Monday, May 24, 2010

Easter

It seems like I've done a million posts about getting ready for Easter, but not Easter! Finally! I've been looking forward to doing Easter with LL this year since she's so much bigger. Remember last year? She was so tiny and oblivious to everything going on around her.



This year, I got to do the whole Easter basket, hunt for Easter eggs, cute dress for church, etc. It was so exciting! We had a long day at church - Sunrise service, breakfast, Life Enhancement, and then regular service. Whew! That's a long morning! We don't have evening service on Easter, so that made up for such a busy morning.



After the sunrise service and breakfast, I decided to take LL to Grammy's house to get some rest. This was right when she was fazing our her morning nap, so I was hoping that she might take one (she didn't). We drove back for church in time for the regular service.





After regular service, we went to Grammy and Pop's house for our big Easter lunch. It was Grammy, Pop, me, Matt, Lorelai, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Missy. LL was alseep when we got there after church (she fell asleep in the car), but she woke up midway through lunch, so she didn't miss much. (super short nap....grrrr....) After lunch we let her open up her Easter basket (some eggs, a dress, some Easter bunny ears, and a big ball) and then we went outside to hunt Easter eggs.



She didn't *really* get the whole concept of hunting Easter eggs. Basically we drug her around to all the eggs, made a big deal of them, picked them up, and put them in the basket for her. She just really wasn't that in to it. She did carry a few of them around, but it was nothing spectacular. Hopefully next year will be better. We sure did have a fun day, though!




Dying Easter Eggs


The same day that Matt took Lorelai to Grammy and Pop's, we decided to dye Easter eggs that night at home. We were going to have an egg hunt that Sunday (Easter) after church over at Grammy and Pop's. I can't even remember the last time that I dyed Easter eggs, so I was pretty excited.



We started after dinner, so LL didn't get to see the whole process. She "helped" with the first batch, but was already in bed when Matt and I did the rest of them. We had some with stickers, and some that had a crinkle finish on them. The bummer was that the stickers (that were made for eggs!) didn't stick! I wasn't very excited about that! Shouldn't they work if that's what they're marketed for?!

Regardless, Matt and I had a blast doing this project. Towards the end I sort of gave up and Matt took over. You can see how creative he got with some of his eggs. I think it'll be even more fun next year when Lorelai can really help!


Easter Cookies

The Friday before Easter, Matt took Lorelai over to his mom's house so that they could all bake some Easter cookies together. Cookies are Mrs. Becky's "thing". Matt and Bryan grew up making cookies with her, Maddie and Caroline (our flowergirls) used to come over all the time to bake cookies, Gray (Gentry's son) makes cookies with her, and now it's Lorelai's turn! She's finally getting old enough to participate in things like this. I know that Mrs. Becky has been looking forward to this for a long time!


I was at work this day, so I really don't know enough details from this day to blog about them, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking. I am so proud of Matt because a- he remembered to take the camera and b- he did an awesome job of documenting the process!  Also, I think it's crazy how everyone but Grammy is in orange. Totally not planned! Here is LL's first time baking cookies with her Grammy!






It's no fun if you don't get messy!





What is sooo incredibly cute about this picture is the fact that when Matt and I were newly dating (I'm talking weeks here), we baked cookies at my mom's house and we have a picture of us that looks EXACTLY like this. So it's awesome to see a picture of Matt almost 10 years later doing the same thing with his daughter. Full circle. :)



Sampling her cookies. :)

Easter Pictures

Matt's cousin Gentry has been going to school for photography and has taken quite a few pictures of LL before. These and these. Gentry invited us to take LL down to Tallahassee to get her pictures taken for Easter. Gentry is working for a local photographer, Cindy Strickland with A Moment Captured, down there and they were doing "Chick Pics". It was on a week day, so I couldn't go, but we decided to let Grammy take Lorelai down there all by herself (a first!).


I think that the pictures turned out super cute and I wish that I could have been there to see LL react to the baby chicks! BTW - if you love LL's Easter dress- her Grammy made it! Didn't she do an awesome job?!

Also - check out Gentry's website!




Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Trip

For several years, my mom, my sister, and I have met up in Macon at the end of March/beginning of April for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It's just a good "girls" day and a nice way for all of us to meet up without having to drive a ton. I went in 2007 and 2008, but Laura and mom had met for a couple of years before that, too. We didn't meet in 2009 because LL was teeny tiny, but we decided to pick back up the tradition again this year.



We ended up going the last weekend in March (I know, I'm mega behind) and it worked out wonderfully because it wasn't super hot like it had been the last two times I went. Usually it's sweltering, but this year it was very pleasant. I even had to dress LL in pants and a long-sleved shirt. It was sooo much better than being so dang hot!

We met up in the parking lot at the Macon Mall just like we always do. It was getting close to time to eat, so we decided to go inside, eat and feed the kids, and then take a picture with Lorelai AND Ben and the Easter Bunny! Laura went with me last year to get LL's picture taken with the Easter Bunny because we were in Atlanta and LL was sooo tiny! I was really nervous that LL would cry this year because she can understand a lot better what's going on, but she didn't. She just looked at the bunny like "Dude - do you know how crazy you look?!". Here's the pic - I think it turned out so good!



After lunch and the Easter Bunny, we headed out to the festival. It's always so pretty with all the pink everywhere, but it is also super packed. Really, there's not a whole lot to do there. They have booths set up where you can buy stuff, arts and crafts, food, and rides and stuff for the kids (carnival rides, sort of). Ben and LL were way too young for that stuff. So mainly we just walked around and spent time together.


 We even found a little grassy area and pulled out a blanket and just played for a little while.






I had the hardest time getting LL to nap. She finally fell asleep in her stroller, but she only slept for about 30 minutes. Yes, that's foreshadowing.

We finally ended up leaving around 4ish to come home. Mom had to feed LL her dinner in the car and LL was not very happy about it. Around Adel LL started melting and I could tell she was about to throw up. We pulled over on the side of the road and I got her out of her car seat ands he did start throwing up. Remember - she had only napped for about 30 minutes the entire day! After I got her calmed down, I realized that she was BURNING UP. I didn't know if it was just because she had gotten so upset, or if it was a fever. We were only about 15 minutes away from home and, when we got there, she was still so hot. I took her temp and it was 102! She went straight to sleep b/c she was sooo exhausted, and the next day she started showing the signs of an ear infection. :( This was also the night that our neighbors hosted a wedding and reception in their backyard and it was SO LOUD that our windows were shaking. I think Matt called the cops 4-5 times before they finally settled down.

Even though it ended VERY rough, I still had a good time and I can't wait until next year!