Easter 2015

Grandma was able to visit the weekend before Easter, so we kicked off our Easter celebrations a weekend early.

We had breakfast with the Easter bunny on Saturday morning. It was really cute and the kids had a great time.

At lunch time, we had everyone over to our house to eat and dye eggs.

The kids had a great time playing outside and coloring eggs.

The babies played in the little pool with some eggs and ate Easter grass. :) We did the shaving cream eggs with them and neither one was very impressed – but we can say they did get to color an egg on their first Easter.

That afternoon, Annabelle had a T-Ball game.

That evening, Van & his crew grilled for Grandma out by the lake and we all joined them after we’d gotten home from a birthday party.

It was a fun day and the perfect way to kick off Easter.

Sunday morning was Palm Sunday, and I got no pictures of the kids bringing in the palms at church that morning, but it was sweet.

We always do a covered dish lunch afterward, and we lost Mamie for two of the longest two minutes of my life. Turns out, she wasn’t lost at all, she was inside with Kels, but it took me a while to recover from that sick feeling. Whew. This all happened ten minutes after Annabelle dropped DW’s sunglasses on the asphalt and cracked his lenses. It was an eventful lunch. :)

The egg hunt wrapped up the church festivities…

I decided this was a good year to try the Resurrection Eggs with the kids, so I grabbed some when I saw them at Hobby Lobby that week, and they’re great. I know they’re going to be a favorite tradition for our family.

After only one time of going through them, I was shocked at how much Maybree remembered.

Thursday of that next week, was AB’s class egg hunt at school. Mamie & Tucker went with me, because we’re always up for adventure. :) Mamie loved helping “hide” the eggs, which really just meant sprinkling them in the grass over the playground. Tucker enjoyed watching the big kids and spitting up – because he’s a spitter-upper and if he’s out in public he’s going to spit up FOR SURE. After the egg hunt, we went back to the classroom and the kids got to have some free-play time, which is a BIG deal when you’re a kindergartener. Mamie got to join in, and thought she was BIG STUFF. When we pulled out of school that day, we all let out a little yell, because it was the start of SPRINK BREAK!!!!

Friday was Good Friday, and in keeping with our wait-until-the-last-minute tradition, mom & I took the girls to find their Easter dresses. I had ordered Tucker’s Easter outfit a few weeks prior, so I was silently celebrating my togetherness on that.

Sunday morning, the girls were excited to see that the bunny had indeed shown up with baskets of treats for everyone! New bathing suits are a classic staple and the bunny did good this year, with matching smocked octopus suits for all three of the kids. Perfect for our spring break trip to the beach! ;) Mamie wanted to eat her chocolate bunny for breakfast, but we coaxed her into trading it for daddy’s pancakes and sausage. She had the chocolate for dessert. Because what else? It was Easter morning!

Boy (as Mamie refers to her baby brother often), slept in and pilfered through his basket by himself when he woke up. He was excited his loot included a new BLUE swing and some farm magnets for the fridge. Another favorite was the wooden giraffe stacker.

We got the crew dressed and out the door, but not in time to take pictures before church. I did snap one of the girls with the flower cross before we went inside.

We took some pictures when we got back home…

& then had a big Easter lunch. My dad smoked a ham and we all did different sides. We were excited that Van’s crew was here for Easter this year (they’re usually down south with Amber’s family), but we missed Adam, Lauren & Parker who were with her family. Garrett called Grammy & Pop from Georgia while we were getting lunch ready and we wished we could have all been together, too.

That’s always the things with holidays- someone’s always missing. I’ve grown accustomed to someone always missing, though…life here will never ever feel complete or like it’s supposed to without Cooper with us. He’ll always be missing when we get together, or go on a trip, or even take a family picture. He’s the one that I think about every time we get all the kids together for a cousin picture and he’s the reason I’ll never be able to say that Tucker is the cutest little boy EVER, because the truth is, he’s not. There was one before him who was equally as adorable and who is still equally as loved by their momma.  It’s the bitter part of every.single.day.  - but like I have said and will always believe, I’d much rather have bitter-sweet than just plain bitter.

We hid eggs for the kids and then gathered up in the cow pasture out front to hit some softballs.

It was a good day and a sweet first Easter for our baby boy.

~amw~