So I haven't posted anything this year. Partly because I have had no real pictures to post, I just don't pull out the camera anymore. So basically the first pictures I have are of Kimmie's birthday...
Kimberly turned 6 in April. In honor of the Easter season and spring, she wanted a "nest" cake, so that's what she got (chocolate, of course):
Here she is with her favorite present: a Rapunzel doll from the movie Tangled. She loves it and still sleeps with it at night. Although I have to keep her 17 inches of hair braided or it would be completely unmanagable.
Here is Kimmie with our awesome neighbors, who made her her own special cake and brought it over with a gift. They are truly so great.
Kimberly has now finished her first year of school, and is going to be a grown up first grader next year! I can hardly believe it. She is doing great learning to read and write in her journal. It is fun to read those and see how her mind works. She loves to draw hearts and horses and plays so well with both Emily and Calvin. She can placate Calvin when just about no one else can, and then turn around and get him to do just about whatever she wants. She loves her Rapunzel doll, as I said, and anything sparkly, especially if it is frilly and pink or purple as well. She alternates between being daring and shy, so I'm never sure exactly how she will act; although truly, if I just thought about how I would act in the situation, I could probably predict her. She and I are a lot alike, which may be interesting in the future. She has also been a cuddlebug lately, and is always good for a hug. She is a real sweetheart. We love you Kimberly!!
Easter season was also marked by our stake's production of the Church's program "Savior of the World," which was amazing. I still can't believe we pulled it off, but we did. There are some amazingly talented people in our stake and they really did a fantastic job and I had a wonderful experience. John was amazing and came home early from work the week of the play so I could get to practices on time and was so supportive and great with all the time that I took away from home to do that. There is truly a great power in the combination of music and testimony, and I had many unforgettable moments. The story of Zacharias and Elisabeth really came alive for me, as did the person of Thomas the apostle. I made lots of new friends and solidified other friendships, and also learned that I'm pretty good at stage makeup and ended up being a last-minute volunteer makeup artist. Turns out getting 160+ people all made up and stage-ready takes a long time! This picture is of our ward members who were involved in the play, and it's not even all of them:
We were pretty proud of our ward as Mary, Joseph, Zacharias, Elisabeth, and Peter were all from our ward. That's me third from the left standing up. I was in the chorus, a "cousin" for a couple nights (so I participated in a choreographed number during the betrothal scene) and most of the time I was up on the colonnade as an angel, where you can see that guy walking up behind us. Sunday night John and Emily and John's family came up to see it, and I felt like I had my own little fan club. They were awesome. I asked Emily what she thought, and she said, "It was long." It was. She liked the "laundry" number that I was in (choreographed folding sheets and stuff).
One of those Saturdays when I was gone, John decided to trim the willow tree in the backyard. Emily took pictures for him. I am half-horrified that he did this while I was gone (what if he fell??!? But he was always tied in) and half-relieved, as it saved me the heart-wrenching and worry of watching him while he was up there. Can you tell how high up he was? The man is crazy. But he got rid of all the dead branches, so hopefully it will be safer in wind storms and such. This tree loses a lot of branches in high wind.
Oh, also, I was asked to share the treasure hunt I did on Easter Sunday for our kids. I always do a treasure hunt for them to find their Easter baskets (I have a thing against the Easter bunny, I refuse to do that). I wanted to make it more centered on Christ, so I did clues having to do with Easter week and the story of Christ's Atonement and Crucifixion. I put each clue in a plastic Easter egg, with a little something to symbolize the piece of the story. I tried to keep it reverent, you can decide for yourself what you think:
I gave them the first egg, which held this clue with a piece of a fern plant I have:
"Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people laid down palm leaves for it to walk on, treating Him as a King." They ran to the fern to find the next,
Which was with a piece of bread: "In Jerusalem, Jesus gave the Apostles the first Sacrament, and taught them to always remember Him. This was called the Last Supper. Where do we eat 'supper'?" On the table they found the next,
With a red fake berry to represent a drop of blood: "Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray to Heavenly Father. He suffered for all our sins and bled drops of blood all over his body because it hurt so much. This is the Atonement." At the fake berry plant they found the
Next, with a silver nickel: "Judas betrayed Jesus and gave Him to His enemies for 30 pieces of silver. Where is your money kept?" They went to their money jars, where
A a piece of wood was with this clue: "Jesus was forced to carry a loarge heavy cross a long way, up to the hill at Calvary. Sometimes the cross is also called a 'tree.'" They had to find the egg by the tree in front,
Which held a nail and this clue: "The soldiers nailed big nails through Jesus' hands and feet to put Him on the cross. What do you put on your feet to protect you from sharp things?" which led them to the pile of shoes in the closet, where they found the next egg
With a piece of a rose bush and this: "The soldiers put a crown of thorns on Jesus' head and made fun of Him as the King of the Jews." They went to the rose bush in the back for the egg that held
A small washcloth and this clue: "Jesus' followers cared for His body after He died. They wrapped His body in cloth and put it in a tomb, which is like a cave. Where to we keep our washcloths?" Up in the linen closet they found
An egg with a small stone inside and this: "A large stone was placed in front of Jesus' tomb and Roman soldiers guarded it. Angels came and rolled the stone away. Where do we have stone that we walk on?"
They went to the backyard and found the last egg, which was empty. They brought it back kind of confused, but I pulled out the last clue that I held, which said, "On the third day, Mary Magdelene came to Jesus' tomb and found it empty, like this egg. It was empty because Jesus was Resurrected, and came alive again. However, this 'house' isn't empty at all!!" This led them to their playhouse and their Easter baskets. We talked a little bit afterwards about what they learned. Calvin didn't get much past the candy, but Kimmie learned about how Jesus died for us, and Emily said that searching for the Easter baskets was kind of like Mary Magdalene searching for Jesus' body. I thought that was an interesting correlation.
Anyway, that's what we did. I thought it went really well, and will probably do it again next year, or something similar.
And that's all for now!!
