A Very Blessed Easter

Since we live so far from our amazing family, we did our usual Easter tradition- the Town Square Easter Egg Hunt. Last year the twins were too young to participate so this was their first official Easter Egg Hunt. Ed went to Town Square super early to sign the kiddos up, while I got everyone ready and, of course, snapped a picture of them dressed in their Easter Huntin' attire:

All three kids (and Isla) were in the same hunt at 10:30am. We got to Town Square just in time to line-up and the kids were instantly eyein' the eggs:

Tenley and Isla were instantly pros and scooped up tons of eggs, Ev also got the hang of it real quick, while Wes just chilled and took it all in until the very end when he decided to pick up all the eggs no one wanted:

We caught up with the Venturinos after our hunt and the girls couldn't have been any cuter as the held each others hands:

The twins people watched while we turned in our eggs for lots of candy:

Next up, we rode these animal cars that were actually pretty fast. I let Tenley steer our Angry Bird Hybrid by herself and by the time we were done my cheeks hurt so bad from laughing so much:

After cruisin' around on our Angry Bird, we went to watch Sofia and Alena in their Easter Egg Hunt: 

(Those lucky chicks found an egg with 2 tickets to Mystere!)

After our busy morning, Ev fell asleep in the car and transitioned right into our bed, while Wes fell asleep on Daddy:

Later that afternoon we had planned on having a BBQ, but Ev wasn't feeling well a few days ago so I didn't have anything prepared. Since Ev was good and well, we picked up pizza and fries, the Rices brought lemon cupcakes and booze, and the Venturinos brought salad and more booze. With so many kids it felt like we were at a rave so the booze was an absolute must, but we had such a blast watching all the kids play together while us adults got in some chat sessions:

While we were asleep the Easter Bunny made an appearance and hid the kids Easter baskets:

The next morning Tenley and Wes both woke up around 7:30am, but Evie was passed out with no signs of waking up anytime soon. Luckily, the Easter Bunny hid their baskets good because we had to wake Ev up at 8:45 because Tenley just did NOT want to wait any longer. Tenley was thrilled when she discovered the baskets hidden behind the kitchen curtains:

The Easter Bunny was very generous to the kids and brought them some pretty cool goodies:

Since we did the majority of our celebrating on Saturday, we spent most of our Sunday relaxing in our PJ's and reading our new books from the Easter Bunny. Then, we finally got to dying Easter eggs. Since it was really windy we dyed the eggs inside and it got messy really quickly and Wes was not happy about it. The second the dye touched him he was hysterical- it was too funny. Ev could care less and was just her quiet observant-self, as always, and Tenley had fun getting messy: 

After dying eggs Tenley said, "and now lets eat dem!" so I said okay and we made these masterpieces:

I love Easter and have so many amazing memories that flutter across my mind when I think of Easter from going to The Passion Play with my mom, to The Stations of the Cross every afternoon at St. Matthias, to looking for my Easter basket with my brothers before church on Easter Sunday, to the giant chocolate egg my Grandpa John would give each family, to the crazy dresses and hats my cousins and I would wear and last, but definitely not least, my Aunt Donna's famous Easter Egg Hunt with the coveted prize of Bunny Big Ears. Just naming the memories makes me so grateful to have such a great family. As a mom, you hope that your kids grow up with fond memories of the holidays and I can only  hope that someday my kids can say that they too have great memories of the holidays.

We had a busy two days that exhausted us, but the kids had so much fun; which is why we did it. Ed and I tried focusing on the true meaning of Easter with the kids this year- Jesus Christ and Family. We talked to Tenley about how Easter is actually the celebration of Jesus Christ rising from the dead; which was definitely an interesting conversation, and celebrated his resurrection together as a family. We hope everyone had a very blessed Easter filled with lots of family memories, hurt cheeks from laughing so hard and a little booze if the kiddos were raging a little too hard, too! ;)

Happy Easter Everyone!!