Easter

 Berlynn, Wes, and Kiersten - these two girls are 7 months apart, yet little Berlynn is in the same size clothes as my little Kiersten (who is in approx 10th percentile for weight).  TINY family!

 Easter at Aunt Ruthie's with a group of somewhere around 20+ cousins!

 Bruce & Jordan's boy, Noah, listening to instructions for the Easter Egg Hunt

 Ruth Anna & Wes's little Jaycee, awaiting her chance to grab candy

 Ben and my middle child, Mitchell, begging for the gate to open

 And they're off!!  The 3 and under kids were given a good 5-10 minutes before the next set of kids were let out to start gathering eggs and candy.  The first kid is Oliver (James & Esche's), then Mitchell, then Jaycee, then Noah.

 The only shot of Keith & Mitchell close enough to get them into one picture.

 Now here is where it gets fun.  Aunt Ruthie & Uncle Joe's youngest child (of 8, I think) is Jonathan.  He's the only one not yet married, still lives at home, and so he thought he was going to join in with the kids.  He was using his shirt to gather LOTS of candy.  Ben had seen enough.  He knew what he had to do. 

 That's right!  Ben took down Jon!  He emptied the candy out of the shirt shouting "Hey, kids!  There's candy over here!"  The kids came quickly to gather up what had previously been Jon's findings!

 However, Jonathan refused to stay down.  So here's Ben taking him down again.

 This was the 4th, maybe 5th time.

 In the end, Mitchell (who has obviously had red soda) got quite the basket full!

 

And here is Keith's gatherings...

 We didn't get to stay at Aunt Ruthie's with the family for as long as we normally would.  Next, it was on to Joe's 30th birthday party, coupled with a second Easter Egg Hunt.  This is Kiersten with Hailey (Joe & Kim's little girl) who is a mere DAY older than Kiersten.

 Keith is int he grey jacket, preparing to go out for another hunt.

 Keith with his findings...

 

...and Ben helping Mitchell with his!  By the way, Mitchell DOUBLED Keith's findings!

To end the day, they did a pinata.  Keith didn't quite understand that he was supposed to try to break it.  All the other kids just hit it, so he just hit it.  After two rounds of all the kids (probably a good 10 or so) getting a turn, Joe finally broke it.

The next day was actually Easter Sunday.  The above picture is my happy princess, while the below picture looks much like "I'm keeping my eye on you" (she's really about to fall asleep). 

 

Just FYI, after all this, Kiersten slept unbelievably well both during the day and at night for the next 3-4 days!!  She slept most of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before recovering a bit on Wednesday.  Thanna's family of 7 girls stayed at our house, which we LOVED!  And the rest of the family came over to eat on Sunday (31 of us total).  I wish I had gotten a picture of Ben's family, but I think I was pretty tired by then, too!

HAPPY EASTER!