Is it still April?

So I know Easter was like, DAYS ago, but I'm going to attempt to bring you up to speed on our day. It's either that or more baseball. Which do you prefer?

I THOUGHT SO.

This was the first year in I don't know how many years that we didn't go to church on Easter morning. I felt a void, for sure, not being there to see everyone and celebrate the meaning of the day with our church family -- but I also really appreciated the chance to sleep in a little bit and forget about some of the stresses of work that morning. I truly needed the rest, and I'm pretty sure Jesus doesn't begrudge me for it.

We went over to my uncle's house for lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt, as has become a tradition over the last several years. While we were in the house getting the food ready to serve, Grayson pointed out that Jakey had gone out to the patio and settled in a chair all by himself, ready to eat.



We still had about 10 minutes to go at that point, but he didn't lose any time. He practiced eating off of an empty spoon. Thorough preparation is the key to a happy Easter meal, right?



When we served our plates, they were just beautiful. Uncle Dick put together a really gorgeous plate of food!



We were there with my Uncle Dick and Aunt Joanie, my cousins Richard and Allison and their families. This stylish little girl is Anna, Allison and Marc's daughter:



And this is her brother, Taylor:



They sat at the kids' table with Nick and Nathaniel.



It was REALLY sunny and hot (about 88 degrees), so we all had on sunglasses and/or hats. This wasn't Richard's hat, but he was more than happy to wear it during lunch so that he could actually see past the blinding sun to get the food to his mouth.



Maria, Richard's girlfriend and much-loved family member, opted just for shades but I think put on a hat later, too.



After lunch, the kids got cupcakes with malted milk ball eggs on top.



They were VERY popular.



Everyone ate them carefully and devoured every crumb.



Jake actually ate much "cleaner" than I thought he would.




Nick licked all the icing off and then ate most of the cake part.





Soon it was time to start the Egg Hunt. Jakey started out strong.



He got right in there and searched for eggs with a great degree of focus.



Nick didn't leave any stone unturned.



Many, many eggs were found. And a few of them had $20 bills in them, if you can believe that!



At about the halfway point, Nathaniel and Nicholas compared their hauls.



Then they got right back to work. Allison helped them, Anna and Jakey look in the bushes on the steeper part of the lot.



Jake lost a couple of eggs to the hill and cried a little bit.



But soon order was restored.



Anna broke open one of her eggs and found some sort of smelly blue candy. She ate it and loved it. It didn't look good at ALL to me!



Maria surveyed the Hunt with her bunny ears on. She looked so cute!



Allison looked so "classically Easter" in her hat!



Finally around 2:00, we went home so Jakey could get a nap. (He hadn't been sleeping well because of the croup.) He took a great nap, and then around 5:00 when he woke up, Nathaniel asked, "Mommy? Did you get us anything for our Easter baskets?"

WOW, INTERNET. I'd totally forgotten. These days I honestly don't know which way is up most of the time. I mean, I'd bought things for their baskets but somehow the entire day got away from me and we would have gone to bed without me remembering to fill their baskets if he hadn't said something!

I went upstairs and worked on them right away. Nathaniel got two Star Wars T-shirts, a MarioKart T-shirt, three Star Wars light saber styluses for his DS, a Bakugan sticker book, twistable crayons, paintable clay eggs and a MarioKart mini racer.



Nick got two Star Wars T-shirts, a MarioKart T-shirt, a rubber "skin" sleeve for his PSP, a Bakugan sticker book, twistable crayons, paintable clay eggs and a MarioKart mini racer.



Jakey got a Buzz Lightyear T-shirt, a Bakugan sticker book, twistable crayons and paintable clay flowers.



He loved the Bakugan sticker book the most.



He was also really excited about his "Buh" T-shirt.



They were all very grateful for what they received.



Nathaniel's favorite things were his new light saber styluses.



And Nick said his favorite things were the new twistable crayons .. because now that the big boys are sharing their crayons with Jakey, they don't last as long.



I thought maybe each of them having their own set of twistables would help some of the arguments that ensue when Jakey gets ahold of the sole surviving purple or blue in the mix. (And by the way, I always share the gifts our kids receive because the other moms in our family like to get ideas for their own kids' birthdays, etc. I am always getting ideas from their pictures, too!)

So if you're still reading, you'll be interested to know that I ALSO forgot about dyeing eggs. We have 40 eggs in our fridge waiting to be boiled and dyed. So check back in August to see how that went. We should be able to get around to it by then.