Hazardous Undertakings: April 2017

Easter

I've decided I really enjoy Easter celebrations. I can go all out with decor and tablescape and there is no expectations like with Christmas. Christ's resurrection is such a beautiful and joyful reason to celebrate.

And I like matching outfits. This was unfortunately the best picture we could get. It's under the magnolia tree/bush because I just found out what that plant is. I've only ever read about magnolia tree, never actually seen one. This is a royal star magnolia, not the breathtaking pink bloom kind, but still lovely.

I made a little Easter tree centerpiece with the blooms.

Most of the cinnamon roll bunnies looks like mickey mouse, but this one was distinctly rabbit.

J got little high heels and was sad her elementary school had a no high heels rule. The shopkins person was a huge hit as well as the Marshall and petkins.

Oh and we also dyed 4 dozen eggs because Winco is amazing and I wanted monogramed eggs at each place setting. Like many of my plans, that didn't work out because my cousin Josh was stuck in CA with a sick while and didn't make it back on time. We invited another family in my ward and it was still delightful. And the kids had a blast coloring the eggs so we had plenty extra. All my kids love eating them too, even if peeling them is a little too tricky.

M3 ate 4 and a full cup of yogurt for lunch. Crazy kid.

Originally it was supposed to be an adorable baby in a basket of Easter eggs. But as you can imagine, a crawling baby wants nothing to do with being in a basket. Here are some of the outtakes.

Making a mess of plastic Easter eggs, not that is something he was interested in.

Yep, the ears didn't stay on long. J was a champ and kept putting them back on him for me and jumping out of the shot. She'll be a great 2nd photog someday.

Egg Hunt

I had to channel Kristine Lefler and host an Good Friday egg hunt for the ward playgroup I organize.

The origami bunnies from last Easter are so reusable! I'm definitely getting mileage from them. J took these detail shots.

And clearance straws from 3 years ago. Finally a reason to use them!

The kid who won the jar declared it "the best week ever!" to his mom.

It was so much fun and I think it'll be a yearly tradition.

Tulip Festival

Skagit County Washington is apparently the tulip capital of the USA. As in tulips.com is their website. Since the kids were on spring break we made it up to the tulip festival. It was about an hour drive and after a few minutes downtown trying to figure out where the driving route was, we drove around down the country road a bit and saw this.

It made my audibly gasp. I didn't even crank the colors up when I edited them. there really are that bold.

They have a display garden at the Rosengarde farm. And since the main point of the excursion is to take fantastic pictures, everyone helps each other out.

Some attitudes can't be helped though.

J wanted to wear some of my new lipstick so I figured, why not?

There are just fields and fields of tulips, all in different states of blooming.

There was also SO much mud. I let the kids enjoy the puddles but then they wandered into a bog. M got his foot stuck and I tried to convince him to pull his boot up by the handles. He couldn't pull up on the handles and lift up his foot at the same time. While I wandered over he pulled his foot out of the boot and stuck his sock into the mud. Le sigh. Despite having a squirmy 25lb baby on my chest, I managed to help him get out of the mud. He was so freaked out by getting his hands muddy and being stuck and then he cried, "I have to go potty!" in the middle of it. Poor kid. Thankfully some kind souls sent their middle schoolers to help J out because I could only assist one kid at a time.

But look at these colors! So worth the mud fiasco and the equally comical portopotty experience.

We were still posing when our friendly photographer said, "You've got a wanderer." M had found something more interesting to look at than strangers holding our camera.