All Things Easter

We had a very eventful Easter weekend! We have been so excited that Chloe is old enough now to participate in and enjoy holiday traditions and games. She loved the Easter Egg hunt that Ben and I did for her last year, and this year, not to be out done, she had 5 of them! The first one was Saturday morning, put on by our community. There was tons of kids participating and she was very timid for that one. She only got a few eggs, and that was only accomplished by lots and lots of coaxing by us to be aggressive and pick up the eggs! The second hunt was on accident- we were at Wal-Mart running some errands later that afternoon and we entered the store through the Garden Section right as they were about to start an egg hunt there. With only a handful of kids, Chloe had a lot more fun and found lots of eggs. We loved this hunt because not only was there candy in the eggs, but money too! Chloe had $2.50 worth of quarters after that hunt- way to go Wal-Mart! (She was excited about the money and equally as excited to get to choose what to spend it on- a Little Critter book!) Later that evening, Ben hid eggs around our backyard and Chloe had a wonderful time finding the eggs there. Saturday night, after she was in bed, Ben and I hid eggs in our living room for her to find when she woke up Sunday morning. The last egg hunt happened when we went to our friends Josh and Erin's house for dinner Sunday afternoon. They had hidden eggs around their family room and Chloe, not at all tired of Easter egg hunts, excitedly ran around the room to find the eggs. Of course, the best part about these hunts was opening the eggs and discovering the candy!!

Here she is out our community Easter Egg Hunt. If you can see behind her, it's not really a hunt- all of the eggs are just laid out on the grass and when the lady says go, it's a mad rush of kids (and parents), thus why Chloe was timid. It was kind of over-whelming.

But she did get a few eggs....

She loved dying Easter eggs and wanted to do everything herself.

Her own, personalized egg!

Not to be outdone by his sister.....

Here she is, Easter morning, wasting no time after the morning Easter Egg Hunt to devour her candy. 8:00 a.m. and time for chocolate.

Chloe has been telling me for months that she wants an umbrella. Finally, a few weeks ago, I told her she should wait and maybe the Easter Bunny would bring her one. Lucky for us, he did! :) She was so excited and wanted to try it out right away. And what do you know- it was raining Easter morning and she was able to put it to the test immediately! The umbrella, of course, is Disney Princesses.

Our Mitchell Man got just what he wanted for Easter too- a high chair! Here he is, sitting on his throne, enjoying his Easter basket and eggs. We told him next year that his eggs will have candy in them too.

Here he is with what I call his "Engineer Face." He does it fairly often. He can't help but want to be like his dad. These sports eggs are clearly perplexing and he's working hard at whatever problem there seems to be with them.....

After all the hunts and endless candy, the kids sure did clean up nice. We bought Chloe's Easter dress weeks ago and she's been so excited to wear her "beautiful dress" as she calls it.

I made Mitchell stand up for his picture, and his face shows the effort he is putting in to balance himself. Our handsome little man does a sweater vest proud.

I couldn't get a decent picture of the kids together on Easter morning, so here is the picture I took earlier in the month that we sent to family. Sadly, we didn't get an Easter family picture either- we had so much going on before church, and then Mitchell was asleep after church and I couldn't bear to wake him (he's a little behind on sleep). But the kids are much cuter than Ben and I anyway. Hope everyone had a great Easter filled with fun, family, love and, of course, Chocolate!

And thanks to Nana and Papa and Grandma and Papa for the wonderful Easter gifts you sent for the kids. Chloe loved everything and Mitchell was fascinated with the noise making animals you both sent! :)