a visit with a bunny, Easter eggs hunts and coloring, Resurrection rolls, and a celebration of our Saviour!

Our Easter weekend was filled with colored eggs, a bunny visit, smiles and laughter, kisses on sweet toes, Resurrection Rolls, surprises on Easter morning, us missing the Pilot, Resurrection eggs, many-times-a-read story of our sweet Jesus and His precious gift to us, an excellent morning of worship at our church, and even some much needed outdoors time...in the sun!! Our first walk of the season was taken this weekend! Yea!!

Friday afternoon, I got out our simple tools for classic Easter egg dyeing: mugs, hot water, eggs, food coloring, spoons, and paper towels...lots of paper towels. :) It wasn't until after I had the boiling water in the cups and on the stove, and the food coloring and eggs out, that I realized I didn't have any regular vinegar. I had every other kind: apple cider, white wine, rice....yada yada...but not plain vinegar. After a quick call to mama, who then consulted with Anne, it was decided I most definitely needed regular vinegar. Shoot. I sprinted to my neighbor's front door. No answer. Ran to my other neighbor. And another neighbor. And finally a fourth neighbor who did indeed have plain vinegar. Thank you Kathy!! Got back into the house where everything was still in one piece (well, except for a couple of eggs that Cooper had gotten a hold of) and the Easter egg coloring began!

Whereas Parker took his time expertly placing the eggs into the black mugs and gently taking them out, dear mr. mr. took more of the natural tendency to plop/throw/toss his eggs into the cups of the now warm water. (not many of his eggs made it out in one piece) I worked with him on it for quite some time, but somehow, my way just took the fun out of it for him. ;) He contentedly went back to plopping and pulling out, plopping and pulling out as soon as I left my post.

We weren't dressed fancy. Earlier that day, we had ventured outside and made quite the mess of ourselves in the slushy streets of our neighborhood. I guess in comparison, we cleaned up rather nicely for our egg decorating party!

Number of times I kissed those sweet toes this weekend: too many to count.

Saturday morning we ventured out on an Easter egg hunt at our church. Because of the weather, the event was held indoors. 2,000 eggs and 100's of kids. It went fast. Within less than 15 minutes, the official hunt was over. We took our time and counted our eggs, opened them to retrieve some edible goodies and then turned our eggs back in before jumping in the car to head home for more Easter fun. One thing I learned from this hunt and from this weekend: Cooper can no longer wear 2t blue jeans...I decided not to show the picture of Cooper in his "capris" at the Easter egg hunt. No worries though! Most were blurry and off color anyway! :)

We prepared and baked Resurrection rolls later that day. The boys loved the finger-licking fun as much as the story and the process of the activity. ;)

Parker was sad because we didn't have his Bible here to read from like we did last year. (We accidently left it in Texas...soon to return though! Thanks Nana and Poppie!) I remembered at the last minute prior to starting our baking, that Cooper had his Bible downstairs and returned with it to find Parker beaming when he saw that I had a solution to our dilemma (because pictures are way more fun than small text in mama's Bible).

When Cooper was dedicated at the church, our Small Group gave this Bible to him. It is an AWESOME children's Bible! We had gotten used to reading from Parker's because there is a little bit more text and detail for his age, but for this activity, the story and illustrations were perfect! (We actually have several favorite Children's Bibles, based on ages...I will share those soon!)

After our Resurrection rolls came out of the oven, the boys couldn't wait to tear them open to see if the marshmallows were still there. Parker got this big grin on his face and exclaimed, "It's gone!" I said, "That's right, Parker. Jesus has Risen!" Parker then said, "Yes! Jesus has risen indeed!" insert proud mama grin here.

I am a little sad to say that dear little Cooper didn't share the same excitement as his older brother. He wanted to know where his marshmallow had gone and who had taken it.

He was quite distressed over this actually. ;)

Sunday morning, the boys woke up to lots of exciting treats from the Easter bunny. Their favorite? A kickball that the Easter bunny found on clearance at Sears in December 2011 for $2.

We also enjoyed opening our Resurrection eggs this year. Parker knew the story well, so he liked to tell me what everything stood for when we opened them each day. Cooper just liked to open them all. ;)

I worked in the Climbers room Sunday morning and then enjoyed attending the Easter service--since our Sunday School class was cancelled for the holiday. Thanks Tammy, for snapping this picture of the boys and me quick before class!


Following church, the boys and I went to the Landscape Arboretum for a Bunny Brunch. Delicious food and a chance to see the Easter bunny...couldn't get much better than that for these two. As one of the workers kept an eye on my kids at our assigned table in the other room, my McAlisters Deli waitressing skills came in handy while I balanced the 3 plates of food in the buffet line and then successfully delivered the heaping plates to the two hungry boys. Thank you McAlisters! I can't tell you how many times I have been thankful for the balancing skills I acquired from that highschool job...especially since having kids.

We enjoyed our brunch of fruit, veggies, chicken, fish, and all sorts of yummy festive food and then were greeted by the Easter bunny. I almost choked on my food though, when Parker looked him over curiously when the special guest was visiting another table and proclaimed, "Mom! That's not the Easter bunny! That's not even one of the Easter bunny's special helpers! That's a man dressed up in a suit; I can see his hair sticking out from the back of the mask!"

Oh Parker. My child who you can't sneak anything past. I didn't even try to fake it or cover it up. I said in a shocking tone, "Parker you are right! The Easter bunny and his helpers must not have been able to make it so they sent a man to dress up like him instead." That settled his mind and he decided that must be what happened. Real Easter bunny or not, Parker was still happy to sit with him and to get his picture taken with him. :)


Cooper really wanted to pull his pink, bushy tail; the Easter bunny man let him.

Before leaving, we checked out the fairy exhibits on display at the entrance of the Arboretum. Both kids were quite fascinated by the large displays featuring these tiny, whimsical creatures.

Parker stood quietly and checked out each of the little details. I loved watching his sweet expressions as it fascinated him. I snapped a couple of pictures of Cooper too...they were blurry (not sure if it was from me moving to grab his sneaky hands or from him being his little active self...probably both) as he kept sticking his hands in the exhibits, snatching the little creatures off of the delicate bridges and the pennies out of the miniature waterfalls and streams that others had thrown in hoping for wishes to come true. Sorry guys. He did throw them back in with happy toddler force though! Maybe your wishes will come true twice! :)

Cooper and his Easter outfit (that used to be his brother's) with his Easter bunny that Nana and Poppie got for him. I tried to get a picture of both boys in the Easter outfits with their little bunnies. HA!
(...and me playing around with some color stuff in Photoshop. I need a Photoshop for Dummies quite badly.)

Love that smile...even though you can't see those brilliant blue eyes in this picture. I can assure you those baby blue's were sparkling and shining even more on this particular day. When the Pilot gets home, I have plans to put Cooper back in this outfit and attempt more pictures. He's just too cute in it not to! (his collar was unbuttoned in this picture..in case you're wondering why it looks a little high and funny.)

Easter morning 2010: Us with Parker in the Easter outfit.


You know, I noticed that many of my pictures through the weekend had terrible backgrounds, were blurry and out of focus and most were off color from being inside with tricky lighting. As I look through them though, I smile and feel thankful that I was able to record much of our weekend "as is." Just about everything was captured...off color or not. And that makes this mama Super Happy!
I hope you and your family had a Blessed Easter holiday as well!