Easter

Easter morning started bright and early. There's a certain little girl in this house who just, this past year, 'got' the whole holiday thing.  She came running downstairs "mommy, mommy, I saw my Easter basket!"  She said "I'll tell daddy you're awake now. I won't look at my basket!" She ran back upstairs to get Ryan and Declan (who were sleeping together in Declan's bed) and then back down again with two tired boys slowly following behind.  All three kids ran out to find their Easter baskets and everyone was eating chocolate by 7:30 am.  Just another Easter morning.

Move over every toy we've ever owned. These FurReal animals have been a hit since they received some at Christmas. Still the favorite toy...Bonus points to the Easter Bunny.

We were headed over to mom's for the Easter Egg hunt and our traditional dinner.  Oh, and the Easter Bunny made a stop by Mia's house too.  Isabella continued the theme of jumping up and down in anticipation of the days activities so we left the house well before we needed too. Girl could not contain her excitement. She told us about thirty times on the way over, that it was taking way too long. Then I reminded her that it was the same 17 minutes that it always takes. 

 An early morning following a very busy Saturday with no nap, a restless night, and this poor boy (bunny) was ready for a nap before he even woke up.

 Sisters trying to make him smile. Usually Quinn can get one out of him. She loves her brother.

Declan and Quinn slept through Isabella's squeals of excitement on the car ride over. When they woke up, they found their 'other Easter baskets' and promptly forgot all signs of tiredness.  Mia told the kids that she came down in the middle of the night to let the dog out and bumped into the bunny who spilled jelly beans all over the table.  From then on, she was the hit of the day (well, as if she's not already the hit of any day...).

Woah, baby. Put down the jelly beans!

                                             Dinosaur books make this boy very happy.
                            Side note: His Uncle Taylor sent him a book in the mail the other day.
                       The card  read: "It's hard being the only boy.  Here's a book just for you." 
         1.  Sweetest thing ever and 2.  Happiest little boy ever...his own package and it was a dinosaur encyclopedia to boot.


Anyway, we headed out for the Easter egg hunt and the kids hunted eggs, helped younger cousins find eggs, opened eggs, ate jelly beans, played ball, ran, sang, played, and like I'm sure I say every year, this year was the best. 

                                           Only daddy would hide eggs in the umbrella...

                                      Declan said he found the biggest easter egg.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.  It's amazing the differences a year can make.

2008

                                                                                 2009

2010

                                                                                   2011

                                                                         2012

I'm not going to lie--I was kind of surprised that we've had this many Easters with kiddos.  Testament to that whole "time flies" thing.  And also, while we're being honest, the group shots are hard to come by these days.  This year, out of the 300 pictures we took, there isn't one of our whole family or of the three kids on Easter.  Not one. Out of 300.  But it's one of the things I'm learning to let go. :)

When we have crazy weekends, lots of pictures, and lots of catching up to do, I have a hard time moving backwards. So Easter Sunday was one of the many wonderful things we did over the vacation.  The rest of the week I'm going to go against (my) grain and re-cap some other awesome and fun things we did.