Celebrating Easter 2013

I loved Easter this year because Peanut was pleasantly surprised to find an Easter basket waiting for him in the morning.  He also loved putting up some decorations and doing a few crafts.

He did not however, have any expectations for bunny prints staged outside or elaborate egg hunts and who knows what else.  This is nice because somehow during the move I lost our bin of Easter stuff and again this holiday just snuck up on me, which is what I say for every holiday these past few years.

Perhaps my favorite part of all this egg business is watching the little ones try and open some of those tight fitting eggs.  

It is awesome.

I might have to glue some together when he gets older.

Or is that not part of the Easter spirit?  I'm not so sure.

The big reward for all that hard work is...... MONEY!

One quarter, one dime, one nickel and one penny and you would have thought the kid won the lottery.

Oh the simple things in life.

Nothing like the clunk of coins dropping into your Noah's Ark piggy bank.

I keep trying to play with the filters on flicker but I think what I really need is photoshop.
How much money do I need to spend in able to get a program that will brighten up pictures like the one above?

Peanut also loved spending time reading through his Easter book with daddy.
Daddy does a lot of fun voices and sound effects.

B had to work (Boo!) so he helped me get the kid wrangled to head to church.

Of course we were already running late which means I made a last minute switch of churches in an effort to find a mass that was 30 minutes later than the one I planned to attend.

We stopped to take a few pictures but really to throw some dirt and get messy before heading to mass.  He picked up a snail in the church parking lot and threw it at my car.

Thank you for that.

We ended up in the children's room of this new church, which is to say that we ended up in a room with no ventilation and 10 other kids, 9 of whom were sick.

There was a box of books and the kids were wandering around and

 I couldn't hear anything and Peanut thought it was play time.

We left early.  I know.  But seriously, I was dying in there and I felt like staying any longer sort of missed the point of going in the first place.

Somehow his sleeves got dirty with I-don't-want-to-know-what so I changed him again before heading to my parents house.

This look says, "Seriously mom, I just want to give Nama this bunny I made and you keep dragging me around and changing my clothes and taking lots of pictures.  Enough."

So off we went and he was so happy to see his cousin.

They are always happy to see each other.

They are always arguing within 30 minutes.

It always makes me laugh.

What I love about this age is that the kids are really happy with their one egg but all the adults are busy calling them, getting their attention and pointing them to more.

It's hilarious to watch the chaos.

I'm still trying to decide if Peanut went around picking all the pink eggs or the other boys picked all the blue and green or if it was just coincidence.

Either way it was awfully cute and very noticed by myself and others which really makes me laugh.

We can have a discussion about gender differences, gender discussions and society expectations later, yes?

Again with the egg opening!  

You gotta put some muscle into these things.

About this time we realized that all the eggs that were pre-filled with other little eggs had a bunch of candy that they couldn't eat in the center.

Bubble gum, Now & Laters and other choking hazard, yay!

It didn't really matter because the kids, or at least Peanut, doesn't really get the concept of candy anyway.  I let him have some Smarties that he ended up spitting out.

We decided it would be better to distract them with Easter Baskets.

Look mom, an Easter gun!

Yes, yes, that's nice dear.  Wait what?

OK, OK it's a bubble gun but still, the thing comes with a holster.

A holster filled with bubble ammo.

These gun and holster sets are obviously not as easy to use and you would think.

Papa to the rescue!

When Peanut was born I said no guns.  I don't particularly like them.

Of course, a child can turn just about anything into a gun.

I often find him shooting things with a backward golf club.

I suppose it doesn't matter.  

Unfortunately or fortunately these didn't end up working well and magically disappeared after the festivities.

I've decided that the ability to find your own Easter eggs and then open them is a right of passage.

It's like moving to the big kids table.

We spent a little time stuffing our face.

The adults do it with dignity, which is to say that we do it one serving, one plate at a time.
We casually go back time and time again, a serving here, a serving there.

The kids shamelessly stick as many cheese puffs as possible into their mouths before they choke.

Fun was had by all.

A little baseball training from my nephew Justin, whose child I am convinced is some kind of hitting and pitching prodigy as the age of nearly 3.

We both met daddy at home later in the evening, with our arms full of leftovers and our eyes drooping from a day of festivities.

How was your Easter?