Easter Weekend!

Friday

At the beach yesterday, we discussed possibly getting together at Leah's house to color eggs. Can you believe that up until that discussion, I hadn't even thought about coloring eggs??? Bad Mommy! Honestly, we tried to do it last year, and my boys were just to young to get it, so I just forgot about it. I'm learning that age 3 is awesome! Aidan is able to follow directions far better, and even though Rylan is only 2, he copies everything his big brother is doing...so really it feels like I have two 3 year olds. I agreed to come over for some egg decorating Friday afternoon.

After the usual daily gym workout, the boys and I had to make a few stops before heading to Leah's house. First we came home so I could shower, then we headed to the Edison mall. I still needed to pick out some Easter outfits for the boys and I. I found the most perfect little polos for the boys and the most perfect little dress for me, and Glenn, well, he's got a closet FULL of clothes so I'm sure he had something in that mess to wear. When we were finished at the mall, we made our way over to Leah's house. She had a table set up in the garage. Rylan fell asleep in the car, so I transferred him to a bed and Jason, Carly and Aidan all set to work on their eggs. Aidan was great! It shouldn't have surprised me how militant he was with his decorating. He slowly put his eggs in the little cups, and then very gently picked them up and placed them on the tray. He's very patient and particular about things. After all three of them finished their eggs they continued playing outside. Carrie showed up a little later with Nolan and Sydney, and Aimee also came over with Megan and Maddie. Rylan was still sleeping.














After nearly a 2 1/2 hour nap, he finally woke up. By this point all the other kids had finished their eggs, so it was just Rylan's turn. Thank God, because he is such a handful! He was the messiest out of the bunch. He was dipping his eggs in all the colors, multiple times, then splish splashing his little fingers around in the cups for some extra messiness. And of course, he rubbed them on his shirt. I think he spilled one of the cups full of dye. He's just so careless and comes over to the table like a wrecking ball. It's totally his personality! He's the carefree kid who likes to get dirty. All the kids did great, and their eggs were beautiful! I was shocked at how calm it was, I totally expected it to be complete chaos! Thank you Leah for having us all over for the fun!













Saturday

I woke up early, well actually, Rylan kicked me in the face at about 5:00 am. That's an awesome way to get a wake up call! So I got up and got the boys some breakfast. Karan, the clubhouse activities director, arranged to have an egg hunt for the kids. At 9:00 we headed to the clubhouse in our Easter outfits because professional photographers were set up in the aerobics room to take family pictures, for FREE!

After pictures, myself and another girl from the neighborhood helped Karan rope off some grassy space and scattered eggs all around. The area was divided up into 2 sections; one was for the kids 0-4, and the other was for kids 5 and up. When Karan said "GO", all the kids took off. It was great! Karan got the kids some really great egg stuffers. The boys loved it.

After the egg hunt we came home and cleaned up the house a bit. I baked cupcakes and boiled eggs, while Glenn cut Rylan's hair (Thank God, I've been asking him to do it for like 3 weeks now...it's so cute!). We waited to do our egg decorating until Grandma Kathy and Pa Pa Glen arrived. Once the were here, we ate some dinner and then set up shop outside. Aidan was again so careful with his eggs, while Rylan was a dye dunking crazy man! After eggs, they opened up their Easter baskets from them. They got some really cool stuff, but the Diego and Backyardigans flashlights were a huge hit! After the boys took a bath (Thanks Grandma Kathy), they put their eggs in a basket and left it out for the Easter bunny.

Sunday

At 5:00 a.m., Glenn went out and scattered all the eggs outside before the boys woke up. They were so excited to go on another egg hunt. They were equally excited that the Easter bunny left them an Easter basket. This year, we didn't put any candy in their baskets. I knew they would get plenty of it from other relatives, so instead, I made them a grow kit. It was complete with small pots, a rake, shovel, watering can, and a package of flower seeds. I thought it would be a great Easter activity for us to do. After all the early morning fun, I quickly got them dressed in their Easter outfits (again) and we headed off to Church.

We ended up going to the Living Waters Community Church in Bonita and met up with Pa Pa G, Grammy, Uncle Marky, Ashley and Aunt Kaitlin. We left the boys in the children's care, and they went in like old pros. The service was EXCELLENT! It was young and hip and the pastor had a great "Portraits of a Savior" theme that he tied into the message of Jesus' resurrection! It was very powerful and had me in tears several times throughout the service. Oh, and I ran into an old friend of mine. It was a real treat to finally get to meet her twin girls, Taylor and Marley!

After Church, we headed over to Immokalee to visit with my Grandma and the rest of the family. It's always a real treat to visit my family in Immokalee. I especially love all the "bad" food I get to eat, like homemade tortillas, corn, green beans, potato salad, Puerto Rican rice (We're not Puerto Rican, but my Aunt Velma's husband is and she always brings this rice to family gatherings), my dad's BBQ ribs and sausage. You've never seen so many carbs in one meal! The boys went on another egg hunt and then all the kids decorated cupcakes. Rylan was cracking us up during the egg hunt. He would pick up the egg, open it up, put his treat in his basket and then walk away leaving the shell behind. That kid is hilarious They also took a dip in the little kiddie pool that was set up. I had to chuckle at the "dirty foot bucket". I vividly remember this bucket when I was a kid. You had to step in the bucket first to wash off all the dirt, as not to get it in the pool! We Mexicans are so clever! I feel so fortunate that my children get to visit my family in Immokalee and experience this kind of culture, expecially because I don't speak Spanish and I feel like I can't pass on a very important part of my heritage!

We stayed at my Grandma's house until it was almost dark outside. The boys were exhausted and so were we! I'm still pretty amazed that we were able to visit with all 3 families for Easter! We hope everyone had a Happy Easter, we sure did!