Easter 2012

Easter was kind of a blur for me this year.  As I was editing photos I noticed that Brian was scrambling around picking up over-turned baskets and wrestling one of our kids back into play in many of them.  I did not notice that in real life.  I failed to get a classic shot of all my kids dressed for church on Easter Sunday.  What?!  I did make a lot of food...

Mom, Dad, and Aaron were staying with us!  Here is Grandpa Bob trying to get photos of the kids.  (This is the only full shot of Bridget's dress.  She looked so pretty!  She even had gold shoes on and her Hawaiian shell necklace.)  My favorite was when Grandma Peggy came in and saw how cute the kids looked and said, taking out her camera, "Colin and Emil go stand by Bridget." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  No, no, no, no.  That isn't going to happen.

We made Bridget wait until after church to get her basket.  She could see it on top of the piano and she wanted to look in it more closely so bad!  But she didn't.  She is Mama's girl all the way.  There is Emil's hand on the right turning his basket over.  That boy just wants to know what things look like upside-down.  Each of the kids got a book and a movie as well as some candy.

And handmade minky elephants!  They are the cutest things.  The Easter Bunny has a sweet 11 year-old girl making these.

Bridget got a huge coloring book.  Can you see Brian on his hands and knees behind her?  I think he's either taking a candy from Emil or feeding one to him.

It's funny that I didn't tell Brian or Bridget which basket was for Emil and which one was for Colin, but they both guessed right. (By the way, I took the boys to get hair cuts last week.  Colin screamed and thrashed around in my lap and Emil just sat there.  While they waited for each other, Colin went down a kiddie slide all by himself a thousand times in a row.  I need to get one of those in the house...  I couldn't have accomplished any of it without Bridget.)

This might be my favorite photo of the day.  Colin has already entered the phase of seeing what's on the camera or phone rather than posing for a picture.  I like how he's keeping cool and leaning on the chair while he secretly plots to get that camera away from Grandma.

Oh, yeah!  Ham, funeral potatoes, Sarah's Salad, fresh green beans...  Look how happy they are about dinner.

This is during nap time for everyone but Mama and Bridget.  I was cooking frantically and poor Bridget was wishing I could color with her.  Next year the food will be ready (I'm getting a freezer, for crying out loud) and I will get to play instead of sweat it in the kitchen for four hours.

Emil is obliging Grandma.  He has two crowns - his hair is a natural fauxhawk.

After dinner we had a lonely egg hunt.  We thought it would be fun for the three one-year-old boys to go find eggs, but my boys thought it would be fun to run down the street and make us chase them.  Good thing Bridget stretched out before the hunt.

There goes Colin.

Daddy had to hold Emil on his shoulders.

Another favorite.  Grandma was explaining to Colin that he has to hold her hand when they are walking together.

 I know it looks like I'm blowing bubbles right in Colin's face, but he came over to me to investigate, then he tried to catch the bubbles in his mouth.  (Yes, I'm a rumpled mess.  See above where I was in the hot kitchen for four hours.)

Time for cake!

And we have a Birthday Boy to sing to!  Ian was having his first birthday the next morning. :)

Haha!  Look at that mesmerized face. 

Ian is wondering what will happen when his Mommy gets to "three."

Colin is wondering why I gave him string to eat.

I declare Easter 2012 a success.  Next year I will be more prepared with the food.  I WILL.  It was such a good dinner that it was worth it.  The best part of the day was going downstairs with the kids to watch one of their movies while Brian and Grandma Peggy cleaned everything up.  And that was not a joke - I think we used every dish and utensil and mixing bowl in my kitchen.  Everything was sparkling when I came back upstairs.  It really was wonderful to have everyone come to our house.  Thanks, guys!  Maybe next year the little boys will be more interested in hunting eggs.