Easter 2017

Easter 2017 was on April 16. No family party this year. Why? Mom and Dad (Margie and Lamar) had been on a trip to California to visit Shane&Alicia's family (blog post coming at some point) and just barely got back for the holiday. I suppose we still COULD have had it, but the family had just recently had an impromptu get-together (Red Robin, Yum) April 8th, 2017 and there would be group gatherings in June and July, so no official Westra Easter, backyard egg hunt or funny photos with fluffy bunny ears.

Mom wrote: March 15, 2017.  Normally we would be hosting our Easter brunch and egg hunt right now. Our yard looks beautiful for Easter. We had a wonderful time with Shane and Alicia and the kids. They took us many places to see the sights. We are going to Easter dinner tomorrow at Chris and Kim's.

To include some pictures on this post ... here's what the siblings shared (emails, end of year calendar contributions, etc).

I glanced through social media (Instagram) but didn't find any other Easter pictures from this year. 

From Jen:

Our Easter was quite low-key ... some years it's almost been like Christmas, but there wasn't much this year. Without the Westra party (prepping the eggs usually has me shopping and getting everything out at least a week in advance). I meant to pull the plush ears out ... but they are up in the shed now, and it felt like too much work for just our boys. So just some candy and a couple small toys for the little boys. A new "rubic" type cube that's been driving Keaton and Landon crazy (it's got no colors, it's mirrored, and the "squares" aren't all the same size either). We missed Callahan Easter morning, as he was in Idaho for a basketball tournament (they won it). The Reeses eggs are a favorite with the older boys (and me) ... I actually prefer the ratio of chocolate to PB filling over the regular cups. Cal and Keaton really like the Cadbury mini eggs ... those are ones so many people rave about, but they just don't tempt me. Just plain chocolate with a candy coating ... we love the FavorREDs jelly beans ... all shades of red. Red IS the best. I made our annual meringue nests once, and made some sugar cookie eggs that we decorated (we didn't get around to hard boiling and dying actual eggs).

From Wendy:

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. The girls had fun at their Young Women's activity dyeing eggs with plants, flowers, and roots. It was Josh's birthday Sunday, and since it is Easter weekend, we had an Easter-themed party. The kids dyed eggs and had an egg bash, went on an Easter egg hunt, ate lunch (hot-dogs and chips), opened presents, and ate cake and ice-cream. Jaiden made the cake and Janelle and Josh filled over one hundred eggs with candy for the easter egg hunt. To make the hunt more challenging Jared used the Westra trick and wrapped duct tape around some of the eggs and threw them up on high windows or other hard to reach areas. Happy Birthday to Josh and Happy Easter!! Josh was born on Easter Sunday 11 years ago! This is the first time his birthday has fallen on Easter Sunday again! Our kids hit the jackpot at an "invitation only" Easter Egg hunt Saturday morning sponsored by one of our realtors. They excitedly gathered up eggs, candy, toys, and prizes! They even agreed to take a picture with the Easter Bunny, even though these bunny costumes are always a bit creepy. Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt and Jared and Janika decided to put two snails in one of the eggs for a trick. Janelle was the lucky person who got the magic egg and we got a pretty funny video! Click here to see it: https://youtu.be/qE5lMtPuv-w