Happy Easter!

This year Easter was sandwiched in between Emma and Lucy's birthdays, making April 2014 the busiest month of the year for our family.  Adding to this festive and busy month is an extremely pregnant Chief of Holiday Magic Making, who is torn between wanting Violet safe in my arms, and not wanting to add another holiday that I am in charge of in the month of April!  Now that Easter is safely behind us, and only Lucy's birthday remaining on the April calendar, I am of the mindset that Violet can just come already!

This year for Easter I ensured that the bare necessities were covered and then let it unfold from there.  Here we are below dying Easter eggs the day before Easter.

The girls both slept through the night (in their own beds!) and even woke up AFTER Will and I on Easter morning.  I can't remember the last time that happened.  It was a great way to start what was to be a busy day.  Will dressed the girls in their Easter finery while I took a quick shower.  We wanted to get to the earliest Easter service so that I could avoid the crowds and not overheat in my extreme pregnant state.  This meant that every minute of our morning needed to move on schedule.  We went downstairs as a family and the girls started searching for their baskets while Will and I peeled some hard boiled eggs to dilute some of the sugar running through the kids veins before church.  Emma found her basket pretty fast, but Lucy had a harder time.  In the bottom left hand picture she was near tears until I started giving her clues and she eventually found it.  The bottom right hand picture is the aftermath of them going through their baskets.  The Easter bunny brought candy, Ballerina Calico Critters, and a really cool learning toy called Wikki Stiks.

We arrived at church with a half hour to spare - exactly on time to ensure a parking spot and a seat.  We found a seat up front and I even practiced my "Christianity with Boundaries" and kindly refused to have my kids sit on my lap to make room for late comers.  Sorry, but this mama needs her own seat and we did some serious time management to make that happen.  I did feel slightly guilty about this, and Will even gave me a look so I spent the rest of the service trying to show just how much Emma needed her own seat.  I have never seen so many Easter flowers in one spot, and the church smelled absolutely heavenly.  In the half hour before Mass started, I quietly read Easter books to the girls.

Lucy and Emma knew that there was going to be an Easter Egg hunt in our backyard after church, so Will and I definitely capitalized on this to get them through the Easter service as well-behaved as possible.

Charlie enjoyed participating in the Easter egg hunt as well, and even showed the girls where some of the eggs were hidden.  Wooden beads for necklaces filled the eggs this year.

The night before Easter I had made a Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast that went in the crock pot. When the Easter egg hunt was over, we heated up some ham and the heavenly French toast, complete with homemade blueberry syrup, was ready.  This is the extent of what I did to make Easter special this year, and it was perfect.  While we were getting breakfast on the table, we caught Emma filling up empty Easter eggs with the candy the Easter bunny had left Will and I.  By the time I caught her, there was nothing but a few jelly beans left.  Truly, this child is my daughter.

After a lovely Easter brunch, we all enjoyed some quiet time.  I fell into a deep sleep while the girls and Will did some reading.  It was a gorgeous day, so after our quiet time we relaxed outside while the girls played, and then headed over to Will's parents house.  We had a great time there and thanks to Will's Aunt Debbie, my craving for the family's once a year tradition of the Polish treat chrusciki (pronounced "Chris-Chick-E" and sometimes referred to as angel wings) was met and then some.  Here the girls are below doing some Easter crafts at Grandma and Grandpa T.'s.  They also enjoyed another egg hunt, played outside and even had Will's Uncle Bob make balloon animals for them.

It was a great Easter and a wonderful way to pass the time while being uncomfortably pregnant.  It is a blessing that April is so busy with happy holidays, as the time is going by much quicker than it would have otherwise.  It is exactly one week until Lucy's birthday and two more weeks until Violet's due date!  Come on little lady, let's go for the gold and add one more happy holiday to the month of April!