Easter

After attending church we went to my Mom's house and had lunch with family followed by an egg hunt.  This year we had more eggs than places to hide them.  For the last three years we have hid a golden egg with money in it.  And every year Hailee is the one that finds it. John was a bit awnry (I know that's surprising) as he was hiding the eggs, he was eating the candy out of them and stuffing them with grass or leaving them empty.  So the kids were not too happy when they got grass filled eggs or empty eggs!

Mikayla, Ashlee, Hailee, Landon, Dylan

John stuffed eggs into a hole in the railroad tie.  Landon is digging them all out.

Landon basically filled his bucket with the eggs stuffed in the hole.

Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt

For one of Ashlee's 10 hour personal projects for Young Women's she decided to do an Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt for our ward.  She did a great job.  She spent well over a month and half organizing the activity, asking for donations, collecting donations, filling Easter eggs with candy, reminding people of what to bring, etc.  Thursday a couple of days before the activity, I took her to the Stake Center Pavilion and she hosed it down and wiped down the tables to get it all cleaned up for the event.  Friday night she made muffins, and put together a few guessing games, and I took her to do some last minute errands.  Saturday morning my mom, my brother and his kids, and a friend from church,went and set up everything for the event and hid over 950 eggs!  The event turned out well.  I think just about every family in the ward with kids showed up to the event, there was plenty of food, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  We have heard comments from various people in the ward, that they would like for this to be a yearly event!  The next day at church, one little girl came up to Ashlee and asked her if she was going to do another Easter Egg Hunt.

Cleaning off the tables

The food table, before the food arrived.  It was a windy day.

The drink table.  With a "drink" banner made by Ashlee

She had left over donated candy so she put it in bags and jars and they got to guess how many candies there were.  The winner got the bag or jar of candy.

People getting their food.  We kept it simple, muffins, fruit, doughnuts, build your own parfait, and there were a few hot dishes as well.

Kids ages 1-7 going after the eggs.  The older kids had a separate egg hunt.

Most of the kids had their buckets and bags full.  There were some that had hardly any eggs, because there were some older kids that got too greedy.  Mikayla was such a peace keeper.  She gave some of her eggs to those that had a few, and then she went and distributed left over candy to those that didn't have very many eggs.  It was a fun event, Ashlee did a great job.  I think she spent well over 10 hours on this project.  Too bad it cannot count as two projects!

Carnegie Arts Center

Today I went on a mini field trip with Mikayla's class to the Carnegie Art's Center here in Turlock.  They got to learn different art techniques and look at different types of art.  Then they got to learn about shading and  they drew a circle and shaded it, using the technique they learned.

Jordan,Karah, Allison and Mikayla

Mikayla's 11th Birthday

Mikayla's 11th birthday was broken up into a bunch of mini parties, so to speak this year.  On March 29th a few days before her birthday, she had a party with some of her friends at a place called Hollywood Princess. They got to have their hair, make-up and nails done and have a "run-way" show.

Brooke, Jordan, Mikayla, Allison & Karah

Getting their hair and make-up done

Just got her make-up done.

Hair and make-up done

The gift table

Getting their nails done

Hollywood Princess did the decorations and table settings and provided strawberry lemonade.  We just brought whatever snacks we wanted and cupcakes.

Brooke, Jordan,Mikayla, Allison, & Karah

Opening gifts

On April 1st, the day of Mikayla's birthday, John went and got doughnuts for them to have for breakfast and he picked up doughnuts for me to take to her class later in the day. For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant here in town.

Fresh out of bed.  Opening her cards and eating her doughnut.  Excuse the bed head!  Mikayla does not do mornings well!  It's quite the job to get her out of bed in the mornings!

Ready to go to school.

Later in the day.  Having doughnuts with her class.  Her friend Jordan is photo bombing in the back ground.

On Sunday, April 6th we had some family over for a birthday dinner.

I made the cake.  Mikayla decorated it.

Happy 11th birthday Mikayla.  You continue to surprise us with all that you have accomplished and overcame.