Pioneer Day

On July 24th we celebrate "Pioneer Day" because Brigham Young and the others crossing the plains on the "Mormon Trail" entered into the Salt Lake valley on July 24, 1847.  In Utah this is a State Holiday with parades and fireworks.  We are not in Utah, but our congregation planned a fun party for the evening.  It was wonderful because living outside of Utah, we have had many years when we have barely given the day a thought.  For us it is a big deal because both mine and Jason's ancestors crossed that trail, suffered and sacrificed greatly.  Our lives have been greatly blessed because of their faith and strength.  

The day was mostly spent in the kitchen for me.  We were supposed to bring our own meat to grill, and a side dish to share.  Also, there was a pie and dutch oven contest for dessert.  I signed myself up for the Dutch Oven dessert contest.  Lily signed herself up to make a pie, and Jason signed me up to make a pie.  Funny stuff.  I never did the Dutch Oven dessert, and I forgot to prepare a meat to grill for our family till the last minute.

Bravo to Lily for stepping up, and actually making her own pie.  I did guide her, but she did most of it on her own. 
Here we are making pies.

This is the Rhubarb Custard Pie that I made.  Lily made a cherry pie.  We didn't win any prizes, but the boys assured us that ours were the best.  Lily was happy with that. 
I also made these delicious Baked Beans.

Jason was running late because of traffic.  So I loaded up the kids in the van, and all the food.  When we got there my kids disappeared into the crowd.  All I could do was hang onto Bennett and push Theo in the stroller.  Jason never showed up because he wasn't feeling well.  I was really bugged by that.  If I had known that I wouldn't have gone.  For me it was a stressful evening.  I have no idea if any of my kids even ate dinner.  All I know is that we got there, and got home safely.  I didn't lose any kids, and I didn't cry in public.  Huge accomplishments.  I am so grateful to the older mom's who stepped in and helped me grill our dinner and hold my babies.  

Lily and Max were in charge of some of the "Pioneer Games" for the younger kids.  

Lily and a friend did the stilts. Lily was quite good at them!  I was impressed.

They had one handcart there, and asked the kids to come dressed up if they wanted.  They also said the kids could bring their bikes and wagons decorated for a Pioneer Parade.  My kids LOVED that part.

Bennett tried to walk with the other pair of stilts.  He wants to do everything that Lily does.

Every time I saw Max eating, he was eating PIE!  I'm sure he loved dinner that night.

Special help with Theo.  Mikayla held Theo most of the evening.

Harrison in the Handcart.  He said he was dressed up as a cowboy, not a pioneer.  Lily and and Harrison had an actual argument over this on the way there.  It was lovely.

I think he is the cutest Cowboy that ever lived!  I love the Spiderman shirt on under his vest, his winter gloves and his gym shorts.  He said that the gloves were his "work" gloves so he wouldn't get blisters.

 I wonder if Harrison thinks the same as I did when I was little.  I remember riding in a handcart in a Pioneer Day Primary Parade once.  I thought that is how all my ancestors crossed the plains in their handcart companies.  I realized when I was about 17 that no one got a ride.  They walked, and pulled the handcarts that held all their belongings.  

They walked and walked and walked...

I wonder what my ancestors think of me and my life.  What would my third great grandmother, who crossed the plains, think of me driving around in my air conditioned mini van?  My faith has been strengthened by the sacrifices made by them.

I am thankful for Pioneer Day, a day of remembrance for me.

Easter

Our church congregation meets at 2pm for this year (We share our building with 2 other congregations and rotate the times.)  I hate this meeting time, except for on Easter!  It was perfect!  We had such a nice family morning.  

I made this YUMMY French Toast Bake, that I found on Pinterest, for Breakfast.  It was a huge hit!  I followed the recipe exactly, I just did not cut the crust off my bread, like she did.

The kids ran all over looking for their hidden baskets.  I had a lot of fun listening to the yelling, and commotion, and squeals of excitement - as I lay in bed.

With their loot.  They all got a ring pop.  Bennett was not sure about it at first.  He was confused by it.

But he caught on quickly, and it became his pacifier.  My only child who never took a pacifier has found his true love - RING POPS!

New coloring Books!!!

After we ate, and the kids played with their baskets a bit, we collected all the plastic eggs that the silly rabbit had hidden for the kids.  Bennett had SO much fun with this activity.  

This was dessert after Breakfast, according to Harrison.

Bennett was thrilled by everything we did.

After the eggs were found, the older kids sat down and did some trading and sharing with each other and the little boys.

Lily made herself some ears on an old headband to go with her homemade T-Shirt.   Also, each kid got a pair of Sunglasses in their baskets.

Our Saturday had gotten so busy that we ran out of time to color all the hard boiled eggs I had prepped.  So we did this on Sunday morning as well.  It went great until Harrison knocked over a whole cup of dye, in his excitement.  That was a fun mess to clean up.

 After dying eggs the three youngest boys took a bubble bath with Harrison's new Star Wars bubble bath from his basket.

We then went to church, and were greatly spiritually fed.  I left early, during Sunday School, with Bennett who was still suffering from ear infections.  He happily said, "BYE!"  To everyone we passed in the hallway.

When everyone got home, and Bennett was up from his nap, the kids got the bubbles out of their baskets, and had tons of fun blowing those for Bennett.  I had so much fun making dinner, and watching them out the window doing this.  I was so grateful for the beautiful weather. 

I did not even try to get any pictures of the kids together in their church clothes.  I did take some of Lily in her pretty new outfit.  GAP clearance online for her new church outfit this year.  It was an awesome deal, and she looked so grown up and beautiful in it.

 Making faces at me, because she is very SILLY!

 Dinner - Lily said, as we were eating, "You should make a dinner like this every night."  HmmmHmmmm....

 It was all delicious except that I overcooked the potatoes and they kind of fell apart.  The texture was off, but they were still delicious.

Jason slicing the Dill Bread - I made his grandma's recipe.

All of the kids helped me with the Deviled Eggs.  Here is Glenn working on some.  They turned out great!
(Notice the chunk missing from the cake in the background?  It was non-existent at first, but slowly got bigger as the day went on.  It was the workmanship of one Crazy Harry!)

Lily with the finished product.

Finally time to feast.

For Dessert we had one of our favorites - Strawberries and Angel Food Cake

After we ate we had a special wrap up Easter Devotional with the kids.  You can read more about it HERE.

I was amazed that night, when I went to bed, as I reflected and realized what a great day we had.  It was fun, it was special it was spiritual.  I am so grateful that we could have such a meaningful holiday with the children, and that they could be so receptive to our efforts throughout the week to have a more meaningful Easter.

Easter Preparations - Saturday

I was really nervous about Saturday, the day before Easter.  Jason was hiking on Mt. Hood and doing some Male Bonding.  Bennett and Maxwell were both really sick, and took turns waking me up all night long. 

I woke up Saturday morning and took Maxwell and Bennett into the Dr.  They both had double ear infections and throat infections.  They were both put on antibiotics.  

 

Hard to believe how miserable he was!  He was given a cat sticker by the receptionist after his appointment, and he was SO happy!  He Meowed at it all the way home.

After we got home we went down to the shopping area 5 minutes from our house, that has the Easter Bunny do FREE visits for a few hours on the Saturday before Easter.  It is a really fun event.  We get a picture with the "Easter Bunny" and a clown is there to entertain and make balloon art for the kids.  And then on the way out the door they get a special treat/gift.  

When Harrison saw the "Easter Bunny" this year he exclaimed, "That's not a rabbit!  That's a human dressed up like a rabbit!"  I quickly quieted him, so he wouldn't upset any other kids.  I then told him, "Yes!  You are so smart to notice that!  This is just for fun, and pretend."  He was very satisfied with that answer, and still totally believes that a REAL rabbit came to our house later that night when we were all sleeping.  

Being a kid is magical!

(Excuse this picture of a picture.  I didn't feel like scanning it in.)

After sitting with the 'human dressed as a rabbit' we waited for our turn with the clown.

 I finally get Lily and Glenn to smile like they are not embarrassed to be there when Bennett gets too annoyed and shoves Harrison away.

With Harrison out of the picture, Bennett can finally look at me, but everyone else is done.
There is just no getting a good picture these days.

 Harrison excitedly waiting for his balloons.

Bennett examining his balloon sword.  He has never had one before, and he really loved it!



















The clown in action. Glenn and Lily refused to pose with her.  She then cried big clown tears.... just kidding.

This place was very crowded, and it got a whole lot more crowded when my boys all started sword fighting and whacking everything in sight with their balloons.  It didn't matter if they had a sword, alien or hat, it was all meant for whacking each other.  Even Bennett got really into the action.  Lily stood off to the side looking really annoyed, and muttering, "I am so sick of boys."  I thought the whole experience was lots of fun and funny too.  NO sarcasm meant here!

 Lily in 3 stages - 

1. No I won't smile, I will look at you like you are annoying.

2. I will kind of smile so that you will leave me alone.

3. OK!  This is a real, genuine smile now please leave me alone!

On my way home from the Dr's that morning with the boys, Lily called me to ask if she could craft herself an Easter shirt.  I said, "Sure, why not."  I came home to find her wearing the cutest Easter shirt!  Her brothers all wanted one too.  Harrison was the only one who took the time to make one with her.  He LOVED it!

 Jason came home early afternoon from his Male Bonding on Mt. Hood.  He called ahead to ask me to have all the kids ready to help wash the van.  It sure needed it.

Lily, her friend and Glenn had fun doing some art in the dust before helping wash.

After the van was washed Jason loaded up the little boys on the bike trailer.  Harrison told me it was the longest bike ride ever.  They really LOVED it.

On the next block down our neighbors were out with their pet rabbit.  Bennett LOVED it, but Harrison told me he was very nervous because he had no shirt on and the rabbit had scratchy claws.

After they got home Jason noticed that Bennett was taking off down the road to go find the rabbit.  He went to the first neighbor down the road, and started to turn up the driveway.  He was saying, "Rabbit? Rabbit?"

Jason yelled down to him, "Hey Bennett, the rabbit does NOT live there!"

 So he turned and kept running down the road.  Jason caught up to him and brought him home.  He told Bennett that a rabbit would be coming to Bennett's house that night.  That totally satisfied him.