the pics and compare the squinty, smiley eyes of all my boys including Kirk.  Like father, like son{s}.