Easter 2016

March brought a lot of rainy days, colds for all five of us, and the first day of Spring. It also brought Easter! Since it was an otherwise uneventful month we were able to do a lot of crafting and decorating leading up to Easter Sunday on March 27.

Trying his sister's Easter bonnet on for size

This was Ellie's "home school" project for the letter 'B'. I drew the B on the paper and made the ears, but she did all the rest.

She had so much fun making her 'B' bunny that she wanted to make a second one! She made this one completely on her own!

Excited to color Easter eggs!

Avalon especially enjoyed the "Roll It" kit where you paint the eggs with little mini paint rollers

Ellie was more interested in eating the eggs than coloring them, but she still had fun.

Eddie (flashing his infamous "cheese" face) also enjoyed an egg for lunch while watching his sisters color eggs. 

The egg artists! This was the girls' third year dying eggs and by far the most successful. :)

We actually dyed three dozen eggs, but nearly a dozen had been eaten up by the time I remembered to take a picture a couple days later.

Avalon working on another Easter craft... our first "Easter Tree"! I found a perfect branch out in the yard to paint pearly white...

...and then Avalon decorated it with egg ornaments we got at the dollar store, and other little things she made.

And even more Easter crafts... egg garlands! I thought the girls would like stringing the plastic eggs to make the garland, but they turned out not to be interested so I was on my own for that one. They loved painting and water coloring the paper eggs, though (especially Ellie, who I had to keep printing off new pages for)! 

Avalon's bunny decoration she made for the wall. She strung those plastic eggs herself before deciding it wasn't fun enough to continue, so she decided to use it as the bunny's smile.

She did ask me how to spell "Easter" ;)

My sweet bunnies before bed on Easter Eve! One of my new favorite photos.

I sneaked this pic of their baskets after the bunny came and went!

Digging into their baskets bright and early on Easter morning. Avalon came into our room at 7:00 to say that she saw "something poking out of my Easter basket" from a distance but didn't want to go look and see what the bunny had brought until her sister (who was asleep in our bed) woke up. "I don't want to spoil the surprise for Ellie," she said. That's our sweet, thoughtful girl! <3

After Mr. Easter Bunny--I mean, after Daddy was done, ahem, pooper-scooping the lawn... we headed outside for the big egg hunt!

So much for getting a good pic of everyone before the hunt!

Eloise opening the first egg she found. The girls had fervently hoped that the bunny would hide plastic eggs this year instead of our real dyed ones, "because there's candy inside the plastic ones!" Mrs. Easter Bunny ended up obliging their request, but she didn't love it. Call me... er, her... old school, but when she was growing up, the candy was left in the basket and the hunt was for REAL eggs...why the heck else do you dye them? Mom may just have to pull rank on the bunny next year. ;)

Avalon helping Eddie spot an egg. I do believe that was the only one he found. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he sure looked cute toddling around in those bunny ears!

After the big hunt the girls sorted all their candy while they waited for Nana and Papa, Grandpa Steve, Grandma Cindy and Kristina to arrive (Uncle Jesse was out of town and couldn't make it). We hadn't really planned on hosting Easter this year, but everything kind of came together at the last minute and it worked out great!

Papa with his biggest fan! These two really bonded while Shaun and I were on our Reno trip back in February. Eddie follows him everywhere!

...and Kristina with her biggest fans! :)

The super cute bunny appetizer that Nana made! (I supplied the homemade dip made with spinach from our garden!)

Easter dinner time! I wish I had taken pics of the food like I did at Thanksgiving, but I forgot. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, mac (rotini) and cheese, roasted asparagus, kale salad and fruit. Dessert was brownies and angel food cake with strawberries.

After dinner the girls enjoyed treating Grandpa Steve like a jungle gym. Steve, Cindy and Kristina spent the night for the first time and it was so great to have the extra time to play and visit!

Hanging out in the yard the next day and listening to Grandpa tell a story. The girls can't get enough of Grandpa's stories! 

Shortly after I took this pic we all headed over to Freeport Grill where Steve and Cindy treated us to a fantastic lunch before heading back home to Corning. It was a great visit and a wonderful holiday weekend!!