Easter was on its way, then it happened, and now I'm just getting around to posting about it. Oops. I'm just now looking through my pictures and I'm going to blog as I go, so forgive me if this is all over the place.
Easter Sunday started with a church service that the whole family attended. We took up the entire pew! (My mom kept her spot at the piano bench.) The sanctuary was packed full of people and Easter lillies. We enjoyed a good service celebrating the resurrection of our savior.
After church my mom invited us all over for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. While she was finishing preparing the food, I took my camera and tripod outside to try to find a setup for some good pictures. I asked Bren to be my model as I tweaked my camera settings. I told her to stand in front of the green bushes and give me a smile.
And well, obviously that didn't work. "Hey Bren, show me your pretty purse!"
This is the purse she carries with her EVERYWHERE. I think she may also sleep with it. So now she's working with me, but I need a smile. "Hey Brennie, did the Easter Bunny come see you? What'd he bring?"
And bam! Got my smile!
But suddenly felt like I was taking inappropriate pictures. Allow me to explain: the Easter Bunny brought Bren some new Dora undies. I thought maybe she'd look at the camera and tell me about them. Instead, that girl popped a hip and showed 'em to me!
Luckily, another model wandered over so we could quit with the nudie pics. Parker brought his own prop with him too.
He was full of smiles but kept hiding that cute face of his behind his telescope!
Then I got another idea. "Hey Jett, come help me. Stand by the babies and take a picture with them!"
First, we've gotta get the stick away from Parker.
Hey wait a minute, he picked up two more!
Apparently Jett decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
So much for that help. And where's Bren?
Oh there she is. She's found something better to do. Great.
"Hey Doc, can you help me out here? I'm trying to get a picture of the kids in their Easter clothes."
"Everyone look over here!" (Parker ran off.)
"Smile, Brennie!"
"Ok, forget it. I give up. Let's just take one of ourselves."
I hate kissy photos and now I've gone and posted two within the last week. First I was kissin' all over Lolli, and now my husband. What's gotten into me?
I gave up on the photo shoot after that. I couldn't get a good shot of anyone. Besides, lunch was ready and I was starving!
I gobbled up my food as quickly as possible so that I could be ready for the best party of the day - the egg hunt! I LOVE Easter egg hunts. I really don't understand why they don't have these for big kids like me. But, since I can't hunt for them, I'm happy to be the Head Egg Hider. My mom gave me a bag of 80 eggs filled with candy, stickers, and money and I was out the door. I decided to hide them on the patio and the playground area.
A lot of them were in plain sight for the little kids, but I did hide some a little harder for Jett. Pepaw helped point an egg out to Bren.
A few eggs were up high where only Jett could reach them.
When it came time to count the eggs at the end (not to pick winners, just to make sure we'd found them all), my little bunny dog helped empty the baskets.
As much as I love the Easter Egg Hunt, the confetti eggs are pretty high up there too. Just like last year, I picked up some real egg shells filled with colorful confetti to crack on the kids' heads.
Somehow Beth was the only grown-up that got confetti-ed. I think that may have been my fault.
Aren't these eggs great? Why don't we have confetti every Sunday afternoon?
Our friend Mady from next door heard all of our excitement and came over to join in the fun. She probably didn't know she was about to get an egg smashed on her head.
I tried for a pic of my brother's family but still couldn't seem to get Parker's attention.
I couldn't get Bren's either. They just aren't interested in my camera.
Beth's sister Shea joined us for the Easter festivities. We think of her as family too.
Mady helped Jett go through all his eggs and find his goodies.
About ten minutes after all the confetti excitement I realized that Bren still had her egg full of confetti and was throwing herself a little party. She pulled the confetti out piece by piece and added it to the collection already on her head.
I watched her do this over and over until finally, she reached in...
...and realized it was all gone.
But she gave it one last good shake over her head, just in case.
It was all gone!
Parker concentrated hard on unwrapping a chocolate egg.
I snapped this picture of all the grown men together. Can you tell which one is not blood-related?
That would be Doc, the only one that knows how to smile for the camera.
The little kids roped Memaw into opening every egg and every piece of candy for them.
And with every piece of candy and money that was dropped, guess who was there to help find it in the grass?
My sweet fur baby, Lolli.
That summed up our Easter activities for the day, but just as we were all loading up our cars and getting ready to head home, we got one more surprise. My parents had already been watching this bird nest for several days...
...but it was Beth that noticed a little chirping head sticking out. We all raced upstairs to take a look. Baby Easter birds!
What a great end to the day! Since the nest resides on the windowsill to my bedroom at their house, I'm claiming the birds as my own. I've called my mom after each major storm and tornado to make sure the birdies are ok, and I'm happy to report that they're still safe in their nest.
Hope your Easter was every bit as good as ours was!
