Easter Weekend 2017

I love Easter weekend. 

I love what it represents. I love the church service. I love the time with family. I love dyeing eggs. I love Easter baskets. 

I seriously just love Easter weekend. 

So today, just like years before, I'm recapping the aftermath of Easter 2017!

Easter 2015 // Easter 2016 

For three years now, we've started the tradition of going down to my sister's house the Saturday of Easter weekend for several egg-cellent activities. See what I did there? I think you did.

Each Saturday kicks off with Easter baskets - which is basically my very favorite part. I don't know why, but I absolutely love making these kiddos some Easter baskets. And this year was Easton's first one! I love walking into the house with them and seeing the excitement on their little faces. Partly because I know it won't be too much longer that the $5 and under section at Target/Michaels will keep them this excited :)

This year they both got bunny sippy cups, new shoes, Rangers ball caps (heck yeah!), and bubbles. Brooklyn also got a new little sundress, some egg chalk, Easter-themed play-doh, peeps, and then eggs filled with skittles and Reeses' cups. Then little Easton got a football, animal crackers, and since he can't have candy yet, his eggs were filled with mini Nilla wafers :) 

Seriously - I just had too much fun with these. I adore those kiddos. 

 

After basket time, we start the egg dyeing process. Now, if you've read in years past, you know that the egg dyeing process for us was a bit of a learning curve... :) But now we've basically mastered the art of the eggs. 

Egg station - ready to go!!

She was SO excited for the festivities!

When you're standing on a stool but still too little to see over the counter :)

Jeff and I also love the festivities. Well, actually we love any chance to do kid-like activities. Overgrown children FTW!

But sometimes you're too young to dye eggs, so you just ask people to hold you while you eat your crackers.

All done! She was so proud!

And that pride lasted for about 23 seconds before she was ready to move onto hunting eggs. I hid the eggs for Brooklyn, and Amy hid eggs for Easton. And how do you hide eggs for a 16-month old, you ask?

You just drop them in plain sight all over the ground. :)

And then he hunted. 

He searched high....

He searched low....

And then he searched inside the eggs. Just in case there were any more Nilla wafers. 

Love that little boy. And this little girl. Except she's not so little anymore. How is she four months shy of being FIVE?! I just can't handle it. 

Oh and then this guy figured out if you fill up the basket with eggs and then dump them all out it's basically the greatest time ever.

Crazy kid :)

Speaking of crazies.. I love this other (not so) little crazy of mine..

And then after several rounds of hunting and finding, we were pretty much over anything egg-related. 

The struggle was real.

The hunt was just too.much.pressure. 

We continued to play around for the afternoon, and these two boys never left each other's side. Easton is infatuated with his Uncle Jeff. More often than not, E would see Jeff and stick out those little hands for Jeff to pick him up. And my little aunt heart melted. At first it was a tad jealous, but they were just too cute to hold resentment for too long :)

We ate dinner and ice cream, laughed more (mostly at the expense of yours truly), and I smiled the whole way home. Traditions are the best!

Sunday morning we headed to my second favorite service of the year. The Candlelight service at Christmas is my absolute favorite, but the Easter service is a close second. I actually started attending what was Jeff's church (now mine too), three Easter's ago. I church hopped for years in Dallas, and then after he invited me to Easter at Gateway, I stopped looking! 

We actually had Sandi Patty and Larnell Harris sing at this year's service. And let me tell you - that church was ROCKIN. Jeff had no idea who she was, but I grew up listening to Sandi, so it was pretty special to be able to see her one last time on her "farewell tour."

Our church crew! Not pictured: those who went to the 9a but didn't wait afterwards to be in the annual group picture :)

After church we ran back to Jeff's and got to open Easter baskets of our own!! If you're new around here, Jeff's mom makes us "holiday baskets" (Valentines, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving) and they basically rock my world. I love making the niece/nephew Easter baskets, but it's pretty exciting to open one of my own, too :)

This year, my basket had all kinds of goodies, but my favorite was - get this - the deviled egg platter that I registered for :) How perfect is that for Easter!? Sometimes I love adulting. 

We then met his parents and the rest of the Smith crew for a family fish fry. We ate, hunted eggs, cracked confetti eggs, mingled, and I got some serious baby fever. 

This was me for about two hours. And I have the sunburnt arms to prove it. Jeff's cousins just recently had this sweet little bundle (the bundle is named Brayden), and Brayden just really needed a place to sleep (where he could simultaneously hold onto hair). So I offered my services and fell quite smitten to this little guy :)

After we left the fish fry, we noticed everyone was posting pictures on social media with their kids, so we stopped by Petsmart, picked up 27 different treats, and bribed our pup into taking this family picture. 

Happy Easter from the three of us :)

And, to close, I will leave you with my very favorite Easter picture:

"And then on the third at break of dawn,
The Son of heaven rose again.
O trampled death where is your sting?
The angels roar for Christ the King
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God"

-Hillsong: O Praise the Name

Until next time,
Katy