The Easter Bunny IS real

As many of you know Michael has been out of work since October. Easter is a very important holiday religiously. As a member of the Primary Presidency we organized a special Back to Bethlehem activity to have the children walk through the last week of Christ's life. This activity was how I planned on commemorating the holiday for the children. We simply didn't have anything extra to spend on Easter Baskets. It's fun to play, but I've always emphasized to the kids that the Easter Bunny, Santa, the Tooth Fairy are myths. They can still enjoy those childhood moments and memories but I've always wanted them to be able to trust that I have always taught them the truth. I never wanted them to discover the truth about childhood myths on their own and question other things I taught them. I realized this year that the Easter Bunny IS real. By that I don't mean there is a fuzzy bunny hopping throughout the world distributing chocolate eggs. It's the spirit of the Easter Bunny that is real. I suspect it's the same spirit that embodies Santa. Anyway, an anonymous bunny dropped off a bag full of goodies and presents for the children. I felt so appreciative and grateful that someone would be aware of our situation, remember our children and want to help create those precious childhood memories for them. So yes,Virginia, the Easter Bunny is real.

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year has been lower key than usual. We usually go to the Pumpkin Patch and do pie afterward. We didn't go this year. Most of our energy has been spent on Prop 8 stuff and other drama. We took this picture at the Ward Halloween party on Wednesday. Elle is supposed to be a tiger, but when I went to put the face paint on she freaked out because she didn't want to get any in her eyes. I started putting it on to show her that it didn't hurt. Her response was, "That's stupid, mom" It turns out that Elle and her friend Ella both were cats. They look so cute together with their curly hair.

Once we got to the party, there was a face painting booth. I tried to convince her to wear whiskers and had them put some on Garrett to show her. No luck. Ethan was Mummy. It's a homemade costume cut from a bed sheet. There was some trouble keeping the bottom together, but for the most part he looked really good. For the trick-or-treating I did his eye makeup to look Egyptian. He got a lot of compliments. Hunter wore a store bought Captain Hook costume from two years ago when we did the Peter Pan theme. It is super flimsy and kept coming apart. Before we went out on Halloween I re-sewed the Velcro on the back of the shirt piece so it wouldn't keep falling off like it did at the party. I actually had to go hunting for it at the end of the party when I saw Hunter running around with the jacket flapping open and no shirt piece.
Ethan and his friend Nate were both Mummies. There were a pair of Jedi's who were also very good friends. I'm starting to think the kids planned to match one another and the adults find out the collaboration merely by chance.

Before Trick-Or-Treating I made a bunch of very healthy kid favorites. Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli with melted cheese, Caesar salad, and homemade rolls. We encouraged the kids to eat as much as they could so that once they had their haul of candy we could let them gorge without worrying too much about it. Micheal set up the pull out bed and let them sleep downstairs and watch a movie. Netflix had a "very long wait" on the Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie, so instead they watched Cars.

Belated Easter

Since all the kids had been sick I didn't have time to prepare for Easter morning. So...we had a belated Easter. Early on Monday morning I ran down to the store and bought the last Easter baskets at both Raley's and Safeway...at half off!!! The kids didn't mind that they got their baskets a day late. I think that we might just continue that tradition so the Easter bunny gets a huge price break and Easter Sunday can focus on the real reason we're celebrating.

Although we do participate in Easter bunny, Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy traditions the kids understand that it's pretend, but still fun to play. I believe if you tell a child that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are real and then teach them about God and Jesus, it creates a sense of confusion that is hard to overcome when they learn that their innocent childhood faith in make-believe was founded on a lie.

After Ethan lost his first tooth he came up to me and whispered, "I know who the tooth fairy is!.....YOU!" I whispered back to him, "Shhh...don't tell, OK?"

It's more fun to pretend when you have a firm understanding of reality and truth.

Decorating for Christmas

Halloween fun

Getting dressed up has got to be one of the best perks of childhood! Ethan found a store bought costume of King Peter of Narnia and carried the magazine picture around with him all month. I found the cutest flower costume for Elle that happens to be just like my online avatar for my alter-ego, Cookiemonsterette. Hunter is very into superheros... especially ones that go as fast as possible. I was glad that he was happy to be Superman (a recycled costume of Ethan's) Unlike last year...

The family theme last year didn't quite work as well as I'd have hoped. Elle made a cute TinkerBell and Ethan was very cooperative as Captain Hook, but Ethan's 3 year old recycled PeterPan costume went over like a lead balloon with Hunter. He didn't want to wear the hat, he didn't want to wear the shoes and he insisted on wearing a Batman cape, so everyone was very confused about the what exactly he was supposed to be. A green Batman?

Hunter was overcome with anticipation for Halloween this year. Singing songs all month at Tiny Tots about the upcoming fun was more than he could take and he started leaving preschool all upset and sad because Halloween wasn't here yet. Oh fantastic. I can't wait for Christmas.

Elle didn't like wearing the petal hood. At first taking pictures was nearly impossible, but then she realized the power of the flower at our first official Halloween activity of the costume parade and trick-or-treating on First Street. Everyone made an enormous fuss over her cuteness and gave her candy on top of it all. It got to the point that it was all I could do to keep her out of her costume during the day.

I was glad to have so many Halloween activities to go to so the kids could make the most of their costumes.

The night of trick-or-treating Elle scored more candy than both boys combined. When people came to the door she would scoot right up to the bowl and start putting in candy while the people were bent over admiring everyone's costume. I can't imagine that anyone would have stopped her. Who could say no to such a cute little flower?

As a general rule I let the kids eat as much candy as they can handle the first night. I can understand why most schools cancel school November 1st. Can you say, SUGAR RUSH!!! After the first night of binging I put the rest of it away for desserts after dinner. Once the kids stop asking for candy the rest of it goes in the garbage. By then it's usually the lollipops and coconut filled candies.

Pumpkin Patch 2007

As a family tradition we have made a yearly pilgrimage to the Pumpkin Patch. I suppose you could say it kicks off the holiday season for us. We go to the Pumpkin Patch in Dixon and every year it gets better and better. They have hay rides, free wagons to go out into the field and pick a pumpkin, a little playhouse village for the kids to run around and play, a haystack castle specifically to climb up and play on and a corn maze that won the Guinness Book World Record for largest Corn Maze in 2007. Michael's brother went through a smaller version a couple of years ago and it took him two hours to find his way out again. Perhaps when the children are older we'll venture inside, but at this point I'm afraid we would never see Hunter again. Everyone (i.e. the children) got to pick their own pumpkin and we got one extra, a big one to carve for Family Home Evening.

This year we went in the early afternoon instead of after dinner. It was light out, which was nice and we made a day of it rather than just an evening. As part of our tradition we go out for pie afterwards. We made the 2 o'clock meal lunch and dinner. Everybody got to pick a slice of pie which we all made little samples of and we got two whole pies to take home.

Since we had so much time we went to the Nut Tree Family Park and got the wristbands to go on everything. All the children loved the Merry-Go-Round, Ethan indulged me with a ride on the Roller Coaster and Elle even got to ride on the balloons. Grandma went with us. I think she had a good time, too.