Tessa had her 9th birthday on March 24th. It was a low key birthday this year, but we had a fun cake and friends over to help celebrate. I always try to make creative cakes for Tessa, because I wanted to do something special for my "middle child" after Aubrey was born. Unfortunately, after having a total of 4 kids, poor Aubrey is the one left out on almost everything and will probably have the most "middle child" issues. :) Anyway, so Tessa asked for a turtle cake, and I did my best to make her one. I thought it turned out pretty good. She liked it too, so that's a success in my book!
Since we've been reading the Book of Mormon, our treat for finishing the book of Jacob was to eat out at Olive Garden. Luckily, we finished that book right around Tessa's birthday and she allowed us to combine the two by celebrating that accomplishment and her birthday in one shot by eating at Olive Garden on her birthday. They sang to her and she picked out her very own dessert - a caramel flavored mousse. She was still a little embarrassed to be the center of attention, but she at least didn't hide while they were singing this time.
We had the Kasallis family over to help us eat our turtle cake and to watch her open her presents. She got a tricycle race bike which was her biggest and most exciting gift along with a few smaller gifts too. I didn't get any pictures of her gifts, but we did get one with her by her cake before we started eating it.
Tessa is still our smarty-pants girl. She always has the highest grades and she does well in school and in the GT program. She loves being active still and doing things like tumbling, dancing, riding bikes, or basically anything that lets her move. She has a lot of friends and loves to create clubs with all of them at school and do all kinds of elaborate imagination games and activities with them, which is awesome. She's our happy, easy-go-lucky girl and we love her. I can't believe she's 9, but we're so happy that she is a part of our family. We love you Tessa!
A week after Tessa's birthday, we celebrated Easter. We had a ward activity that included an Easter egg hunt and an auction for a fund raiser for the youth. The girls loved playing at the park and doing the egg hunt. Abby was hanging out with her older friends and a couple minutes before the egg hunt began, she told me she didn't want to participate. I figured it was because it's only for the primary kids and Abby's older friends were too old to participate and she was tagging along with them. Luckily however, some of her younger friends, like our neighbor Claire, talked her into doing it. I was happy because I was also reminded that it was her final year to participate anyway, because she's 11 and next year she'd be too old to participate whether she wanted to or not.
I was excited to get pictures of each of the age groups as they waited for their turn to hunt eggs. Aubrey and Tessa were in the same age group this year.
They each got to find 10 eggs and then once all the kids had 10, they were able to go around and find any eggs that were left. We definitely had plenty of candy by the time the night was over.
The day before Easter, we let the kids dye eggs. It was a bit messy, but we only spilled one cup of dye; so I guess that's pretty good considering we were working with 9 kids. Everyone got to decorate two eggs and they had fun choosing their colors and picking their designs.
I also wanted to add our semi-annual women's conference picture. The past couple years, we started going out for a treat after the broadcast, and this time we picked AJ's Diner. Girls ages 8 and up are invited, so it's a fun mother/daughter activity that the older girls and I get to do together. It's fun to be with other ladies and their daughters from church as well. This was the only picture I took, but these girls had fun making another concoction with their leftover food and shakes, just like they had 6 months ago at our last restaurant outing.
On Easter Sunday, I talked Tyler into letting us take pictures since the girls finally got to wear their new Easter dresses that Grandma and Grandpa Black had bought for them a couple weeks ago. I thought the pictures turned out really pretty. I love having family pictures.
That evening, we had our own egg hunt around the yard, and the Kasallis family joined us. Tyler's family's tradition is to include money in some of the eggs, so the kids are showing off their dollar bills in the second picture. They had a lot of fun finding their own eggs and helping others find the eggs that they couldn't.
I love Easter and all the fun family activities we do together for it, but we were able to also spend a lot of time talking about the true meaning of Easter and how our Savior, Jesus Christ, rose from the tomb and is now alive just like we are. We watched a video of His life and talked about how important His life, atonement, and resurrection are to us. We are so grateful for the gospel we have in our lives and the knowledge we have of our Savior. And we love being able to celebrate that together as a family every Easter season.
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