Easter Day

Last night we left a note for the Easter Bunny.

This morning I got up at 6am to make our reservations for Cinderella's Castle the moment the reservations opened for the day we're going to be there. I got my shower and then woke the girls up at 7. Emmie was very sluggish getting up until I asked her if she wanted to see if the Easter Bunny came to visit...then she bounded out of the bed!

The Easter Bunny was good to the little girls. Emmie got her much asked for Cinderella doll and the Tinkerbell movie and Ellie got a Belle doll and the Beauty and the Beast movie. The girls both got Easter hats, little gloves, a necklace, a robe, a princess nightgown, socks, some books, a stuffed animal to go with the Dr. Seuss book and nail polish. They were thrilled with their presents. The dolls were definitely the instant favorite along with the dress up items. They loved their new books so much that I sat in the back with them on the way to church and read all our new books. Tonight we put them in their robes and nightgowns before leaving NC and they did NOT want to take off the robes when we got home.

After playing with toys and eating breakfast we got them dressed and took a few pictures of us with the girls and then headed to church. Luckily, we got there early and didn't have to sit in the overflow room...it was packed this morning! We took Emmie to the servce with us so she could hear the children's sermon and then we took her to the nuresry. She was so upset about not going straight to the nursery but once they started the music in the sanctuary she was entranced! She LOVED listening to all the different instruments...trumpet, tuba, french horn, kettle drums, etc (I couldn't see them so I think I got them all!). She also enjoyed the children's sermon...Dr. Ferguson was especially engaging today!



I love this picture of me with ALL my babies...including my furbaby...and everyone is smiling and has their eyes open...amazing!



(On a side note: We were talking to Emmie's Sunday School teacher today and she was asking who Emmie got her seriousness from. Emmie's teachers are a mom and her 2 college ageish daughters and apparently Emmie is always very seriously studying their jewelery and saying "it's so beautiful" which is just hilarious because I can totally hear that coming out of her mouth!)

I curled Emmie's hair this morning to give it a little more body and it looked so cute.

After church we headed home and gathered up Franklin and all our things and headed up to North Carolina to do Easter with the Hedrick clan. Emmie has been talking for DAYS about going to play with the older girls (she makes you say all of them by name when you talk about them...if you leave someone out you have to do it again...lol) and so she was so excited that we were finally on our way! The drive up there was pretty rough. We were running late and the girls were super whiney and needed to be handed something every few minutes. We all cheered when we pulled in the parking lot!

We had a delicious Easter dinner and ate WAY too much.

The desserts I made:

Bird Nests

Peanut Butter eggs...so good...I got the receipe from pinterest and they take just like Reese's eggs! They were quite the hit! Clearly my chocolate dipping skills need some work!

I love these little tuxedoed Peeps and they were SUPER easy to make!

After we ate the little girls had an easter egg hunt and the girls were delighted with all the stickers they got! This year they did a new kind of egg hunt...a scavenger egg hunt! They started with 1 egg that had a clue inside and used that clue to find the next egg. On each clue was the name of a child and that was the child that got to open the next egg and read the clue (oh so smart on Clyde and Suzy's part!!). The kids were running quickly from one clue to the next and poor Ellie would just catch up to them and they would run to find the next egg! Emma was so sweet and after a bit she picked Ellie up and carried her from egg to egg so she wasn't so far behind. At the end of the hunt all the kids got to pick an egg out of a basket and there was money inside. Emmie gave hers right to me but Ellie was NOT letting go of hers! I had to chase her around for a few minutes before I could finally convice her to give it up!

Riley, Laura Ann, Abby, Emmie, Emma, Ellie, Mary Jane

Getting instructions for the egg hunt.

Emma helping Ellie

Both the girls LOVE hunting eggs!

The scavenger hut.

Emmie's egg to open.

Silly Ellie!

Emma carrying Ellie around so she could keep up with the big kids!

After the egg hunt we had a little shower for Emily and Blake. The decorations were super cute and it was a baseball theme...they had a baseball cake, cracker jacks, peanuts, and bottled Coke and orange soda. Everyone brought cash and rolled it up with a piece of advice and then Blake read all the advice...some of them were pretty funny.

I LOVE this picture of Emily and Ellie!

Ellie's face cracks me up!

After the shower the kiddos played some more and Ellie stumbled around like a drunk she was so tired (she only slept for 15min in the car on the way up there). When we got ready to leave we put the girls in their PJs and Emmie did NOT want to leave. She kept hugging everyone...it was really quite sweet. The girls were asleep 15min after we left and they slept most of the way home.

Poor Uncle Blake!

Ellie loved getting a ride...she's such a princess!

When we got home tonight Ellie went straight to sleep but Emmie took a while to fall asleep. I think the problem was that she was so hot but she wouldn't take her FLEECE robe off and she wouldn't come out from under her THREE blankets. I will be removing the blankets before I go to bed so the poor child doesn't sweat to death tonight!! (Franklin of course has been passed out since we got home!)

We had so much fun today (as always) and I just can't say enough wonderful things about the family I married into. They are such a fun bunch and they are just full of love for each other! They also raise fabulous children! Emma hauled Ellie around during the scavenger hunt. At one point I went looking for Emmie and she was in the bathroom washing her hands and Mary Jane was helping her...she had taken Emmie to the bathroom and after Emmie went to the potty she helped her get up on the little step ladder and was helping her wash her hands. Many times after Ellie got tired I saw Meredith carrying her and helping her with whatever she needed at that moment in time. Sweet Abby and Riley let Emmie boss them around most of the day and never complained...they were quite tolerant of bossy boots! Many times during lunch I looked over at the little girl's table and Laura Ann was helping Ellie. KJ and Kody (who are teenage boys and if I ever have a boy I hope he grows up to be like them!) were constantly looking out for the younger kids during the scavenger hunt and were so sweet to Emmie and Ellie. I just can't say enough good things about these kiddos!

The girls were also quite happy to see Suzy and Clyde. Ellie obviously remmebered that Suzy was the maker of her beloved fried okra...she was all about Suzy! When we got home Emmie asked me where Uncle Clyde's piano was. Whenever we go to their house he always plays a lot for her!

Easter

This joyful Eastertide,

away with care and sorrow!

My Love, the Crucified,

hath sprung to life this morrow.

Had Christ, that once was slain,

ne'er burst his three-day prison,

our faith had been in vain;

but now is Christ arisen,

arisen, arisen, arisen.

Happy Easter! Easter is by far one of my favorite holidays. There are fun activities (easter egg dying, easter egg hunts, visiting the bunny) and there is a visit on Easter from the EB but Easter has not been so commercialized that we lose sight of the real meaning of Easter. I love the opportunity to sing the beautiful and uplifting Easter hymns and I love the service that mourns the death of Christ and the suffering he went through for us and then a few days later the service that celebrates Him rising from the dead.

Easter has definitely become a bittersweet time for me. Three years ago, on Good Friday, one of my favorite little patients, DJ, passed away. Last year my cousin John passed away on March 29th, right before Easter. There is such relief from the sadness because I know that these people I love can live forever in Heaven, free of the suffering they endured on this earth, because of what Jesus endured on the cross.

There is also much happiness in this Easter season. This week my mom got her stem cell transplant. I think it's so awesome that in this week where we celebrate eternal life my mom received the gift of life on this earth.

We have a busy day planned today celebrating with family and I know we will have so much fun...I hope your Easter is wonderful as well!

A Daddy and his girls

When we found out Emmie was a girl the first thing Paul said was "Now I have to learn to braid hair and have tea parties!" I think Paul was completely blown away by the whole having a girl thing...so much pink and bows and frilly things. (He's still not so sure about the whole fixing hair and putting bows in thing.) But I think he's adjusted pretty well and I love watching him play with our girls.
Today we were sitting at the table and Emmie went and got the Princess sash and put it on him and told him he was the Prince and then she went and put on her Princess outfit. After she got all decked out she came over to Paul and held out her hand and asked him to dance with her. SO SWEET!

While Emmie and Paul were dancing Ellie ran off to put on her Princess attire and came back out ready to dance with the Prince.

I am so blessed to be married to a man who is such a wonderful Daddy to our girls. I have loved watching him learn how to play and interact with the girls...especially now that our house is exploding princess!
I know that there will be times ahead when the girls won't even want to acknowledge that we are their (very uncool) parents and so I treasure days like today where they think their Daddy is their prince.

PS. By the way, in case you're wondering...the first thing Paul said when we found out Ellie was a girl was "oh no...now I have to pay for 2 weddings!!!". I love it.

Easter Party

Today we had our playgroup Easter party. Cathy hosted and it was so much fun! We dyed Easter eggs, had an Easter egg hunt, and Easter dinner: ham, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and lots of other yummy foods. There were about 13 kids there so it was wild and loud but so much fun! We have such great kids in our playgroup and they all play together really well!

Emmie was dying to wear her bunny ears. Of course she ditched them as soon as we got to the party but she was thrilled to wear them for a few minutes. Ellie just went along for the ride!

When I was taking pictures of the girls Franklin kept whining...apparently he wanted his picture taken too! Clearly he wanted to show off his new haircut. (Funny story: I picked him up from the groomer and she told me she could tell I had girls...apparently she found a sparkly heart sticker in his tail! After realizing I thought it was funny, Emmie told me that she might have put it there "a time or two ago".)

It was quite chilly outside so Cathy was very brave and let the kids dye their eggs inside!

Mikey getting ready to dye eggs

Cheese! She's such a little ham.

Emmie and Lucy were very serious about their eggs. I'm pretty sure they spent the most time working on their eggs. Emmie, of course, was the last one to finish. She loves arts and crafts!

Ellie was peeking out while Cathy and Christina were hiding eggs. The kids were all so excited to go hunt!

I love Emmie's expression!

Love these sweet girls!

Emmie was all about the egg hunting. She has to practice for the egg hunt on Sunday with the cousins! By the way, I love the girls' baskets. They had really small ones and JoAnns had them on sale so we went today and I let them pick their color. Emmie picked purple and Ellie picked a pretty light blue.

It took Ellie a few minutes but then she figured out what she was supposed to do. Once she figured it out she had a ball collecting her eggs! For being the youngest of the egg hunters she did really well. There were over 200 eggs so there were plenty of eggs to go around! The girls had lots of fun opening their eggs when we got home. There were lots of stickers, some candy, necklaces, bracelets, tattos, other fun toys, and even some coins! (And they got cute little piggy banks to paint in their goody bags!)

After hunting the eggs the kiddos (and the moms!) were ready to chow down!

After eating, all the kids were playing and I couldn't find Emmie so I went upstairs and she was in Lucy's room with Mason quietly playing. They were so cute!