Easter '09!

I just have two posts left to bring the blog up-to-date. Hopefully y'all saw my "catch-up" post that seemed to be overshadowed by the cute baby post after it yesterday...  

Easter was fun. Friday night, we dyed eggs...

We only cracked one, I think (amazing!)

Chris was caaaareful, caaaareful....

Next year maybe Jon will join us!

Yeahhhh..... licking eggs?

They were so proud of their eggs- Chris even smiled and looked at the camera! They really wanted to eat one... only when they did, they were not impressed. The next day, we made some into egg salad sandwiches for lunch, though- and they loved that.

The crazy thing to me was that Ben kept mentioning things from last Easter. He remembered making "Easter egg sammies" last year too. It's crazy to me that he's getting old enough to remember past holidays and to associate traditions in his mind. Very cool, but also makes me stop and think sometimes- when they're young can be a little careless, thinking-- awww, they won't remember that, not a big deal... Now he does remember. Everything. Yikes!

Growing up, we always had Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. I loved it and think it's a great idea (Thanks Mom!) so we've continued that tradition in our home. Saturday is a time to have fun together, picnic, and enjoy candy and toys and games. That allows us to more fully reflect on the purpose of Easter on Sunday. 

So, Saturday morning, the Easter bunny had come! They were so excited, especially since the Easter bunny seemed to love SpongeBob this year. And chocolate, can't forget the chocolate. Ben, especially, is a chocolate fiend!

Note to self: Next year if bubbles are given, put them up somewhere so they 

don't get dumped out on your carpet by little hands. Twice.

I loved how Jon got right in on the basket action. He's getting so big and wants to do everything the other boys are doing!

The Bunny brought a SpongeBob Easter book! 

Jon wasn't quite sure what to think, but he loved the mess!

The weather wasn't very Spring-ish that morning, so the Bunny hid the eggs around the living room and they loved hunting for them. Ben, again, just wanted the chocolate. Whenever he found a real egg, he would say "that's just one of the ones we made", like it wasn't a "real" egg. He would tell Chris that if he found one, but Chris didn't care. He just liked finding them. Ben only cared about the plastic ones with candy. I don't think we had plastic eggs in our hunts growing up until we were a bit older. We would get loose candy in our baskets, but we would hunt for actual eggs. I hope he likes them more later, because real dyed eggs are so much more... authentic.

For breakfast, we had "Easter Nest bread" another tradition from my family. It was my first try for this one, so it wasn't perfect- hopefully next year's will be better!!!  It tasted good though. Next year since we'll have church later, this one will be for Sunday, rather than "candy day". We went to Dave's parents in the evening, and it ended up being a complete sugar overload for the day, which our kids are NOT used to ...

I forgot my camera for the evening, but we spent a fun night over at Grandma and Grandpa's, complete with another Easter egg hunt and a yummy dinner and LOTS of treats. 

On Sunday, we started out with a tummy ache from all the treats, but were able to get to church. Of course, they had adorable new clothes! I wish they would have cooperated for a better picture... 

I love matching them and will be sad when I can't do it anymore... probably in a year or so I'll  start just coordinating them rather than matching. I don't want them to hate me. But matching is so fun when you have three very small adorable boys! (I know I'm biased!) 

We enjoyed a relaxing day together with a yummy ham dinner to top it off (and lemon meringue pie!) Wayyy too much food that weekend!