Peace, Love, Sugar & Easter

Easter this year was top notch. Like, seriously. We started on Saturday with our extended family at Horizon Park. A tradition which has proven to be too warm and sunny for comfort on every previous year. This one, though? Perfecto. Some shade and a light breeze made it not only bearable but very comfortable. And with a million little Italian women running around, I had no shortage of hands to hold my tiniest guy. Gavin was a delight and said hello to everyone and even doled out a few hugs and kisses. (Italians live for physical affection.)

My aunt and a few other relatives went above and beyond and hid a ton of eggs for the kids. It was Gavin's first egg hunt. Last year we took a bye on Easter because we were traveling home from a visit to Oregon, and the year before that he was just a baby. This year, we decided to skip coloring eggs, but next year we'll be in for it, for sure. But I digress. Gavin caught on to the concept of picking up eggs rather quickly, and he wasted no time opening each one and ingesting a TON of sugar. Pretty soon he was holding hands with a cousin and spinning around the sand volleyball court like a lunatic, and it was just funny.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the newest member of our family. Clownie the Betta fish, affectionately named by G.

There's my sweet guy, looking more and more like his dad each day.

Mornings with Clownie. What fun.

Before you know it, morning becomes night, you're still in your pajama shirt and horribly mis-matched shorts, roasting marshmallows on the barbeque again. The good news from this day, Good Friday, was that we (finally!) sold the Venza.

Champion s'more eater.

Saturday morning Dude's bike ride. G2 hung back, but he'll be next to Pierce in that buggy in no time!

Cousins getting ready to hunt. Is that my brother drinking beer from a bottle at a city park?

Haha, I love his expressions.

Boy's first Peep.

CANDY

I was sitting on the ground and holding the baby and G popped down with us to open his eggs, so I gladly indulged in some sweets, myself.

Both boys hit the hay HARD that night. Gavin woke up at some point screaming for us, which never normally happens. Did his blood sugar tank? I think that must have been it. Anyway, he took the rare opportunity to sleep until 7:55 the next morning, causing us to bow out of our original plan to hit the 8am service. No problem there...I'd much rather have a pleasant kid on my hands. So, we did the 9am egg hunt and went to the service afterward. Gavin took care of some craft making and snack eating at Sunday school, and D, G2 and I took advantage of the TVs streaming the service outside since it was such a nice day. Also, it was perfect for keeping G2 with us because we could walk around with him to keep him happy and quiet. On other occasions, I've spent most my time in the "Cry Room," which I don't mind a bit, but it was fun for us to stick together for this special day.

After church, we did Easter baskets. Dylan's not real into doing an Easter bunny/Easter basket thing, but I have a lot of fun picking out trinkets for the boys. So, we do Easter baskets, but we don't make the Easter bunny a huge thing. Similarly to Christmas, when Gavin saw the pack of Hot Wheels in his stocking and could care less about all the other fancy stuff we got him, he completely freaked out when he saw the miniature Gravedigger truck in his Easter basket and paid no attention to anything else. He has remembered and talked about this particular truck since going to Monster Jam in January, so when I saw it in Target a few weeks back, I knew it'd be a hit. I stashed the other goodies away to bring out at other occasions when I'm desperate for a distraction. Win-win.

All ready for the church egg hunt!

Scouting it out.

They brought in an espresso truck for the big day.

Gavin turned Graham's carseat all on his own so that G2 could look at the eggs.

He was just happy to chew on this toy. He's a chewing, drooling machine. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was teething!

Church outside for the three of us.

Love this little bunny!

Graham got a munch mitt in his Easter basket.

Gavin saw the Gravedigger and could care less about the rest. Though, he did give a shout out to the bunny that was sent home from Dawn.

"What's Papa doing to my bike?" We're pretty loose with our rules around here, but even I don't normally allow laying on the kitchen table. On this occasion, though, I wasn't going to stop G from assisting Papa in attaching his new bike bell to the handlebars.

My parents came a little later and brought some fun things for the boys, including a bike bell for G. He insists on calling it a horn, so a horn it shall be. After that, we headed across the street to hang out with cousins and feast on a delicious ham dinner. I was the lucky recipient of Hudson's first Lego project from his new set. I don't know what I did to deserve this honor, but I think it is awesome. Gavin always has the best time with his cousins, and Graham enjoyed snuggling with everyone. And then, to top it off, both boys were asleep by 6:55. NBD for Gavin, but a new record for G2 by a long shot! A huge victory for me. I won't count on it being the new regular, but I'll take what I can get! Everything about the weekend was a huge success and a perfect way to send D off for the week. We are all feeling happy and grateful in a million different ways.

Maybe before both our kids leave for college we can get an actual good family photo.

But this will work until then.

Thanks for the motorcycle, H!

I hope your weekend was equally as festive and that happy memories have been made!