Easter 2009

Easter 2009 was bittersweet for us this year. Although we had a WONDERFUL Easter holiday at home, my grandmother (my dad's mom) is in the hospital and will be passing away shortly. She has blessed our family in so many ways and we are sad that she will be leaving us.

Easter Art by Tyler

Saturday evening the kids dyed their eggs.....3 dozen eggs waiting to be decorated Tishendorf style!

Let the decorating begin!

Egg dying....the odd red spot on Tori's head is a rhinestone...she thought it was hilarious!

Cheers to dying eggs!!!

Sarah's beautiful eggs (made with A LOT of help from Brandon)

The "jock" and his eggs

3 dozen spectacular eggs

The Easter bunny brought ONE basket this year, instead of 6 individual ones (Smart bunny)

Note to the kids from the Easter Bunny

Bunny hid the eggs high

On photos

and windows.....

Ryan and Tyler were the first ones up (6am...not including Sarah who woke all of the kids at exactly 4:33am, before she was quickly told by all her siblings GO BACK TO BED!!!)

Little Miss Sarah waking up and rubbing her eyes as she came downstairs VERY excited!

Reading the letter from the Easter Bunny

Tori with our dog Koda, who desperately wanted to be put down so he could begin the Easter egg hunt.

Ryley trying to catch a few more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's while waiting for Brandon to come downstairs.

Tyler was excited and ready to see what was in the Easter Basket!

The kids with their basket of goodies

A gift for Ryley, Ryan and Brandon

A slinky for Tori

Some books and a Littlest Pet shop Monkey for Sarah

Littlest Pet shops for Tori

A lego kit for Tyler (he completed it in ONE hour)

iTunes gift cards --- good choice Easter Bunny

Ryley with his iTunes card and Ryan holding the gift for the 3 boys...A year of Xbox live

Sarah with her iTunes card....I see a lot of Raffi in her future! (Notice the egg stuck to the TV screen behind her!)

Up next was the Easter Egg hunt. There were 120 hidden eggs...1 golden egg for each child, plus 19 other eggs per child

Ryley found the one in the dining room light

Sarah "CAN'T BELIEVE IT" -- The Easter bunny hid eggs in her bathroom!

Eggs in the dryer

Ryan found eggs in the office light

Searching low....

Ryley found the $10 golden egg !!!! All the other golden eggs had $5!

After the egg hunt, we relaxed, the girls and I made a pineapple upside down cake and then we had a wonderful late lunch! The afternoon was filled with the boys and Matt playing video games, Tori and I reading, and Sarah and Tyler hanging out just taking it easy! We love our lazy day holidays as a family!!!

Great day for the princess!

It was a great morning for the princess! Not only did she get the "red car" shopping cart at Fred Meyer this morning, but the Starbucks barista topped the lid with whipped cream! She's in heaven!

Another busy weekend!

On Saturday, Tori's dance team competed in the Oregon State Dance Competition. This was their first year competing as a Performance Company and the girls did great...coming in 4th place! That was the good news.

The bad news is the girls had to arrive at 9:30am, the competition started at 11am (so the dance team, as well as the spectators were in the stands) and after a 2 minute performance by our team, the competition ended after 3:45pm. That was a whole lot of sitting, without any food, etc.

After we left the performance Tori and I headed to Quiznos for a quick meal and then to the Nail Salon for Pedicures in their amazing massage chairs. Upon leaving Tori and I both decided we need to talk Matt into buying us one of those chairs for home use!

With baseball season starting, and Tyler on one team (which I will be attending practices) and the twins on another team (practicing the same nights/times as Tyler...so Matt will be attending as assistant coach), Matt and I decided to take a "date day". We probably won't get to see much of each other once the games/tournaments begin..and that doesn't include juggling the rest of the kids activities into the mix.

Matt and I went to see the movie "Knowing" in the early afternoon (liked the movie until the end which we thought was cheesy), and then headed to PF Changs restaurant for a great lunch.

This evening we headed to the Shirrell farm for the basketball teams end of season BBQ! It was a gorgeous day....all blue sky and in the 70s!

Ryan getting his reward for "top field goal percentage, most points scored, and most assists"

The basketball team and coaches! What a great year they had!!!

April Fools Day!!!!

On Monday I received Family Fun Magazine in the mail, and they had a great section on April Fools Day pranks!!!

To set the stage, Tuesday afternoon, I had a talk with the kids about how "bad" I felt about having them make their lunches every morning, and that I was going to make it up to them by making their lunch for them that evening. They had no clue that Wednesday was April Fools day!

After they were in bed, I made their sandwhiches -- Frosting, chocolate chips and marshmallows!

Then, I emptied individual potato chip bags, and replaced the chips with baby carrots and perfectly resealed the bags with double sided tape!

The school lunch production line.....
Wish I could have been at school to see their reaction!

Our next prank was to put food coloring at the bottom of the cereal bowls, then top it with cereal!

They didn't have a clue!!!

Until they poured their milk in the morning and all of a sudden it turned green!

Sarah and Tyler really got a kick out of it!

I made Sarah a bagged lunch, just like the older kids.

When she got the sandwich out she started looking at the side because some of the colored frosting was squeezing out. Then she asked "Why is there candy in my sandwich?"

Taking a bite......

Hmmmm....There is A LOT of candy in there!!!!

Thumbs up on the "candy sandwich"

Then she opened her chip bag....found the carrots.....she was NOT happy about that. Really not happy and demanded "THERE ARE SUPPPOSED TO BE CHIPS IN THERE" She wanted REAL chips and carried on for quite some time. Finally she agreed to eat the carrots with ranch. (All of the kids had the same reaction about the carrots-- they weren't super surprised about the candy sandwich since I have been known to make grilled PB&J sprinkled with Cinnamon sugar on occasion!)

Next prank was for dinner. I filled the glasses with jello and stuck a straw in it!

Made "Fish Sticks" -- Sugar wafer cookies, covered in peanut butter and then dipped in crushed corn flakes.

The finished fish sticks that I had to hide in the freezer until dinner time.

Made peas from green Laffy Taffy

To pull off the prank, the "peas" went into the microwave

The "fish sticks" went into the oven

When dinner was ready, everything was plated for the kids

Filled the "catsup" bottle

and fed the family!

Ryley realzing he could turn his cup upside down!

Ryan thought that was so funny. I wish I would have taken a picture of Sarah, who was the first to try and take a drink and I thought she was going to die sucking on the straw. Poor girl was trying so hard to get her straw to work...

In the end...it was a great day of making memories to last a lifetime!