easter sunday...

As I mentioned before, some of my high hopes and expectations for this year's Easter Sunday, were never realized; but thankfully, there were some shining moments...in other words, it wasn't a complete disappointment.

We got up in the morning and watched Ruby hunt for her dyed eggs - which the Easter Bunny had so furtively hidden around our house. I myself, was grateful that she was able to find them all...can you imagine what our house would be smelling like after a few days if even just one egg had remained unfound?

She was so happy to find her Easter dress, hat, and new shoes...


Inside that giant pink plastic egg, the Easter bunny had placed a clue, which lead her to another clue, and another...and so on, until she finally found the baskets hidden in the bathtub. Inside her basket (among other things) was a new baby doll with an Easter dress that matched her own...



Also, inside her basket was a toy princess camera, which surprisingly, turned out to be her very favorite thing from the Easter bunny. It was one of those last minute, total afterthought items...but hey, leave it to the Easter Bunny...he apparently really knows what he's doing. She's been snapping pictures (of anyone who will pose for her) all week long.



After church, we (Ruby and I - because remember, John was sick in bed ALL day and Asher was asleep) headed over to Lori's for our annual Easter dinner and candy egg hunt for the kids.

Once again it was a huge hit for everyone who participated...

Here's Ruby getting a head start...she has finally learned to not waist even a single second in gathering her eggs.



I absolutely LOVE this chubby little hand...


Still on the hunt...

She hit the jackpot...

And so did Ella...

Stopping at nothing, James climbs a tree to retrieve this lone yellow egg.


After a whole lot of strenuous running and arduous hunting, it's time to relax on the porch swing, and of course...dig into all that candy!

holy saturday...

was probably more fun than holy, for us.

Ruby had a great time dyeing eggs. I doubt she recalls her experience coloring eggs when she was 10 months old; and last year, we didn't have the opportunity, seeing how she had just come home from the hospital. So it was like she was doting upon the enchantment for the very first time. I loved to see how animated she was, dropping the eggs down into the little cups, and then reaching her hands in the water...grabbing one, and dropping it into a different colored cup of dye. We ended up with some very interesting colors of eggs (and more cracked than whole), when all was said and done.



The kids LOVED getting their Easter package in the mail from grammy and grandpa. As you can see, Asher was thoroughly entertained for quite some time by his purple bunny that came inside a giant yellow plastic egg. I was quite surprised that he was able to open the egg himself to get to his stuffed bunny...actually, maybe he was a bit more intrigued with the egg rather than it's contents.




Oh yeah, and we also made these little easter cake pops to give away, thanks to Bakerella for the darling idea...

good friday...

The Friday before Easter, I thought I'd dress the kids up in their Easter clothes, and then take them out back for a non-frenzied, non-stressful photo shoot. I figured that Easter morning would be super rushed after finding all the eggs which the Easter Bunny had hidden, and then going on the clue hunt that I had come up with to find the baskets. It just seems that after all the festivities, and breakfast, and getting myself and everyone ready...we end up running into church 5 minutes late. Pictures always take the back burner. Unfortunately, my plan was thwarted by two very uncooperative children. Look how grumpy they were. I think there are at least 2 or 3 pictures where Ruby is sticking her tongue out at me. And Asher, oh Asher...couldn't you have cracked even the slightest of smiles in just one of these? Apparently smiling was just too much to ask of either of them. The only happy picture you'll see here...is sadly, the one I took of myself.

Enough already mom...

I wasn't too worried, however, about my less than perfect pictures...because immediately following our shoot, we'd be off to the mall to get pictures with the Easter Bunny himself. Surely I'd be able to get a few good (smiley) shots, especially with the help of John (who was getting off work early), and my mother-in law (who was in town for the weekend). I had been talking it up to Ruby for at least two or three days, and she was pretty much beside herself. All she could talk about was how she was going to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, and then give him a great big hug. We left at 4:30, and needed to be back by 6:30 for Judy's surprise 70th birthday party (which she had no clue about). Surely 2 hours would be sufficient time to see the Easter Bunny, right? Well of course...that is - if your baby doesn't have a major blow-out (which explodes out the back of his diaper and half way up his back, seeping through his grey pinstripe pants and pink and white dress shirt), requiring a detour through Dillard's to clean everything up, change his diaper, buy new clothes, and re-dress him. Totally my luck. By the time we made it to see the Easter Bunny, the line was outrageously long, and moving slower than molasses. We waited in it for about 30 minutes, before I noticed the sign which read we ask that you please refrain from using your own camera. What? I always take my own camera, and it's never been a problem. We decided that if we continued waiting in the line, we'd never be back to Lori's by 6:30 anyway...so we ditched the Easter Bunny altogether. I mostly felt bad for Ruby, who like her mother, had been envisioning this day...for several days. We thought we could appease her disappointment (and mine), by treating ourselves to a chocolate chip cookie from Paradise Bakery. We were sitting in the food court, relishing the delightfulness of our wonderful treats, when John, oh bless you John, came up with the most ingenious idea. Just mere feet from where we were sitting, was a large, double-decker carousel...and on this carousel, right there in plain view, among all the horses and ponies, was a Rabbit...or as John so cleverly called it, the EASTER BUNNY! He had Ruby convinced that this was in fact, the Easter Bunny we had planned on seeing all along...and once again, she was beside herself...not just because she got to see the Easter Bunny FINALLY, but because she got to ride on the Easter Bunny, with Grandma Judy (hiding from the camera)at her side. Very few things could be better than that.



She doesn't look very happy in these, does she? It probably has something to do with the fact that mom's always shoving that darn camera in her face.

sneak peek...

This is just one of the 374 Easter pictures that I took this year. Seriously, what was I thinking? And what a daunting task to have to go through each one of them...the sorting, the editing, the tossing.

This Easter was strange for me. Have you ever had the biggest and greatest expectations for something, but in reality, the actual event turns out not even remotely close to what you had envisioned? Don't get me wrong, it was a nice day...just different than what I had fancied up in my mind when I purchased our family's coordinating outfits over a month and a half ago. As luck would have it, John was deathly ill and confined to the bed all day...his pink and grey striped tie (tags still attached), clung to the collar of his charcoal suit, which - for the entire day - remained hanging on it's wooden hanger in the closet. I can't even count the number of times I layed our outfits out on my bed and dreamed about having our picture taken...and walking into church together...and staying in our Easter clothes all day - everyone commenting on how adorable we looked together. It serves me right that things turned out the way they did. I mean, who was I trying to please or impress anyway? I became completely consumed and caught up in the wrong things this year, and it came back to bite me; and actually, I'm glad that it did. I'm glad because it humbled me a bit, not to mention forced me to stop and think about the reason we have Easter in the first place. I find nothing wrong with celebrating the secular joys of the holidays...as long as the most important reasons and purposes for celebrating - always remain at the forefront of our hearts and minds...a little something I had to learn the hard way this year.

On a much happier note, I will be posting lots of Easter pics in the upcoming days...not 374 lots, but lots nonetheless. :)

to being a better mom...

I was inspired by this post written by my friend, Natalie. When I read it, I was taken back to my own childhood...and as I remember it, a near perfect childhood. I love that each day, my mom took time out of her busy life to just be a mom. To get down on the ground and wrestle with her children, to build snowmen, to play house, to go on bike rides, and have picnics. I loved it when she would read to me, and sing with me, and play hide and seek. It's interesting how such simple things, can have such an everlasting impact. I want to be that kind of mom. The kind of mom that builds Lego towers, and engineers train track frames. The kind of mom who plays dress ups and polly pockets. I don't want to be remembered as the mom who was always cleaning, or the mom that spent half her days on the computer or the telephone...or the mom that couldn't put her book - or the bills, or the scrub brush, or her lesson manual - down for just a few moments. It only takes a few moments to create lasting memories...memories that children might possibly carry with them into adulthood. So I am now committed - to myself and to my children - to being a better mom. I'm going to let my hair down and roll on the floor with my kids. With them I'm going to color and paint more, mold and create more, explore and discover more, imagine and pretend more, and most of all laugh more.

Today we molded several colors of play-doh into snowman heads with hats (100% Ruby's idea). I rolled the heads, and she made the hats...

Then we got several pieces of fruit from the fridge (and an egg), and used them as models for these little creations...

Ruby may not remember what we did today, or yesterday, or last week, or three weeks ago...but I hope she always remembers the way she feels when we spend time together.