Our Easter 2009

Happy Easter! This Easter was really fun for us. I think it was one of the first times that a day actually went as well as I'd built it up in my mind. When AJ woke up, we quickly headed out to the living room to make sure that the Easter Bunny had hidden all the eggs and left a basket for him. Then we went into his room to get him out of his crib and tell him the Easter Bunny had indeed come to our house! I wasn't even able to get a shot of his Easter basket before he dug right in, but it had a book about Easter and another about gardening, a bunch of fruit bars (which he adores from Trader Joe's), a potting set which I will write about soon in my green blog (see link on right). I knew he'd be getting plenty of sugar later in the day, so we held off on the chocolate in the basket this year...or, rather, the Easter Bunny did.

After the basket, we pointed out to AJ that there were eggs hiding in the room! The hiding spots were pretty easy since this was his first time hunting for them, but they apparently could have been a little more difficult! AJ ran around the room quickly collecting all of the eggs in his basket! Here are a few shots of him on the hunt...when he had found them all, he ran around chanting, "more huntin'!" so I assume he liked finding the eggs! After that, we had a quick breakfast, got ready for church, and made it to Roselle,  just in time to smoosh into an aisle before the service began. 

After church, it was time for another Easter Egg Hunt in Omi & Pa's yard. My mom had filled all of the plastic eggs for the hunt with little trinkets, candies, and coins, but since some of the things were not gender-neutral or would be cool for the 5 year old but not for the 2 year old, she had to come up with some kind of idea. The solution became to have each kid hunt for 2 colors of eggs. AJ was assigned orange and blue eggs (I think that was Illini-inspired, actually), and all of the 3 cousins did pretty well with only picking up "their" eggs. AJ needed a little bit of help to focus him on the area where his eggs might be, but it was really cute to see the 3 kids searching the yard. Since all of the shrubs and bulbs were just starting to fill in and pop up, it made for the perfect landscape to nestle the little eggs into their hiding places. AJ realized these eggs were not empty like the ones at home, and he was very interested in finding out "what's in there?". This shot to the right is me trying to answer that question for him...and the video is Andy helping AJ to hunt for his eggs.

We did manage to get all 4 cousins together with Kim and I for a picture, and I think everyone in this pic (other than our little guy!) was actually looking at the camera! AJ did sit there nicely with his egg basket though, so I thought it was great. (and you can't even tell I'm pregnant!!) 

When we went back inside, the kids lined up at the fireplace for another photo op with their baskets.
Just as I suspected, there was plenty of chocolate to go around, plus some other fun things like paint with water books and toys. That Easter Bunny sure is fun! My mom and Kim also got together before Sunday and dyed eggs with Karly and Kyra. Here is a shot of them looking all "Eastery".  Everyone got to take some home, and I enjoyed eating most of ours since AJ never wants anything to do with eating eggs in any form.  His loss!

Lunch of course was ham, and all the food and company were great. I had a chance to relax a little bit and enjoy a (weak) cocktail, and the kids got to play together. It makes me so happy that AJ is growing up knowing his 3 cousins, and all of his grandparents too. :)