Easter 2011

We don't have any set in stone Easter traditions. While seeing my kids all dressed up in their absolute best (which they don't have) sounds like the picture perfect image of what an Easter Sunday should be like, its really just too expensive for such a silly holiday, don'tcha think?

Wait wait, I take that back, Easter isn't a silly holiday when you look at the Jesus aspect of it, not a silly holiday at all, but when it comes to the bunny hopping around and hiding eggs part- we don't have anywhere nice to go, so theres no reason to dress up.

And its not that we don't believe in Jesus, because we do, its just that- well my 2 year old son and my 8 month old daughter don't know who he is. And I don't think that Jesus would be upset with us for not going to church or dropping $30 on a dress that Eleanore will only wear once.

This Easter was crazy. From baskets full of goodies and egg hunts, to flash flooding and 104 degree fevers.

And it goes as followed...


We don't eat eggs anymore, in this family. So if we don't eat eggs, then why should we color eggs? I felt guilty at first, like maybe we should go through the motions of coloring eggs, just for the sake of this is what you do on Easter, but-

After trying to make sense of it, I figured- nope, might as well continue to break the rules.

So we painted paper eggs!



We drew big ovals on large sheets of white paper, and dabbled dots and striped stripes. We dipped brushes in pinks and blues, and didn't fuss over the messes made in the process.

The kids loved it. They love anything that has to do with crafts.

Later on we decorated some foam eggs too, with silly faces and hats and bow ties.
And we opened up presents from Grammy Bunny.

(Nobody missed the egg coloring.)



The next morning we woke up and went down the stairs to see that somebody, probably mythical magical, had dropped off some Easter baskets!

Tangled for Eleanore. A Thomas for Charlie. And bubbles, chalk, crayons, and honey sticks all around.

I'm not sure if I'm really counting this Easter as Evelyn's first, since shes still too little to do much more than slobber on the rubber ducky that was gifted to her, but she got a few things too. Next year she'll be able to walk and chase eggs like the best of 'em.

Speaking of egg hunt...



The weather was perfect, despite my neighbor trimming her backyard edges at 9 in the morning, for hunting down coin filled eggs. Over here, over there, the babies looked everywhere.

We had to kind of guide them along, step by step. "Look over by the trampolene! I think I see something in the tractor!", and even then, they stood beside those previously mentioned things (trampolene, tractor) with blank stares, haha. Being so young, they don't yet understand the hunt of it, as well as they do the collecting.



As Easter day went on, we watched Peter Cottontail one last time, and then we got a surprise skype call from Nana and Gpa up in Washington, which just so happened to be riiiight around the same time that the sky started throwing crab shaped hail stones at us.

A few hours, and about 3 iches of rain later, the skies cleared long enough for us to put on our puddle stomping boots, and go out into our lake of a front yard for dip.



This was actually Charlie's first puddle stomp with his new rain boots. Hes gone barefooted before, but we've been anxiously awaiting a storm worthy of bustin' out the boots!

The water was pretty high though, and after a few laps in the street, Charlie was up to his knees in ice cold rain.

And poor Eleanore. She refused a hoodie, even though her lips were blue and her teeth chattering, and had to be bribed back into the house with promises of lavender scented bath fizz.



Warm water to warm up cold bodies. Daddy played boats and ducks with Charlie and Eleanore, while I goo goo'd and ga ga'd at the tired baby in the hallway.

After getting out of the bath, Eleanore's 3 day long fever, which had been coming at night and leaving during the day, spiked up to 104, and she went to bed early, after sipping grape flavored ibuprofen and getting into her warmest fleece jammies, to which she'd probably remove after she got into bed anyways.

The rest of us ate some vegetables (or, breastmilk, for the baby) for dinner, read a story or two, and before we knew it, our out of the ordinary Easter had come to a close.

And we'll always have the dents on the car from the hail storm to remember it by.