Easter 2014

Well the next few posts are going to only have pictures from my phone - I lost my camera for about a month and had to rely on our video camera (which doesn't take great quality pictures) and our cell phones.

So I present you our Easter Egg dying session - which was Saturday afternoon.



Drew made his own - Yankees and Dodger eggs... if you enlarge it you may notice that he tried to make the NY on the blue egg and LA symbol on the orange egg.


Mom got into the action by drinking wine and playing Photog... Dad did a few eggs.


Then sometime that night the Easter Bunny came!  You may remember last year, the Easter Bunny got his tail caught in the "doggy door".  So this year the Easter Bunny left a "neener neener" note... and a few treats.


Drew's loot...



And then he had something like 70 eggs to find!










After our Egg Hunt at home we headed to church for the annual breakfast (which starts at 7:30am) and is followed by another egg hunt.

Drew is on the middle left of this picture in the doorway wearing the striped polo.  He came away with a ton of eggs and had fun with the hunt.  Unfortunately the sprinklers came on while they were "hiding" the eggs so all the kids came back pretty wet.








But he had a great time!


After church we took our annual family photo in front of the Living Cross.

And then we headed to Grammy and GrampC's for dinner.  Oh Drew had another hunt at Grammy and GrampC's as well.  In fact a month later - we're still nibbling on Easter candy!

Easter: A Family Affair

After the Easter Bunny's fun, Dave, Drew, and I got ready for church where they had a breakfast and an Easter Egg Hunt.  Of course there's always a beautiful - albeit crowded - service.  One of the great traditions they have at our church is a floral cross.  They ask members of the congregation to bring in their fresh flowers.

Shortly before the service they bring the cross inside and put it alongside the alter.  After the service everyone comes up to take pictures at the cross.

After church we rushed to Grammy and GrampC's where the family was gathered to enjoy the holiday.  This year it was Grammy, GrampC, GG, Aunt Connie and Uncle Doug, Uncle Matt, Auntie Rana, Kent (Rana's Dad), Adrina and our newest niece Avery.

As is typical with the new babies, everyone fought over time to hold the newborn.  I gave up some of my time to pass her over to Drew for a few moments... this was the first time he even looked like he wanted anything to do with her.  It was quite sweet.

Drew got a new Angry Bird game from the Easter Bunny and inside was an Obi-Wan bird - so he had to wear his Obi-Wan cape cloak all day.  We made him wait until after church and we got to Grammy and GrampC's.   The  cloak was made by my Aunt Connie.

We managed to snag one snapshot of Drew with Grammy.

And then Obi-Wan used the force on Daddy.

Grammy has always been good at finding child labor.  Just ask my brother and sister.  Here Drew and Adrina were actually fighting over who could scoop the dead bugs out of the pool.

While the outside temp was about 60-63 degrees, the pool was roughly 65 degrees.  I wouldn't let Drew inside, but Uncle Matt was dumb crazy enough to try another "polar plunge" like he did at Christmas.

Only this time he refused to let me pick out his towel.  I picked out a nice princess pink towel at Christmas.  He preferred the manly blue.

And then the idiot jumped in.

Drew kept putting the force on Uncle Matt sending him back into the water.  He didn't complain because it was warmer in the water rather than out of the water.

GrampC decided to avoid the water and snuck some Avery time instead...

It's always so special to get the kids and family together. 

Easter Egg Hunts

It was a weekend full of Easter egg hunts - a whopping total of four!

It started Saturday with a quick egg hunt at the Blackhawk Plaza.  We did this a few years ago and it was a lot more organized, but not as much fun.  Previously we went store to store to get an egg.  This year it was a mad rush to find eggs hidden throughout the plaza - but the problem was trying to contain about a hundred little kids for an hour while they hid eggs.  However if you came late like we did, you missed that you're supposed to sit aside and not look for eggs... oops.

Eventually we figured out we needed to join the crowd and wait.  And what chaos it was after they let the kids loose!

After we found about a dozen eggs, we got ready to go home and get ready for the long day ahead.

Which included dying eggs for the Easter Bunny to find.

That's an egg with Chewbacca drawn on it.

Then the next morning it was Egg Hunt #2 - the real one courtesy the Easter Bunny.  Of course Drew scored with some loot in his basket.

And it seems the Easter Bunny had trouble escaping after leaving his gifts and hiding the eggs...

 ...he left a little bit of his cotton tail behind and dropped some jellybeans in the process!

The "egg in the toilet" (magnet that is) was Drew's favorite egg find of the morning.

And then Drew realized what happened to Mr. Easter Bunny...

After hunting for eggs at home, we had to hurry up and get ready for church where we were having breakfast and Egg Hunt #3.

And in our whirlwind weekend, after Church we went strait to Grammy and GrampC's for Easter Dinner and egg hunt #4!

Drew and Adrina had a blast looking for eggs.

I adored my Easter find - little Miss Avery.

Drew scored big this weekend and found some money in his eggs that is burning a hole in his pocket.  We promised him he could spend it, but he had to count it first so he knew how much he had.

Easter Fun at Church

We love Easter at church - not only are the services awesome but there is a lot of great chances to sit and chat with everyone at the potluck breakfast.  Drew likes the egg hunt and all the additional candy he gets.

Thankfully I felt better after being in bed Friday and Saturday and was able to participate in the fun. 

They let the Pre-K kids start with the egg hunt around 9:15am.  Normally the eggs are well hidden in the Sunday School classrooms, but our church is expanding and all the classes are scattered.  So this year the eggs were just hanging out in front.

After each child found 12 eggs, they were told to stand to the side so the adults could see how many were left.  Once it was clear there were a ton still remaining it became a free for all.

When we finished the egg-hunt, Drew wanted to show Daddy where he wrote on the wall of his new Sunday School Classroom, which should be sealed up within the next week or two. (Yes he was told he couldn't write on the walls at home!)

Following the service we got a picture in front of the Flower Cross we make each year.  The congregation is asked to bring flowers from home (or the store like we do) and decorate the cross.

After church we went to Mom and Dad's new house for dinner.  It was a quiet group this year of us, Mom and Dad, Aunt Connie and Uncle Doug and Grandma.

Aunt Connie brought dessert including this adorable bunny cake!  She told us her recipe dates back to 1968! (I hope I remembered the accurate date).

We enjoyed the weather in Mom and Dad's new backyard!  Can you believe when they bought this house in October this backyard was all weeds as tall as Mom (which isn't very tall - depending on who you ask LOL).  But they added every item in this backyard which was mostly completed only within the past couple weeks.

Above: The hosts - Grammy and GrampC
Below: Uncle Doug and Aunt Connie (I suck and never got a picture of Grandma/GG)

Drew and GrampC are hanging out in the shade playing Angry Birds

This next picture is from the "Back 40" - the cigar smoker's area. That's Dave yappin' on the phone.
 

Grammy and Drew

 Mommy and Drew

 Daddy and Drew hamming it up

And that completes the Easter Picture-Palooza!