Easter 2021

Today we wrapped up Easter 2021.  Although I worked hard to make this day a special one for our family, this holiday turned out to be a a comedy of errors as there were several things that went wrong throughout the entire day.  From Logan becoming very grumpy during the egg hunt because his eggs were too hard to find to Ella breaking one of my kitchen table chairs (the seventh time this has happened in the past few years) to not being able to shell our hardboiled eggs due to the new egg dye almost glueing the shells to the eggs to Emmett being totally wild and disruptive while I was trying to teach our older three children an Easter lesson, the list could go on and on.  Although there were many lows in the day, I was grateful to stay home with my family and enjoy seeing our children find their Easter baskets, watch some General Conference, and eat a delicious dinner at the end of the day.

Since I always include items like swimsuits, flip flops and sandals, shorts and t-shirts, and church clothes with the children's Easter baskets, it always looks like they get more stuff for Easter than they really do (as I would normally just give them these clothing items for the warmer season anyways).  It's a great way to get the kids to think that they are really getting more for this holiday than they actually are as their Easter baskets containing a few toys and gifts are the real present.  Here is Ella's basket and items on her side of the larger couch.  

In addition to clothes and his basket, Logan received a bunch of pirate-themed, throw pillows for the new, window seat that Ron built for the boys' bedroom earlier this year.

Lia's basket and clothes with her American Girl Doll, Caroline, who I sent into the doll hospital in February to get a new head (since her hair was pretty damaged).  Since Lia really doesn't play with her dolls anymore, I am hopeful that Caroline's hair will stay nice for the long haul.

Emmett's basket with a bunch of clothes and another pirate pillow for the boys' bedroom.

Since Emmett didn't understand that the children couldn't peak downstairs until we said it was "go time," Ella and Logan dragged the play tent in front of the stairs and draped some blankets over the railing at the top of the loft.  It was so funny watching them try to keep him from looking downstairs that I had to take a few pictures.

Emmett peaking out from around the tent before Logan pulled him back.

After Ella put a sleeping mask on her face, she poked her head out from behind the blankets.

Logan draped one of his blankets over his body and also came out from behind the tent.  They were being so funny that this entire scene just cracked me up!

Once Lia finally emerged from her bedroom, it was time to come downstairs.  Here are all four children running down to the living room.  The look of pure joy on Ella's and Logan's face perfectly sums up their excitement!

Ella and Logan taking their first look at their Easter loot.

Emmett immediately reaching into his basket for a toy train.

Lia surveying her gifts for the first time.

Ella holding up the jellyfish pool floatie that she had wanted for this coming summer.

Logan holding the Treasure X, pirate toy he had asked the Easter Bunny to bring.

Emmett holding his Thomas the Train book and stuffie.

Lia opening up her Mini Brands toy.

Emmett driving his choo choos back and forth over the piano.

After breakfast and the morning session of General Conference, we headed outside for our Easter egg hunt.  Although it had rained in the night and also during the morning, it dried up enough for us to hold the hunt outside.  This is our second time doing this (last year was the first) and I think it is so much better than an indoor hunt.  Emmett loved it and happily ran all over the backyard finding his eggs.

Emmett picking up another egg while Ella jumps over the fence.

Ella finding one of her eggs in the nook of a tree.

Logan trying to summon a smile during a frustrating hunt that proved to be too difficult for him. :-(

Lia finding an egg in our empty garden.

Since I helped Emmett during his entire hunt, he finished first before anyone else.  All on his own, he walked down onto the back bank and spread out his eggs on the retaining wall.  He then started counting them in his funny way (3, 4, 7, 8, 10, etc).  I managed to get some of it on video and it was just the cutest thing.

A group picture of the kids and me when the hunting was all finished.

I just had to take some photos of the children in front of the stunning cherry blossoms in our yard and our neighbor's yard. These trees are always so pretty this time of year!

A vertical shot of the Hartland kiddos.

And another close-up shot of our darling children.  I just can't get over how grown up Emmett looks in this picture.  He sure has become "one of the gang" in recent months!

A Spring Morning on the Farm

Earlier this week as I was dropping Ella off at gymnastics, I noticed a sign on the front desk advertising a spring event for families at the farm in Sumner that we tried out for the first time this past fall and loved.  Apparently, Knutson Farm decided to start an event called Spring Blossom and host it every weekend in April.  Since Ron, Lia, and Logan had already planned to be gone all day skoarding on Saturday, I decided that this would be the perfect activity for me to do with our two younger children.  So I bought tickets in advance and we showed up around 10 this morning and spent the best two hours there.  The weather was gorgeous and the three of us had a wonderful time wandering around from one activity to another.  Since we still do a lot of our activities while Emmett is napping, I really enjoyed bringing him to this event and watching him enjoy everything we did with Ella at his side.  Since so much of my life lately has just been full of busy exhaustion and stressful moments, I really enjoyed spending this fun morning with half of my flock at my side.

The group picture we had taken after walking through the entrance of the pavilion.

First stop: face painting.  I was so grateful that we chose to do this activity first as there was a small line when we got there and it was huge by the time the lady was finished painting Ella's face.

Ella showing off her kitty cat face paint.

Emmett and Ella also had a balloon artist make them each a balloon shape of their choice.  Ella had an Olaf balloon made and Emmett had a plane made (which he popped part of at the next activity).

Next stop: the adorable, sand box station full of scooper toys.  Emmett LOVED this!

We stopped for another group pose in front of the awesome, old fashioned truck covered with daffodils as we headed outside.

Ella and Emmett posed behind the truck cutout.

A close-up of Emmett in the "driver's seat."

Ella and Emmett then got to go for a ride in the cow barrel train.  Emmett was surprisingly mellow during the entire ride.

A picture of the two of them heading back to the starting point where I was waiting.

The three of us then went for a hay ride being pulled by a large tractor.

We then headed into the barn to check out all of the animals and got another family photo inside.

Emmett was fascinated by all of the animals--especially the goats and baby pigs, chickens, and ducks.

We finished by participating in the socially distanced, Easter egg hunt.  I thought that this farm was so clever in coming up with a way for children to participate in a hunt without a huge group of kids all rushing onto a field at the same time.  Instead, everyone was asked to find twenty different colored, plastic eggs in the field that they would then return to the employees at the entrance in exchange for a bag of goodies.  Although Emmett had a great time just picking up whatever eggs he wanted, I helped Ella find all twenty of the specific eggs.

Emmett pausing for a picture for me.

Another close-up of my cutie.

A shot of Ella and Emmett searching for their eggs.

A final shot of Ella in the field before finishing up her hunt and heading back home!

Dyeing Easter Eggs!

I suddenly realized this morning that time was running out to dye eggs before Easter since Ron is taking Lia and Logan skiing/boarding tomorrow.  Since I knew that they would be too tired and exhausted after a long day in the car and on the slopes to sit down to do a family activity tomorrow evening, I decided last minute that tonight was the night to get it done!  The only catch was that Ron would be unable to join us for the first time ever as he is in the midst of supervising weekly, Friday football games at his high school for a very late season due to Covid-19.  After receiving his "blessing" to miss out on this activity, I boiled the eggs today while the kids were at school.  We all gathered around the table tonight and spent a fun hour or so coloring our eggs with two new ways that we have never done before.  Instead of drawing on the eggs and soaking them in dye, I bought two, different coloring kits that required us to sponge paint half of the eggs and to roll the other half in little baggies with drops of colored die inside.  It was fun to try something new and neat to see our finished products look different from previous years.  All three older kids got a kick out of coloring their eggs and Emmett did a great job sitting on his chair and watching all of us (instead of climbing all over the table or attempting to throw the eggs).  It really was a pleasant way to spend our evening.

The four Hartland kids sitting around the kitchen table.

Lia and Ella painting their eggs with sponges.

Logan picking up a new egg to  color.

I kept Emmett busy the second half of the activity by giving him a Rice Crispy Treat that took him a LONG time to eat.  This treat kept him occupied for several minutes.

Logie and I showing off a finished product.

All of our colored eggs lined up in pretty rows ready to head back to the fridge.

Getting my Covid Vaccine Shot #1!

One of my greatest frustrations of this pandemic has been how different the rules, regulations, and procedures have been from state to state.  The inconsistencies have infuriated me over and over again, especially since we live in a state that has always been much more strict than other states when it comes to sending our children back to school and allowing them to participate in activities and sports outside of school.  Another recent frustration has been how slow our state has proceeded in making the vaccine accessible to the general, adult population in comparison to many other states in our country.  As of right now, a healthy adult who doesn't work in a specific industry (that has already been approved to receive an early vaccine) or who lives in a multi-generational household has to wait until May 1st to begin the laborious and often difficult process of making an appointment to get the first shot.  This is in comparison to several states who have already begun vaccinating anyone 16 years or older.  Since there is nothing that I can do about it, I just accepted this unfortunate circumstance and was hoping and praying that I would be vaccinated by the time we leave in July for our big trip to North Carolina.  And, then out of the blue today, I got an email from Ron that changed everything!

His high school campus has been host to a large, vaccination site every Wednesday for months now.  Since it is run by our county's department of health, Ron has had very little to do with it.  In fact, only one district employee was put in charge of it, but she is someone who Ron works with on a regular basis for activities and events relating to his high school.  Whenever there has been extra vaccines at the end of the day, they have always been offered to school employees.  However, in the past month, all school employees in our state have been vaccinated due to our governor making this a mandate.  So, for the first time ever, Ron realized that there might be a chance that a spouse of a school employee might be able to get a vaccine if there were any extras.  After asking the district employee in charge, he sent me an email yesterday morning informing me that I could receive one of these extra doses and to be ready to jump whenever he got the green light.  Luckily, all of Ella's birthday gifts were already wrapped and most of her birthday dinner could be made the hour or two before we sat down to eat.  This allowed me to drop everything on a day when I could have been a total stress case.

At one o'clock Ron emailed and called me and told me that I needed to come right now.  Since I had just put Emmett down for his nap and Wednesdays are one of two days that Lia and Logan are at school, I needed a babysitter to come and be in my house while I was gone.  Luckily, one of Lia's good friends goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was available and willing to help me out.  So, after quickly driving to her house two minutes away to pick her up, I dropped her off, and drove the 15 minutes to Ron's school.  I pulled up at 1:25 and sighed a big sigh of relief since I was told to be there at 1:30.  With five minutes to spare, I pulled into line and quickly realized that I would not be getting my shot at 1:30.  I learned really fast that the line of cars that I had just pulled into is guided around all four sides of Ron's large high school before we are finished!  It is a very clever way to keep the traffic off of the road, but also deceiving when you first pull up.  

After waiting in line and slowly crawling around Ron's entire high school, I pulled up to vaccination tent exactly one hour later to the minute!  Two minutes later, I had received my vaccine, and was led to the front of Ron's school where I was told to wait for 15 minutes before leaving (to make sure that I didn't have any negative side effects that would prevent me from safely driving home).  Although I was so grateful to have received my first Covid shot before the rest of the general population does in my state, I was just as grateful to not have had my two-year old in the car with me the entire time!  It would have been an absolute nightmare to have had Emmett or any of my children in the car with me as I unexpectantly had to wait in such a lone line.  I was so grateful that I was able to leave my napping toddler at home with a babysitter while my other three children were in school.  Everything worked out perfectly and I was able to get home by 3 p.m. in time to pick Logan and Ella up from the school bus and have enough time to cook Ella's dinner for her party!  Now, if I can just stay Covid-free before I get my second vaccine in four weeks!

The FOUR lanes of cars that we were directed to drive into on the back side of Ron's high school.

Getting close to the front!  The row of white tents that the drivers pull into to receive their vaccine.

Next up!  Waiting in line to pull up for my shot after the car in front of me was done.

The tent that housed my vaccine.

Giving my camera a "thumb's up" sign while waiting in my car for 15 minutes after getting my shot.  What a relief and what a blessing to have a husband who could pull a serious string for me!  Thanks, Ron!