Easter 2011

Even though Easter was fairly late this year, it seemed to sneak up on me! We had a whirlwind week of the usual preparations - egg dying, visit the Easter Bunny at the mall, fill eggs with candy, and prepare our house for hosting the Easter family get together.

Here is Ethan mastering the art of egg coloring. We let the kids each color one dozen eggs, which means we have a lot of eggs to eat!

Olivia worked hard to be artistic this year with her eggs - mastering stripes and the wax crayon.

Joe and Ethan with their Spiderman eggs.

Olivia with her eggs - one she decorated as a kitty (with a marker) and the other is stripes.

More eggs!

Ethan and Olivia riding the Easter train at the mall. This is always a big hit for them.

Ethan's first time with silly string (thanks to Great Aunt Valerie). The kids had a blast with it, although they each agreed that there wasn't enough in the little bottle.

This is how Olivia slept the night before Easter. We had warned them that the Bunny would not come if they were awake, so Olivia made sure that that would not happen by using her sleep mask.

The goodies from her Easter basket. Her big items were new clothes for her American Girl doll (named Anne). However, Olivia is still talking about the Easter Bunny leaving her socks (a cute Alice in Wonderland pair). She just cannot figure out why she received socks.

And Ethan's Easter basket goodies - lost of Super Hero Squad figures and playsets, and lots of candy!

Due to the uncertainty of the weather these past few days, the Bunny decided to leave an indoor egg hunt. Here Olivia finds some in Joe's study.

Joe and Ethan examining the candy from the eggs. This year, either the Easter Bunny miscounted or we are still missing one egg in the house somewhere (one week later!). That will be a nice surprise when they do find it.

Easter outfits - Ethan again showing his Spiderman moves.

And Olivia looking very fancy.

Trust me - this is not how they usually behave with each other. Lately it has been very love/hate, with a heavy dose of teasing.

After the big family lunch, we were actually able to have an outdoor egg hunt.

I had realized that it has been awhile (since the kids were infants) since we had nice photos with the kids and family. So this year, before being allowed to leave the party, family had to pose for a picture with Olivia and Ethan. Here they are with Great Uncle Joe and Great Aunt Valerie (on Saturday, hence the different clothes).

With Great Aunt Jenny.

Great Uncle Shane and Great Aunt Jill.

Great Grandparents Boyd and Phyllis.

They got a bit silly with Great Uncle Robb, Great Aunt Kelli, and Cameron.

And last but not least, Grammy, Grandpa Brett, and Uncle Brennan.