Easter 2012

Easter completely snuck up on me this year. I didn't realize it was the week of Easter until we were in Indiana. We got home from Indiana late Friday night. LUCKILY I had already bought everything for Cooper for Easter. That would have been a huge headache having to run out and do it all on Saturday. I went a little over board this year for Easter. Brad was making fun of me saying all he ever got was candy. I was trying to explain that I didn't buy all the things for Easter, I had gotten them and decided just to keep for Easter. He doesn't understand there is a difference and going and buying things just because it is Easter compared to getting stuff that I was already planning on getting anyways.

Because of me not realizing it was Easter and us trying to recover from our trip our Easter traditions didn't go as planned. Every year we get new Easter clothes to wear to church, visit the Easter Bunny, do the basket Sunday morning, do an Easter egg hunt with eggs that we have dyed, and then eat egg salad sandwiches for lunch on Sunday. This is what I have always done growing up so that is what our Easter's have turned into. I LOVE the little traditions like that. Well needless to say we didn't get new Easter clothes, never saw the Easter bunny, didn't color eggs until the day after Easter, sandwiches were eaten Tuesday for lunch, we still haven't done the Easter egg hunt but I am still determined too! I am most sad about not getting a picture of Cooper with the Easter Bunny...tear!

Cooper's basket: dot paints, finger paints, puzzles, pail with toys for pool, chalk, water bottle, and water/sand play table....he didn't even get any candy!

Since I thought Easter was at the end of April I hadn't gotten all of my Easter decorations out. I have NO CLUE where my brain was with regards to Easter. I even had two Easter crafts that I was planning on doing. Luckily I did the egg banner and got that hung a week before Easter. The Easter wreath didn't get completed until the day after Easter. I am however going to be sporting my Easter decorations all of April. They are so cute they deserve it!

After church on Sunday we went to my Grandma and Grandpas and had dinner like we do every year. It was low key but fun. It was gorgeous outside so we ate and then hung out outside. Cooper loved being able to run around freely.

Last year we discovered a new way to dye Easter eggs. First you shave crayons with a zester. Then you take the eggs out immediately after they are done boiling, you want them to still be hot. You then just sprinkler the crayon onto the egg. Since the egg is still hot it melts the wax and gives this cool tie dye effect. It is way easy, fast, and cleaner than dying eggs. Perfect for a 21 month old! I also had Cooper draw on some eggs with a marker.

Coop coloring the eggs

Even though things were crazy and didn't happen like I would have hoped, it was still a great Easter!!!

EASTER

Easter was a lot of fun this year. It all started with the night before Easter we had some friends over and we dyed Easter eggs. We dyed the eggs how you regularly do them and then we mixed it up a little bit. My friend had read about this idea in a magazine so we tried it. You take crayons and shave tiny pieces of wax off. Then you boil the eggs. Immediately after you boil the egg you put it in the carton and sprinkle the crayon wax on them. The eggs are still so hot that it melts the wax and you get an awesome tie die effect. They turned out pretty cool. It will definitely be a tradition that we will continue to do.

Our little family coloring Easter Eggs

I only did Easter baskets for Cooper and Indiana. With Brad just having had a birthday and with my birthday and Mother's Day coming up, I didn't want to hassell with trying to find other ideas for baskets. Besides the candy is the important part and we get the candy from Cooper's basket. I had found this adorable monkey Easter basket at Hobby Lobby a couple of months ago and I just had to get it. I still call Cooper monkey (he is still completely living up to his nickname) so I had to get him a monkey basket. The only problem was the basket itself didn't hold very much. But that is okay because I had decided what I wanted to get Cooper and it wasn't going to fit into a basket very well anyways. I have been wanting to get him building blocks so I decided to do that for Easter. Iwent to Lakeshore Learning (the most amazing store ever!!!) I went there for teaching. It is a teacher/parent heaven. It has everything from books, to games, puzzles, manipulatives, toys, etc. for children's development and learning. And because they are built for classrooms they are built to last. I am not kidding when I say I could spend thousands at this store. I got him these hard foam building blocks (they don't hurt when they are thrown but they are durable) and this fun musical toy (Dancing Teddy Bear Band). It has a bear that dances, piano keyboard, and plays all different instruments and songs. I also got Cooper some books. I am OBSESSED with books. I want my kids to have a ton so I always am buying them. My mom bought Cooper the softest sheep pillow/blanket. Since none of his stuff fit in the actual Easter basket we filled it will candy. Indiana got some treats and a new toy. They both loved their Easter gifts! But Cooper's favorite had to be his Dancing Teddy Bear Band. Cooper did wake up with a bit of a cold so he was a little grumpy and had a runny nose all day. So he wasn't his happy self but he still enjoyed his toys.

After we opened and played with baskets Brad had to go home teaching. While he was gone I made egg salad sandwiches. Every year when I lived at home, we dyed Easter eggs and then the Easter bunny hid the eggs and we had to find them. After we found them all we made egg salad sandwiches for lunch. I had thought about hiding the eggs but instead I just let Cooper play with them. I will keep with tradition however and hide them for my kids.


After lunch we headed to church (1 pm). It was a busy day at church. I had to say the opening prayer in sacrament. If you know me you know I HATE public speaking or when the attention is drawn to me. Therefore I get terrified even just praying. I had known for about a week that I would be saying it and I was stressing about it the whole time. I did however buy a new Easter dress just for the occasion. I bought this cute yellow dress and wore a blue sweater with it, Cooper wore this yellow and blue button down with a blue sweater vest, and Brad wore a yellow and blue button down with a blue sweater. We looked very festive. I didn't get a picture of us in our outfits (I am so mad!!!) But we are going to be doing family pictures soon and we will be wearing them. To continue with the busy Sunday Brad had to sub in Sunday School and then I had to teach in Young Women. Immediately after church we headed to my grandma's for dinner. It was delicious and it was fun to get the babies (mine, my nephew, and my cousins new baby) all together and see how big they have all gotten.

We had an amazing and busy Easter but it was good to spend time with family and also go to church and remember the true meaning of Easter.