Easter 2020

Easter 2020 was certainly a blessed day for our family. Even though we could not attend church we still kept Jesus the center of our celebration, for without His sacrifice we would not have a holiday to celebrate. To be honest our Easter plans really didn't change much other than the fact that the church doors were closed and we had to have church at home.

Life is different these days for our family in a myriad of different ways, but especially in the sense that we have a little one experiencing all her 'firsts' and then we are missing our oldest who no longer lives with us. It's a really unusual season of life that's for sure. All the emotions are present; so much joy and excitement to share with Abby Lou's firsts and yet a touch of sadness that our oldest isn't around much. Even though our oldest wasn't there for all our traditional Easter activities, he was able to attend Easter dinner. 

Over the years we have collected quite a few plastic Easter eggs. They even have their own tote, lol. There was a time it was only me filling eggs and putting them together, now I have helpers who love to help out in that department. We don't fill all the eggs with candy. I buy one bag of candy to divide amongst the eggs and then the rest are left empty.

Thankfully, I plan throughout the year for holidays or we might have been in a pinch for Easter this year with all the stores being closed or with limited stock. To make each holiday extra special, I'm in a continuous state of shopping the clearance racks ~ this helps to keep our holiday expenses well under budget.

 Easter morning we had all the children eat breakfast, tidy the house, and get dressed in their Sunday best before opening their Easter baskets. I didn't spend a whole lot of money on any of the children's baskets. To keep things simple the younger crew all got the same items while the older children received the same. We didn't do much candy, mostly just little trinkets such as coloring books, bubbles, and a deck of cards. I made my husband a basket of his favorite snacks and he surprised me with a basket of my favorite healthy snack items too. 

After days of beautiful warm weather, Easter ended up being rainy and cool so pictures had to be taken on the porch ~ which wasn't as easy as it may look. {{sigh}}

Six of our seven handsome sons.

Our three beautiful daughters.

My husband was joking around, because let's face it taking family pictures with 11 people is eventful to say the least, and of course when the camera snapped he wasn't smiling. I promise he wasn't mad, but can we just say there is never a dull moment in our crazy life, especially when taking pictures!

Easter dinner wasn't anything fancy just a few of our favorite dishes. The children did call it a mini Thanksgiving, which I thought was sweet. Everything was homemade and a family effort to make. Our two oldest sons even contributed to the dessert menu, which was so very thoughtful. 

Easter Menu

Ham

Hawaiian Rolls 

Deviled Eggs

 Potato Salad

Dressing

Macaroni and Cheese

Potato Casserole

Punch

Easter Trifle 

2 Ice Cream Cakes

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Crackers

We did manage to get one group photo of all our children even it it was after everyone had changed out of their good clothes ~ this mama will take whatever she can get.

Due to the dreary day on Easter Sunday we opted to hunt eggs a couple days later. We usually attend a couple local church sponsored Easter egg hunts, but this year those were not happening; so I wanted to make sure our annual family Easter egg hunt was extra special. I was especially thankful that I had collected all those plastic eggs, because with our crew we need them. Even with as many eggs as we have, it didn't take long for my little egg hunters to find all of them. 

Once all the eggs were found my husband hid one egg that held a five dollar bill for the older children to find. The first time around no one could find it, so he hid it again. After some serious hunting our oldest daughter found it ~ only because she stumbled over it and the egg fell out of it's hiding place nestled inside one of our potted plants. Fun times and wonderful memories for sure.

Easter is such a special holiday to celebrate because without the death and resurrection of Jesus we would not have the hope of heaven. I'm so thankful our family was able to enjoy the day with each other and our treasured traditions. We enjoyed sweet tokens of love, good food, and delightful fellowship. Our family has been showered with blessings from above and for that I give all the glory to God.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

4th of July with the Family

Our family is BIG on traditions and celebrating the holidays! The 4th of July is no exception. We had high hopes of this years festivities after last years bust of a celebration. I guess you could say our efforts in trying to sell our big house overshadowed everything last year and it was hard to have any fun. To make matters worse, last year, due to some major issues within our community organizers and massive delays we were unable to see the festival fireworks! Now, if you know me, I'm a stickler for fireworks on the 4th and parades at Christmas. So this year my husband went to great lengths to insure our family (or rather me, lol) got to see some fireworks.

Much to my delight we got to watch fireworks not once BUT twice this 4th of July week. We decided to attend the Independence Day Festival in a neighboring town which happened to throw the best fireworks experience I've EVER witnessed as an adult. It will truly be hard to top their fireworks extravaganza in the future! We were able to attend two festivals on account of one community hosting theirs the day before the 4th and the other on the 4th of July.

Our local community that we live in has an all day 4th of July festival beginning with a small parade and fun activities for the kids and concluding with fireworks later in the evening. We typically attend the morning activities, go home BBQ & rest, and then go back for the fireworks. Which is exactly what we did this year.

The first 4th of July festival we attended began with Jolly Rancher Bomb Pops courtesy of daddy who loves to spoil his littles with yummy treats!

 

The kids thought it was so neat that their 'watermelon' flavored popsicles looked like they had seeds inside of them.

The atmosphere was extremely laid back at the first festival. Throughout the evening there were two different amazing live bands performing. Everyone was relaxed and all the littles were running wild ~ there wasn't a stranger on the football field as we waited for the spectacular display of fireworks, which ended up being sinked with appropriate patriotic music. 

Day Two of Our 4th of July Celebrations

I have this picture and the one below it taken every year for many years now. It's fun to watch our family getting bigger and everyone growing up. 😊

I had no idea we were color-coordinated when we left house, lol. Can we say 20 years of marriage.

Lydia did not know what to think of all the animals at the petting zoo.
When the pig started squealing she was ready to leave, lol!

There's just something peculiar about a camel......lol!

My seven year old and 4 year old are ALWAYS all about the food ~ 

so this function we told them they could bring their own pocket money to spend on treats. 

Kettle corn and homemade lemonades were their prize selections.

This one was a sweetie and willingly shared his lemonade with his baby sister! 

(Got to relish in those little moment, lol)

I'm always the one behind the camera, so I had someone snap a picture of me and baby girl. And YES, it was hotter than blue-blazes and you could cut the humidity with a knife hence the lovely glistening of sweat, lol.

The kiddos take after their daddy when it comes to fair food and 

everyone had to get in on all the goodies ~ these three opted for snow cones.

This year was absolutely one of the best 4th of July celebrations our family has ever experienced. 

I took dozens of pictures and it was all I could do to narrow it down to these few 

(and I know I still over- posted). I'm grateful for the memories and the time spent with family, 

but mostly I'm grateful for the freedoms we celebrated this 4th of July.

I won't lie, navigating family functions with a large crew is NOT easy. There is non-stop unique dynamics that most families do not experience, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Nor would I opt to miss out on fun activities just because it's a little harder to make them happen. Thankfully, these two outings were minimal in the drama escapades, but that is rare. To be perfectly honest it's also a matter of perspective too. What most would consider major 'hiccups' is just our norm. So, if you're struggling with getting out there and doing things with your little entourage; it's time to take a leap of faith and just do it. Trust me the more you do it the easier it gets and if we can do it so can you!!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer