Well the beautiful weather we'd been having couldn't last through the holiday. About 3 days before Easter we ended up getting snow every night. We still had a really great Easter anyways. Chris' parents and brother Gabe came up to stay for the holiday. They came on Saturday and we went out to the Smokin Blues BBQ place in Providence. They had awesome BBQ with the exception of the ribs. they had good flavor, but were very tough. They even had fried pickles which were surprising but delicious. Their smoked turkey was unbelievable.
We hit the hot tub that night and watched "Where the Wild things Are." Which was pretty good, but could have been better in the plot arena. The monsters behavior was just very strange, and the storyline seemed to flail around for a purpose. The kids had fun though. They love hangin out with their Uncle Gabe. Cole had a tummy ache, and we were afraid he was coming down with something, but it resolved itself by morning.
Easter morning the kids were not allowed out of their rooms until 7:00 Gabe slept down in Cole's room with the boys and Cai kept pestering him to know when it was 7:00. At 7:03 they came to wake us up. After getting a sneak peak at Christmas, they all had to stay in the kitchen until I got the camera set up for the big reveal. They were very excited 
about the toys, not so much about their new church shoes. We went without the Easter Sunday clothes this year, since the boys have way too many dress shirts and pants already. Cate has too many dresses, but I did splurge a couple months ago at Gymboree and bought her one. Yes I am weak. Every year we say we're taking it easy, and then we don't and 
this year is no exception. Cai wanted a Wii dance game so we got the Dance Dance Revolution 2 with the floor mat. He was a little unsure about himself at first, but he seriously played it all day. He improved so dramatically it was amazing. Kids catch on so fast. All of us tried it, and I can tell it will be our families new favorite activity.
Cole is obsessed with the Lego Power Miners, so he got a big drill thing with a big monster. We also got him a Lego project container. He has about 20 lego things he's built on his dresser so they don't get ruined, so at least this way he'll have someplace to keep them.
Cate got a Zhu Zhu pet house and baby Zhu Zhu and a gift card for build-a-bear. She also played with her "pets" all day. Then Grandma, Grandpa and Gabe gave the kids the Easter gifts they had brought. They got the boys a remote control truck and a hummer, and Cate got a new Barbie scooter. They absoloutely loved their gifts. They don't realize how lucky they are to be so blessed. After seeing the poverty of the children in Mexico, it was a little harder to enjoy all of our abundance knowing that others have so little. The little village where our B&B was had houses back along the river where the families didn't have running water and barely had walls. It really makes me feel ashamed, to look around at our excesses. I think I'm going to make a separate post about one of the families and see what we can do for them.
We had Easter dinner here. I made a smoked ham with dutch oven potatoes, homemade rolls, and asparagus, with a strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was the first time we put our dining room table together with the drop leaf table in the family room. I had always hoped we could fit the two together in the dining room for a larger crowd and it worked beautifully. Then we could fit twelve people around with plenty of room to move around. Chris wasn't thrilled about lugging the table over, but he'd be fine eating every meal over the kitchen sink if it were up to him. Men just don't get setting a nice table. I put out my white table cloths, chargers, my nice silverware, and glassware, and the whole nine. I LOVE that stuff! It's like playing tea party as an adult! Then we watched "The Testaments" before the Guymons had to leave. It was such a fun Easter! It was really nice having Conference weekend over Easter. I didn't get to dress the kids all up, but it was nice taking things at our own pace and not having too strict of a schedule. It would have been perfect if the weather had cooperated.
