Easter Sunday

Our Easter Sunday started with Easter baskets in front the fireplace.  Another year of adorable pajamas, of new spring treasures tucked away in blue and pink Easter grass, and two little faces lit up with joy.  While I am as much a sucker as the rest of the world when it comes to jolly old Saint Nick at Christmastime, Beau and I can both do without the idea of a freakishly disturbing Easter bunny entering our house in the middle of the night bringing baskets to our kids.  I love sweet little real bunnies, but the mall Easter bunnies make my skin crawl.  You won't see any pictures of my children on the lap of one of those things, for fear we might end up with this.  That, or maybe Donnie Darko just scarred me for life.  Either way, I'm attempting to downsize the commercialization of this holiday and downsize the Easter baskets.  Beau laughed when I told him I cut back from last year, but I swear it!

These pictures make me melt.  A boy who's looking so grown up and Mila's joy-filled smile. 

Cruz was stoked to complete his set of Rescue Bots with Blades, and Mila refused to wear her Easter bunny ears, even for one little second.  She loved the Easter grass most of all, and her new white sandals to wear with her dress.  

Commercialization or not, one of my favorite parts of this Sunday is picking out thee Easter dress.  This was a big deal to me when I was growing up.  My mom always took me shopping and we always picked out something very pastel and very spring.  There it would hang in my closet until Easter Sunday, and Mom would take pictures of us on the front steps modeling our new attire.  And while Mila was much too small to appreciate her new dress last Easter, this was not the case this year.  Her little daisy dress fit her perfectly and she pranced around the house with her Easter pail draped through her arm as if she felt like a million bucks.  I could not get enough of her!

We had Sunday dinner at my grandparents', a delicious spread of ham balls and potato salad, carrots and baked beans, salads, rolls, and Kelli's famous jello eggs.  Cruz is at his happiest when he is surrounded by his family, specifically, Charly and Hayes, and the three of them had lots of fun playing hide-and-seek, baseball, and of course, hunting for Mom and Grandma's carefully filled Easter eggs.  Cruz was very into the egg hunting this year, making sure to count his loot so not to go over his instructed allotment.  He scored all right, and we are paying the price this week with more than enough chocolate temptation around our house!

The weather was absolutely perfect, one of the best Easter days in my memory.  We spent much of the afternoon on Grandma's porch, eating, talking, and laughing together.  We left in the middle of the afternoon, tired and fulfilled, just as any good holiday should deliver.  And as Grandpa Merle said on our way out the door, "Well, onto Memorial Day!"  :)