Happy Easter

What a day. OMG. Between yesterday and today, I'm more exhausted than Christmas! It was such a wonderful Easter though!

Natalie got up first, got her basket with Jon. I came down a few minutes later, and the first thing she said to me was, in this scandalized little voice, "Mommy! The Easter Bunny wasted his carrot! Is that OK?". I assured her that the EB gets lots of carrots, so he usually just takes one bite at each house. Jellybeans for breakfast - what a way to start the day!

Oliver got up a little while later, and being the stellar mommy that I am, I showed him his basket first. He was starving, and grabbed one of the new sippy cups that the EB brought him, and started sucking on an empty cup. Oops! Hungry baby! Got him some breakfast, then the kids had some time to play before church. At one point, Oliver made a grab for Natalie's basket, and we heard "HEY! That's my basket, yours is over there!". All things considered though, she was very sweet with Oliver this morning, helping him with his basket and toys and sharing what was appropriate in hers. Many of you who read this have met our wonderful priest, Fr. Nicholas, he's a favorite (as is Mr. Rex!) with Natalie as well. Today she had Jon get out a baggie, and selected one of her favorite blue Peeps and a handful of jelly beans to take to Fr. Nicholas - "because he likes candy like me, and I want him to have it".

Went to church, lovely service as always! And normally Natalie isn't a fan of church without Sunday School - sit still for an hour? Perish the thought! Yesterday she was pretty good! During one of the hymns, she stood on the pew, wrapped her little arm tight around me, and "followed" along while I sang. During the last hymn, she did the same thing, but tried to sing too - she'd repeat the last word of a verse, and kind of hum the rest of the time - she's never done that before, and it was just so sweet. I hope she grows to love church like we do! I'm sure she will! Oliver received his first birthday prayer, and since he was the only birthday this week (I think, there were so many travelers I didn't notice other bdays), Fr. Nicholas made it a little special for him. Lots of people made a fuss over the birthday boy! The big kids had an Easter Egg hunt after the service, and I took Oliver over to coffee hour - we brought a cake to share with the congregation. The kids each got an Easter basket from church too!

After that we went to Mitz and Pops house, for more Easter fun! Aunt Jamie was there for a bit - the EB left baskets for the kids there, plus Aunt Jamie made one, then when Auntie Cindy came, she had stuff for the kids too! Five baskets each total. Holy moly! Mitz and Aunt Jamie had an Easter egg hunt for Natalie too! The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing, and we had a nice dinner. Oliver is displaying some kleptomaniac proclivities - he kept running around, grabbing random items (such as the phone, magnets from the fridge, etc.) and taking off laughing. The phone was a favorite! He kept trying to sneak up from different angles to get it, and succeeded several times! Silly kid!

And the best ending to the day? I was on the chaise, pretty much comatose. Natalie came up to me, asked if I wanted a snuggle, and damned if she didn't curl up with me for a few precious minutes!

So, all in all, a happy day, and a wonderful first Easter for Oliver! We wish all of our friends and family a Happy Easter!

I'm uploading all the Easter pictures. Natalie saw one from the egg hunt at church. The picture has all the kids in front of a raised garden area. Someone threw a plastic cup in it - I didn't even notice it. Natalie spied it right away and said "PIGS! Look Mommy, one of my friends is a pig". LOL. I really need to teach her litterbug.

Edited to add: Pictures are going up now. Oliver's birthday shots are first up - still have to edit Easter, but there are far fewer, so I hope to get them up tonight as well. Oliver's birthday shots are out of order - the pictures are from my mom's camera and mine, so the file names don't match up well enough to do an automated sort - too many to sort individually - sorry about that!