Our church congregation had its annual Pioneer Day Picnic (a holiday which commemorates the Mormon pioneers’ trek west into the Salt Lake Valley) this past Saturday. I’m on the activities committee, so I had to help run the event and not get to take many pictures. The weather had been rainy the previous night which left the ground soggy, so it was decided to have the event at church. I think it actually worked out better that way because it was hotter and more humid than hades that day.

There was a fabulous spread of food for us to eat and numerous events for the children and adults. The primary kids got to play stick pull, cornhole, doughnut on a string, use can stilts, and try to eat pudding while having arms attached to people on both sides. It was fun watching them especially seeing them try to eat doughnuts on a string. Apparently, Mimi was quite determined to eat her doughnut and was flailing all over to get at it. The adults did tug o’ war and our 2nd annual Mens’ Pie Baking Contest.

Many of the men really take the event seriously and even won’t reveal the flavor of pie to each other until the day of the picnic. Mike and I were discussing possible ideas for his pie, and we both remembered that last year the pies that got 1st, 2nd, 3rd places were the non-technical and un-traditional pies such as Blue Moon Pie (which I think was a mishmash of puddings to get to blue dumped onto a pie crust). So I jokingly said to Mike that he should make S’Mores Pie, and he actually thought that that would be a good idea. I quickly found a recipe for him to use, and off he went to make it. The final step right before serving it was to brulée the marshmallow topping. Of course, Mike was not lacking in brulée-ing tools and pulled out his torch for the job. Mike’s pie didn’t win, but it sure was yummy. Good job, Mike! The other pies in the contest were apple/peanut butter, pumpkin, shoo fly (which was the winner), key lime (made by Seth), watermelon (?!?), and flan. Now I’m totally not being biased here, but I honestly think the that either Mike’s or Seth’s pies should’ve won because those are the only pie flavors I would have been able to stomach.

Seth’s pie looked delicious, and I’m still surprised he could create such a beautiful product on his own (Julie swears she didn’t help and didn’t even know he was doing the key lime).

I had been in the process of making the girls some new dresses. The original pattern has an attached apron on the skirt of the dress. I never intended to do the aprons and was just going to make a tie belt instead. However, once Annie saw the picture of the pattern she begged me to make the aprons with it. I conceded but chose to make the apron detachable and also make the tie belts so that the girls can get 2 dresses in one. Mike suggested that since I was making the aprons that I should try to have the dresses done in time for the Pioneer Picnic so that they’d look like little pioneer girls. Of course, I wasn’t completely done on the eve of the picnic day still needing to sew the aprons. I sewed like a mad woman Friday night until 2 a.m. to get them done skipping a few steps along the way and making a handful of miscalculations, but I got the dresses “done enough” in time for the picnic. I’m actually going to re-do the belt strap on the aprons because they weren’t wide enough (one of my miscalculations), and I also want to add an embellishment on the corner of the aprons.

Here are the quick pictures I took of the girls in their dresses which don’t do them justice at all, but you get the idea. Once I re-complete the aprons and make the tie belts, then I’ll have a mini-photo shoot with the girls to get better captures of the dresses.

Julie got some great pictures of my girls in their dresses and participating in their games, so I stole them off her site. Thanks, Julie:) Their family had visited the Nauvoo Temple a few weeks ago and acquired some pioneer bonnets/hats for their kids. I should’ve asked them to pick some up for my girls, too. Very cute.

Alyssa and Annie playing stick pull.

Mimi working on getting that doughnut off the string.

And here are the girls trying to eat pudding while tied to their neighbors. Good idea to use vanilla pudding:\

We were wiped out at the end of the picnic and came home to take naps. The Johnsons called us on the way home to ask us to meet up at the beach. Without being too rude I replied, “Are you nuts? We’re on our way home to take a nap!” We did still get together with them but much later. They brought over some of Tenuta’s paninis, we provided root beer floats, and we played cornhole and bocci ball outside. When it got too sticky outside the activities were moved indoors to play Spades while the kids watched “Nacho Libre”. Good times.

The Memorial Day holiday never really meant much to me while growing up other than that it was a Monday off from school or work. However, sending Mike off to Iraq to serve his country made me take a much closer look at the occasion. Many wives never see their husbands return from their military duty during war. And so many children grow up without ever knowing their military fathers other than from stories or photographs. I have so much gratitude knowing that my husband and father of my children returned home safely after he fulfilled his commitment in the war zone. Each Memorial Day that I celebrate now is a special day where I am thankful for all the fallen serviceman/servicewoman who fought so hard for our freedoms that we enjoy every day in this beautiful and blessed country.

This is Mike with two of his closest, military buddies right before they shipped out to Iraq. Annie was only 18 months old and Mimi a mere days.

For the third and final installment of our Minnesota Easter I’ll review our last day in the land of 10,000 lakes. The previous night the Easter Bunny made a stop by Grandma’s house and left some real goodies and solid evidence of his appearance. See for yourself.

As you can clearly see, Mr. Easter Bunny was quite naughty by leaving his bunny tracks everywhere he went. The girls found tracks in the hallway leading to Mimi’s room, at a closet door, going into Annie’s room but turning around when he realized Annie was still awake, and in the piano room. The tricky bunny left surprises in most of the spots where the tracks were.

The Easter Bunny filled the girls’ buckets and left a new one for Violet. Each big girl got the traditional Peeps, some chocolate bunnies, a couple of peanut butter eggs, pretty nail files, a miniature office set, journal, fancy pen, a pair of socks, some elastic headbands, a bunny lovey, and a new pair of swim goggles.

In Violet’s basket was a set of socks, a set of stacking cups, and a little lamby. Violet is reading the packaging of the socks to make sure there are no components not fit for a 7-month-old.

The girls were quite ecstatic about their new goggles. They are testing them out to make sure they’ll work when underwater. The goggles seem to do their job.

It was a thrilling Easter, and all the girls enjoyed every minute of it especially their new loveys.

While waiting for the parents to pack up to go home the girls tried out their new journals while the bunnies watched.

Grandma and the girls had so much fun together over the weekend. The were all very sad to say their final good-byes. However, the good news is that Grandma will be visiting next week while Mom, Dad, and Violet venture off to San Diego.

Thanks for tuning in for the third and final installment of our 2010 Minnesota Easter adventures. If you haven’t already, you can read up on our 1st and 2nd segments.

Today we’ll discuss the many events of this past Saturday. The annual Easter brunch and egg hunt went off without a hitch at Grandma’s home. Sara, Jake, and Dave all arrived with their families, and it was a full house. Jake and Dave each contributed yummy dishes for the meal such as poached eggs and hash and pork tenderloin. We are so spoiled to have chefs in the family.

Each family brought candy/toy-filled eggs to contribute to the hunt. Needless to say, each kid ended up with overflowing buckets of eggs. Anut Sara knew the older kids were kind of feeling too old to play along with the hunt, so she got them each one, large, silver egg that they had to find in very difficult hiding spots. She filled them with more age-appropriate things like a Target gift card and candy.

On with the picture show.

Mike started out the festivities with his annual wearing of the pineapple hat.

The adults wait around the food like hungry wolves (me included). Who can’t resist a feast of poached eggs and hash, pork tenderloin, bacon, fruit, cardamom bread, scrambled eggs, and hot cross buns?

After the celebration meal the kids were ready for the egg hunt. The big kids were in charge of filling and hiding the eggs. They did a wonderful job.

Here’s Maya thinking about where to search next.

Owen can’t decide if he wants to keep finding eggs or start digging into the eggs he already has.

Annie got pretty greedy and was trying with all her might to balance as many eggs on top of her already overflowing basket.

Mimi was very focused on finding eggs so much so that she would not smile at me for even a second.

The girls were so excited to see what was inside the eggs. They ended up with a LOT of candy and other fun stuff like jewelry, stickers, and shrinky-dink figurines.

Violet was just glad to be held by Grandma during the egg hunt.

I wanted to get a nice family picture since the girls were all dressed up in their Matilda Jane clothing. I also had on some MJ apparel.

We hope everyone had a lovely Easter! Check back tomorrow for another post about you guessed it Easter. I’ll be analyzing the pros and cons of Easter basketdom.

It’s no secret that we were in Minnesota this past weekend to spend Easter with Grandma MN and the many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Oh, how the girls love to see their cousins. We arrived on Thursday evening around bedtime and ventured back home on Sunday without any traffic or weather events slowing us down. I have much to post in the way of events and pictures, so I’m going to break up the reports into 3 parts. On with part 1.

On Friday I had the pleasure of spending the day and evening with Anut Sara crafting and chatting and eating many sweet treats. It was decided ahead of time that we’d repeat our holiday-themed crafting session where we bring a craft for each person to make. This time we did Easter crafts, and both Sara and I had eggs on the brain. We had a lot of fun, and I hope we can do this again over and over and over. Such a good time!

Sara’s projects included candlesticks, wooden eggs, and lots of paint.

Here’s Sara painting polka dots on one of those wooden eggs.

My project comprised of tons o’ ribbon, lollipop sticks, floral tape, oasis, excelsior, and a bucket.

Violet got to play with Cheerios. She experimented with wearing them, choking on them, and spitting them out. Eating them was not on the agenda.

Jim, Sara’s husband and my brother-in-law, was a good sport about my presence and stayed out of our way most of the night. I think he was just happy he could hog the t.v. and watch rock concerts.

And the results. I actually forgot to snap a picture of Sara’s craft that night, so the second picture is showing the crafts being used as a centerpiece for our Easter brunch the next morning. The first picture is of Sara’s eggs in a bucket. Notice that her ribbon-wrapped eggs are much better wrapped than mine.

Meanwhile, Daddy and Grandma kept the big girls. They went to the Arboretum and dyed Easter eggs. Later that night Daddy and the girls met up with Jake, Steph, Dylan, and Maya to see How to Train Your Dragon at the Excelsior Dock.

At the Arboretum.

Dying eggs. Look how bright and vibrant they turned out.

As you can see it was a busy day for everyone. So much so that Grandma and Mimi were completely spent by the end of the day.

Stayed tuned for part ii tomorrow where I post about our Easter brunch and egg hunt.