Flash back - last summer

I was downloading pictures from Ken's phone and found some great pictures from last year.  Wish I had seen these before I finished our 2014 photo book!  Great shots with cousins!!

Group hug

Nicholas, Jaden, Tiffany, and Alex

with Erik

Easter

Since we didn't have school on Thursday because of the sand storm, we made bunny treat bags, resurrection rolls, and dyed Easter eggs with friends.  The treat bags turned out cute, but the resurrection rolls were an epic fail!  Wish I had taken pictures!!!  It's a simple dessert and Easter object lesson.  You start with a marshmallow (representing Jesus' body after He was crucified) and dip it in butter and cinnamon and sugar (preparing His body for burial with oil & spices), then wrap it up in a Pillsbury crescent roll (wrapping his body in linen cloth).  Then bake and when they are done and you cut into the crescent roll you will find the tomb is empty (the marshmallow melted).  We've successfully made these for many years, but this year I couldn't find the crescent rolls or large marshmallows in the grocery store.  We substituted with puff pastry dough and small flower shaped marshmallows.  Unfortunately I didn't get a good seal on the dough, so they didn't stay closed up.  They all opened up like a blanket with the marshmallows, cinnamon and sugar on top.  Then to top it off, the marshmallows didn't melt!!!  What kind of marshmallows don't melt in 375F for 30 minutes??!!!  I'm not going to let my kids eat these marshmallows again ... are they plastic??  So bizarre!!  Again, wish I had pictures.  The kids were good sports about it ... it was still fun to make!  Thankfully the egg dying was a smashing success!!

 

Dying Easter eggs with Henry, George, and Jack

Finished eggs ... Doans and Princes

A few of the finished eggs

 After church on Friday, we took the boys to the ExxonMobil Easter egg hunt at the clubhouse.  It was a big turnout with lots of kids and tons of smiles!

Sill picture after egg hunt

The Easter Bunny came a day early ... Easter is not a holiday for Ken, so we decided to give the kids their Easter gifts and egg hunt on Saturday morning.  We don't normally do big gifts for Easter, but they desperately needed new bikes so we decided to make them their Easter gifts.  Finally bikes their size!  We also hid eggs all around the house for them to find.  It was a fun morning!

Bikes for Easter

Happy morning

Happy kids!  Glad he slept in clothes last night!  Might have made for awkward pictures since he usually sleeps naked!  :-)

Off on an egg hunt

climbing the kitchen table to reach eggs

Climbing kitchen counter

Finding lots of eggs (Yes I still have our Christmas cards hanging on our kitchen door even though it's Easter!  We get mail so late and they make me happy to see everyone's pictures that I don't take them down right away!)

Jaden has to climb the counters to reach eggs

Going through their loot

Loves his giant chocolate egg

 After the egg hunt, they were ready to try out their new bikes...



"The new bike is so much faster!" says Jaden

Nicholas happy with his new racer

 

 

 

 

Riding with Almaza

 

Group shot

Silly face

 

 

Announcing "Daddy's home!" (he snuck away to get a haircut)

That's all for now...

 


 

Standstorm for Easter

We started off the Easter weekend with a giant sandstorm.  It was the worst we've seen living here ... we didn't go out and about it in, but I stole some of these pictures from facebook...

Aerial photo of storm over Saudi Arabia and Qatar

Not much visibility, but plenty of traffic

Captures the color of the orange glow that we woke up to on Thursday morning

amazing picture!

All the schools were closed on Thursday ... our first sand day!  The worst of the storm was during the night and early morning.  We woke to a very strange orange glow outside and seriously limited visibility.  Unlike snow, the sand doesn't melt, so we had some major clean up as a result of the storm.  We washed the front porch, car port, cars, and bikes all in the front, but we still have to clean the back porch and the trampoline.  No fun!  And the "sand" is really a very fine dust so it seeps in through the windows and doors ... meaning clean up required inside and out!  It wasn't much fun, but it meant a 4 day weekend (No school on Thursday, Friday and Saturday are our normal weekend days, plus no school on Sunday for Easter!)