Happy Easter!

We enjoyed a lovely Easter full of church and music and candy and pretty dresses and egg hunts and ham dinners and, of course, all the men in the family staring at the TV watching the final round of the Masters Tournament. 

We had an egg hunt at our house in the morning and Michaela found the coveted Golden Egg which contained $2 (we had played around with many different ways of solving the Golden Egg Dilemma: how can we make it fair when Michaela, being three years older, would in all likelihood find the Golden Egg?  Should we have TWO Golden Eggs?  Should it be a strict "finders keepers" law?  Should we hide it twice, once for each girl?  The number of discussions about this was mind-numbing.  Mommy finally decided that we would hide the egg once but whoever found it had to split the money with her sister) and about 70 other eggs filled with candy.  Alec was totally confused about what was going on but was a good sport and played along. The Easter Bunny's baskets were much better than in past years: Michaela scored an iTunes gift card; Jenna got some lalaloopsy toys and Alec, of course, found some matchbox cars and tonka trucks in his basket.  And, obviously, lots of candy.

We got ready (dresses! hair! makeup!) and went to church in the morning; the girls sang; the lilies were gorgeous; and we all felt the joy of Easter.  Jenna attended the Good Friday service with us for the first time and really liked it.  I explained to her how the solemnity of the Good Friday service only adds to the happiness and buoyancy of Easter Sunday. 

The theme for our family was lavender this year, and the kids were coordinated but not matching! per Michaela's request.

(It's amazing what some photo editing and soft focus can do for a picture)

Then we headed to my parents' to search for baskets and the kids' all-day-candy-eating-marathon began.  Jenna played hot and cold with my dad to find his Easter basket, which she giggled all the way through.

Dinner was at our house, with Dan's aunt and uncle, his dad, and my parents.  We had a yummy ham and all the fixings that go with it, and a choice of two desserts: a Carvel bunny cake, and a sunflower cake I made with peeps:

 

Alec and Jenna getting a jump start on the appetizers

  Deviled eggs being guarded by three attack Deviled Chicks

All in all, it was great and full of awesome photo opps.  My favorite kind of holiday.  Here is Jenna, living the Full Tilt Easter Experience: dressed up, eating a whole chocolate bunny, and clutching a stuffed Easter Bunny.

Happy Easter!!

Easter Egg Coloring with Gammie.

Ahh, it's my mom's favorite time of year: Easter egg coloring time! We colored two dozen this year and decided that this was the perfect amount: enough to color an egg for immediate family, all the cousins, aunts, uncles, teachers, the Easter Bunny and even Jesus.  (We made his egg yellow.)

Alec got pretty into it this year, and enjoyed hijacking eggs from one cup and fairly casually tossing it into another cup, which made for some (ahem) interestingly colored eggs.  He was a little dictator about it as well, and when we would expectantly lift one perfectly colored egg out of the dye with our little bent metal hexagon spoon, Alec would declare, "No!" and push it back down.  So we have lots of vibrantly colored eggs who sat in the dye for ten minutes or more.

You can see how Alec took a "hands on" approach... check out his orange fingers:

The girls always do a good job of decorating and adding stickers and writing names and choosing colors. They are quite methodical about the whole thing and love every minute of it.

 

 

Four Whole Months of Speech Therapy and Special Education Instruction...

... and here's the payoff:  While weighing myself this morning, Alec wanders in to the bathroom, looks over at me and says, "Hmm.  Big tushie."

But he gets points for using an adjective.  They've been working on that with him.

Walmart Story #547

Went grocery shopping today at Walmart.
Walking out I see a nondescript car in the parking lot.
There's a bumper sticker on the back bumper.
On it, there are drawings of a whip and handcuffs.
The bumper sticker says, "It's only kinky the first time you do it."
And I smile with amazement and feel grateful that I was able to see it with my own eyes, because I don't think I would have believed someone if they told me about it.

Just another day at Wally's.