Easter Weekend

We had an action packed Easter Weekend.... kicked off on Friday with coloring eggs. It was really fun this year because Ella was able to really help and enjoy the process. Luke thought it was cool that there so many colorful eggs I think, but beyond that thought we were a little nuts I think.

nothing makes ella happier than coloring things every color of the rainbow

this is about as excited as I get over an egg

show me those eggs!

Our local Alberstons put on an Easter Egg Hunt at the school field across from the store. I knew about the hunt and Seth and I knew we wanted to take the kids to a hunt somewhere Saturday morning..... what we didn't know for sure was what time the hunt started. We slept in a little bit and it was 8:30 when we called Albertsons to check on the start time. 9:00 was the answer. So we had VERY little time to get out of our pj's, grab the easter baskets and go. It was a scene in our house (think Home Alone), but we made it to the field by 8:57 - which we thought would leave us in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, as we opened the car door, we heard: "are you kids all ready!?" Well we weren't and had a little ways to walk (or in our case, run) to get to the field. I grabbed Ella's hand and ran as quick as we could. Poor little  E though, she did not have this scene painted in her mind of what the Easter Egg Hunt would be like. Nothing like creating those wonderful childhood memories. :) She got upset and was even a little hesitant about grabbing up the eggs - there were some left. You'll see in the pics below she's wearing more of a sad face than a happy one. She perservered though and managed to find about 7 eggs, which I thought was pretty good with the head start the other kids had. That 3-6 year old age group can really grab up some eggs in a hurry! We then headed over to where Luke and Seth were...in the 0-2 year old area. Luke had picked up what he needed to do pretty quickly and Ella was happy to help of course. The day turned out to be pretty nice as far as the weather was concerned, but at 9 am it was a little chilly and the grass a little frosty. Luke's little fingers were cold! After the shaky start we had, it turned out to be a fun expedition.

at least there were a few eggs left!

Ella's sad face.... after her traumatic sprint through the parking lot

I know it looks like there's no eggs left, but really there were a ton! :)

Luke gathering as many eggs as he can

gotta love outdoor Easter hunts in E. Washington....crunchy frosty grass

my loves..... Seth, Ella and Luke

seeing what's inside all those eggs

It's hard not to get sentimental about your "babies" as you see them growing up little by little, but it helps that it's so much fun to share more and more with them as they do get older. Ella was SO excited about Easter this year....she was actually in a hurry to get to bed on Saturday night because she knew the Easter Bunny was coming. She actually was up early on Sunday morning and came into our bedroom...Seth and I were sure she was going to drag us out to the living room to check things out, but she snuggled in with us and we slept another hour or so. How do you make a heart symbol.... ? It was really nice. The kids enjoyed checking out their Easter baskets and really had fun hunting down the hidden Easter eggs.

Then we were off to church....after much work getting everyone cleaned up, dressed and ready. No struggle with Ella on this because she loves to dress up. She'd been excited about wearing her Easter dress and hat for days. We had a hat for Luke too - a black one. I had to hunt for a shirt that would match. It's tough finding black clothes for kids, so I wasn't in love with the shirt but the outfit was more about the hat anyway, really, so oh well.

E showing her brother a chirping chick from her baske

game face. it's on!

where are those eggs? Let me at 'em!

what Ella hunted down

taking it all in, bedhead and all.....

heading off to church

oh so thrilled

Ella in her Easter best

After church - and a short nap for Luke - we headed to Tom & Ruth's (Kristen's folks). They are so sweet to always include us in their get-togethers. Great food and a lot of fun to hang out with Tom, Ruth, Kellie, Abby, Brett, Kristen and others that are close to the Conklins. Grammy & Papa Storment were there too which is a huge plus, and we even saw Zac for about 2 minutes before he headed to work. There was even an Easter Egg hunt (#3!) for the kids in the backyard.