Easter Fun 2011

I LOVE Easter! The colors, the flowers, the kids' excitement as they search for those little plastic eggs, with, or without anything inside them. And the promise that Spring might actually be coming...it's been a long winter, just sayin'...


Here we are, coloring eggs on Good Friday-one of our many traditions.

Look at that excited face on my girl. She thought nothing of plunging her little hand into the cup of dye repeatedly and tightly clutching the eggs, before dropping them in different places...

I was reminded pretty quickly why i usually wait for Patrick to get home for this-dye was EVERYWHERE. Good choice with the white shirt-not so much.






In an effort to be organized, I had boiled the eggs the night before, and the boys reminded me continually how badly the fridge smelled every time it was opened. And Josh felt so strongly that he just had to make a sign and get it in a picture...



No Star Wars eggs this year, and pretty simple, but still pretty, I think.

And here we are on Easter morning, with Gracie coming out of her bedroom to find the trail of jellybeans that the Easter bunny had left. The boys blew right by them, in their excitement, but not my girl-she stopped at each one, and stuffed them into her mouth as quickly as her little fingers would let her...she was in Heaven.







So we gave her a cup to collect them all in, instead of her mouth.

My girl LOVES her sweets...
And here's what the Easter bunny left...





The Easter Bunny brings seeds every year to help our garden get started...;-)


Easter treats...;-)



And happy boys, who had given up their DS's for Lent-such a sacrifice...;-)

And here's Gracie, happily checking out her loot.


I just love her crazy bedhead. =)


And then, after checking out her basket, she disappeared for a few minutes. I found her hiding under the dining room table, scarfing the rest of the jellybeans she collected-that's my girl.

And some attempts at a nice picture before church...



Most of them looked like this, (actually I did tell them to make some goofy faces)

but then finally got a semi-decent one....Super cute hat courtesy of Nana-thank you!!


And here's another tradition for our Easter-bunny napkins. The boys were really not into it.
But Ben got the blue napkins and was bribed with chocolate-what a difference.

And here are some other favorite images from our Easter day...

















huggin' cousins =) adorable hats courtesy of Nana:knitter/crocheter extraordinaire! thank you, thank you, thank you!




The Great Egg Race!






As if the day wasn't full enough, we had some fun with neighbors after all the company left...

Some of the kids enjoying a muddy tetherball game...

Gracie all sacked out in her big girl bed after a very full day. All day long she kept saying "I love this happy Easter day!" And I did, too-couldn't have been much better...=)