Happy Easter!

Our Easter started off with an egg hunt and meeting the Easter Bunny at Ez's school the Friday before Spring Break. Ez was by far the least experienced egg hunter there. He doesn't really understand the egg hunt hustle and he'd spot an egg and kind of mosey over in that direction and it would get snatched before he made it there. There were like two hundred eggs for a dozen kids though, so he got quite a few, smiled cheesily for an Easter Bunny picture, and then he was so ready to leave and begin Spring Break. I don't blame him, for some reason I was feeling very ready for a vacation too. 

 

Our next egg hunt was the next day at our friend's church. It was by far the most extravagant egg hunt we've ever been too, and thousands of eggs were dropped from a helicopter. It was awe-inspiring and also a bit terrifying, depending on who you asked. (←Declan) Thankfully there were lots of balloons to compensate, and both boys came away happy. 

We took a brief break from Easter festivities to spend the day in the hospital for Joe's throat infection, which, despite antibiotics, wasn't getting any better. He wound up having strep throat and an abscess, so after several IV bags, lots of needles, and even more antibiotics, he's finally feeling like himself again.

Our Spring Break was filled with lots of family time, play dates, and CRAFTS. Lots and lots of crafts. We made Easter cards for the grandparents, decorated bunnies, and lambs, and chickens, and, of course, Easter eggs. Not that I'm complaining, of course, I love painting with my boys. And now that I've realized the paint washes fairly easily off our table it's a relatively stress-free activity. 

 

On Easter weekend we did another egg hunt, accumulated more balloon animals, and spent a low key Easter afternoon with family where Ez and Declan got new Buzz Lightyear and Zurg dolls and basically there world was made. 

Wishing you all the happiest Easter and a wonderful start to Spring!

Easter Crafts

Ez has been 1,000% into crafts since he began preschool. Seeing him go from just drawing scribbles to actual shapes has been the funnest thing to watch. I remember kind of dreading crafts because I had to help with every. single. step. He's at a fun age now where he wants to do everything himself, and I get to relax and make my own crafts, which he always kindly exclaims, "Oh, Mommy! You did great!"

The right craft can keep him entertained for hours and with all the rain we've been getting we've got about 382 completed Easter crafts...and counting 😆 Ez gets so excited when we hang his artwork up on the wall, or, if it's an especially cherished piece, he'll keep it for his own personal collection. Decky is turning into quite the little artist as well. If it causes a mess, you can bet he'll be there.

Last year I shared these 7 Easter crafts and we've managed to work our way through most of them, with Ez asking for new crafts daily. His favorite was definitely the crayon/watercolor eggs. Mine is the bunny and carrot footprints, which is one of my favorite keepsakes to hang on the wall each spring, even if both boys HATED having their feet painted. I'm sparing them the footprint art this year, but in exchange I'm definitely hoping to get a few thumbprint bunnies out of them. Here are 8 more Easter crafts that we'll probably get around to over Spring Break next week.

Easy Peasy Fun Chick Puppet

School Time Snippets Tissue Paper Easter Egg

Kid's Craft Room Handprint Chick

The DIY Village Bunny Painting

One Little Project Paper Roll Bunny

Crafty Morning Pom Pom Egg Painting

Crafty Morning Fingerprint Bunnies & Carrots
Craft Ideas Egg Shaped Hen

What's your favorite rainy/snowy day activity to keep the kids from going insane?

Easter Basket Goodies

// book // veggies // bunny chalk // paint // puzzle // thumper //

Ez loves egg hunts so much that we've instituted a Halloween egg hunt because one a year just isn't enough. You can bet we're pretty excited for one of our favorite times of year to be here again. I've stocked up on lots of reusable plastic eggs, as well as a few wooden ones, which I'm saving until Spring Break because I'll need all the tricks up my sleeve to keep us sane, especially if this rainy weather keeps up. For Ez's first Easter we used real eggs, which slowly turned to powder, and then smelly mush, as Ez insisted we hide them over and over again. He was pretty distraught when we sneakily hid them all in the trash can. Lesson learned. Rookie mistake. Fake eggs from here on out. 

Filling up the Easter baskets with lots of goodies is one of my favorite things. I usually go for a theme for each boy (cars, dinosaurs, & baby's 1st Easter), but this year I just went for a mish mash of everything that grabbed my interest. You could call it spring themed, I guess? Or Target Dollar Spot themed if you want to be completely accurate. 🎯

Ez and Deck are each getting art supplies, a puzzle and/or game, a book, some felt food toys, and, mostly to satisfy my need for cuteness, a little scented Disney plush that I picked up on our last Disney trip. They smell like apple blossom and were too adorable to resist (and currently only $4!). I picked up some bunny-shaped marshmallows for egg fillers, but Ez discovered those right away, so now they've turned into bribes and I doubt there will be any leftover come Easter. What's your favorite Easter treat? Decky couldn't care less about sweets, I'm all about the chocolate, and Ez is very into marshmallows lately. 

Easter 2017

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We spent ours with family and friends and soaked up every second of wonder and excitement with Ez and Declan. 

Ez is still riding that sugar high and between egg hunts, pounds and pounds of chocolate, dying eggs, and running around with family he's been on Cloud 9 all weekend. Dex has been dutifully tagging along but egg hunts aren't his jam, and neither is chocolate for that matter. Thankfully the Easter Bunny brought some bubbles so he was a happy camper too. For the most part, anyway... ;)

We packed in as many Easter activities as we could this weekend, starting with a park egg hunt with friends Saturday morning which Declan wanted nothing to do with. Afterward we dyed our eggs which both boys were very enthusiastic about. Eventually I had to put an end to it before all our eggs wound up cracked and various shades of brown. While Declan napped I got to work stuffing eggs and filling baskets, which I absolutely love. I put mini Thomas trains in the eggs and Ez immediately confiscated them all for himself. Thankfully Declan doesn't seem to mind all that much, just so long as nobody touches his bubbles. 

On Sunday morning the boys followed a trail of eggs downstairs to their baskets which they quickly tore into, shoving chocolate into their mouths before anyone could stop them. We ushered them outside for the egg hunt because we were trying to beat the rain. Ez had been looking forward to this moment for approximately 13 months and he knew exactly what to do, running around the yard and yelling excitedly "I found an egg!" Meanwhile Declan went off to collect rocks. To each their own, I guess. As soon as all the eggs were collected Ez wanted to do it over again but it was time to head over to Gangy and Grampa's house where the Easter Bunny was kind enough to drop off even more goodies for the boys. Several dozen eggs, mountains of Easter grass, and an entire bubble wand later we had two very content little boys on our hands. 

Holidays with kids are so magical and I feel very lucky to get to experience childhood all over again through their eyes. 

And just like that Easter is over. I would be sad except that we're officially into our family's birthday season (May, June, & July). We've got a very fun trip planned for Ez's birthday in May, which I'll share more details on shortly. Can't wait! 

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Basket Ideas

The boys and I LOVE Easter. Ez is obsessed with all things eggs which means we dove headfirst into egg hunts and egg decorating pretty much the moment the rainy season let up. Putting together their Easter baskets is one of my favorite things and I've been collecting little bits here and there for the past month to fill up their baskets.

The past few years I've done themed baskets for Ez (cars, cars, and dinos), but this year I decided to just go traditional, or, if there is a theme I guess you could call it Spring. Ez's favorite pastime is playing in the dirt so he's getting his very own set of gardening tools. Declan's favorite thing will most likely be the bunny bubble wands I found in the Target dollar spot. I've had my eye on Jellycat bunnies for a few years now, they're just so cute and soft and cuddly. Unfortunately cute and soft are qualities that my boys couldn't care less about. Their main use for stuffed animals is to pile them all in a giant bucket and dump them out on each other. Still that soft woodland bunny is finding its way to Declan's basket anyway, to appease me if nothing else.

Just for fun, or if you're looking for some extra inspiration, here's a little look back at Easter baskets past:

Little Blue Truck basket details

Disney Cars basket details

lamb basket details

dino basket details

duck and goose basket details

What's going in your kids' baskets this year? Anyone else basically buy out the Target Dollar Spot? There were so many cute Easter and gardening gifts I had a hard time narrowing it down to just what would fit in their baskets.

Easter 2016

Happy Easter! I probably say this every year, but this Easter was the best ever. Ez was so into all the festive stuff, from painting the Easter bunny (aka, the eggs) to hunting them over and over and over until we eventually bribed him to stop with some chocolate covered Oreos and then told a little lie about how the Easter bunny collected all the eggs and took them back home with him. 

We painted eggs on Saturday and Ez was especially fond of throwing the eggs into the dye from about a foot away, which means lots of splatter all over my whitish sweater. Probably not the best color choice in hindsight. He got so excited seeing the eggs change colors though, so it was worth it. After two dozen eggs he wasn't ready to call it quits so we dyed them all again. Declan spent half the time sleeping and half the time practicing walking, apparently trying to get in egg hunting shape.

On Easter morning we hid half a dozen plastic eggs filled with candy around the house. The first one was right outside Ez's bedroom door, and when he opened it up and saw it he kept saying "oh wow! An egg!" The little egg trail led to their baskets, where Ez kept exclaiming oh wow! over and over. He hardly ever says wow so that alone made the whole day worthwhile. Declan immediately wanted everything in Ez's basket and was trying to chew threw the wrappers as soon as our backs were turned. Of course.

After brunch we headed over to my parent's house for more egg hunting and dinner. Since we don't really have much of a yard I told Ez the Easter bunny would hide the eggs we painted at the grandparent's house. The Bunny spoiled them big time with new outfits, more baskets, and treats. We ate lots of yummy food watched a little bit of The Good Dinosaur and, of course, hunted for eggs. It was all great until the sugar crash hit big time and we called it a night. You know it was a good time when the next day I tell Ez we need to go to the store and he says "No. We need to go to Grampa's!"

If you made it this far, congrats! That was a lot of pictures to scroll through. Now that Easter is over there's a little lull in holidays, but that's ok because that means birthday season has officially begun over here. Ez's is in May, Declan in June, and Joe and I in July. Whew. 

Hope you all had an amazing Easter weekend as well! In case you don't feel like I documented the day enough, I'm going to leave you with a short video, which is sadly all of Ez because I had a major mom fail moment and only recorded Declan in that super fast timelapse mode. Sad face. Sorry Dec!