A Squishy Easter

Our Friday Easter celebration was the perfect beginning to our spring vacation. Unfortunately with spring, comes all the spring allergies. I finally went to the doctor on Thursday and got a shot, some nasal spray, cough medicine and an antibiotic. It was exactly what I needed to propel me into our week in the mountains.

So back to Easter, the kids woke up around 6:30 a.m. excited about their baskets.

Isaac was the first one up. He gets UBER excited about this kind of thing. I know he was anxious about getting his Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself book. He has been begging for one for weeks. I finally broke down (against my better judgment) and told him he MIGHT get one in his Easter basket. It was enough to silence him, whew. I've decided not to stuff the kids baskets with candy. I know this is the traditional way of doing baskets, but they get SO much candy at all the egg hunts they attend, buying more seems superfluous. I like to get them their ABSOLUTE favorite candies. For Isaac, it's Laffy Taffy, suckers and gum.

I scored a lot of water toys on clearance last year and decided to save them for the baskets. Isaac also got a new pair of goggles--can you ever have to many pairs of these?

And finally the coveted book he's been waiting for. I don't think he's put it down since Friday.

Karson likes a challenge with her basket. I do a clue game throughout the house. She starts with a clue and then continues to find clues until she finally comes to her basket. It tickles her.

Karson's favorite candies are more Easter oriented. She likes Peeps, mini Cadbury eggs and I got her the cutest little sugar egg diorama from Mary Jane's Chocolates. I got her some Zinkies. I didn't realize any toy could get smaller than a Squinkie. But now they have come out with Zinkies. Looks like Miles may be taking one in for "Zz" show-n-tell next week at school =).

Miles's basket of goodies. I love his expression in the picture below--complete contentment.

All the kids got Squishy Baff in their baskets. Squishy Baff is currently around $25 on Amazon.com, but I was lucky enough to find it at Wal-Mart for $10. Love it when that happens. I bought all them a box and planned to take it on our trip to the mountains so the cousins could enjoy it too. SO, how does Squishy Baff work, you ask?

Here are the steps:

Step 1, find a willing participant.

Step 2, fill your tub to about 6 cm with water.

Step 3, add mix.

Step 4, wait about 5-10 minutes for it to set. I think this stuff feels a lot like those Orbeez--very jelly-like.

Step 5, have fun playing.

Step 6, when all is done, add the dissolving powder to turn the concoction back into water.

Here's where the REAL fun began. It's supposed to take around 10 minutes for the Squishy Baff to turn back into water. I noticed, however, that this was not happening. It was definitely thinning out but NOT dissolving. Thank goodness for the Internet. I googled Squishy Baff reviews, and the boards LIT up. People were talking about how it ruined their plumbing, they had to plunge their tub, they had to call plumbers, etc., etc. Well, out in Plano, we are on septic so I wasn't about to drain this stuff into our pipes and potentially RUIN our system. My solution: get the car washing bucket, fill and start dumping outside. After about 100 trips to and from the bath to the backyard, the fun was over =(. I've decided the next time we do Squishy Baff, it will be in a plastic or blow up pool. It's definitely not for the bath but TOTALLY FUN. I decided not to take it with us to the mountains either since I didn't want to take a chance and ruin the plumbing system on our magnificent cabin.

Easter Sunday Family Pictures.

I love these four!

Me and my twinkie Karson.

Me and my precious boys.

Meme's kids.

Karson and her pew buddies Tanner and Tucker.

The kids have been working on songs for our Easter service. They sounded great on Sunday. A special thanks to David Mahaney for devoting so much time to teach them. Here are a couple of their numbers.

God is so God. Amazing Grace Roll the Gospel Chariot

Easter service was wonderful. Matt always concludes his lesson with the "Friday, but Sunday's a Coming" lesson from Campolo. I felt an energy at our church on Sunday that was simply amazing. God was moving in our body and lives were touched, especially mine.