East Egg, West Egg

Those town names from The Great Gatsby always amuse me, and they have nothing to do with this post, except that I couldn't think of anything more creative to title this Easter recap besides "Eggcelent Easter" or something equally cheesy.

So here's a little rundown of our Easter. Due to our kitchen remodel (which you can glimpse a bit of in these first couple photos) I didn't do any decorating for Easter until Friday and Saturday, which is probably good, so the fluffy bunnies don't overshadow Lent too much. Friday morning, the girls and I dyed eggs, and then Kate helped me decorate.

 

 

Kate actually created our mantle banner herself, drawing rows of eggs on printer paper after bedtime one night, then asking me the next morning to help her color them, cut them out, and tape the ends of the rows together to make one long chain. (She gets so creative when forced to stay upstairs by herself after bedtime. She's such a night owl. The pediatrician just told us "well, they say the people who run the world don't need much sleep," so we don't make too big a deal of it unless she's keeping Claire up or is still awake when Matt and I want to go to bed.)

The child care worker during our Good Friday service made these cute bunny visors with the kids. Kate was being grumpy about putting it on for a picture, but I love the look on Claire's face here, looking up to big sister as always.

Usually I say the Easter bunny comes on Holy Saturday for PKs, but I finally decided that it takes like five minutes and the girls get up early anyway, so why not do baskets on Easter morning?

 

BGC got puffs and melts (she's doing better with non-pureed solids these days), and some new bibs since the velcro is really wearing out on the ones we've had since Kate was born. All three girls got matching kitty socks, and the big girls got flip flops, a chocolate bunny, Reese's carrot, and the Disney Princess lip balms Kate has been begging for since before Christmas. Typically I don't like to pay for stuff with licensed characters on it (cue my high horse about commercialism, pink-princessification of girls, the price markup for licensing, etc.) not to mention I don't need eight tiny plastic things floating around my house (they only came in an eight-pack) BUT, all that said, I do enjoy giving my kids something fun that I know will please them once in a while—especially when saved for a gift-giving holiday.

Then my girls donned their pastel, smocked dresses and we were off to church! I actually got the big girls' aqua dresses at a consignment sale. I like smocked dresses but will never pay full price for them, so I went back and forth between the 2T and 5T racks, comparing what colors and styles they had, to find two that coordinated!

You can see BGC's hearing aids in this picture. She's had them one month now, and while she still pulls them out sometimes and they squeal a lot, they seem to be making a difference in her cognition and connection with people. I also love how Claire is holding her hand in this picture. Kate and Claire just adore BGC.

I began a children's church program for the kids at our church, starting last week, on Palm Sunday. There are just a handful of kids in the pre-K through elementary age range, but it was time to have something more age-appropriate than the nursery or big church for them. We do a song, lesson, craft or game, and prayer. This is the paper plate tomb we made on Easter. (Anyone looking for Christian crafts and activities should follow my Pinterest board I've started for collecting children's church ideas!)

After church, we had lunch with Matt's family at the nursing home where both his grandmothers now reside. They had a nice catered buffet for all the families of residents to come and eat with their loved ones who can't get out. I accidentally left my camera at church, so no pics from lunch!

We headed home and let the girls watch "Frozen" on the tablet so Matt and I could enjoy a rare Sunday afternoon nap. That was our tradition pre-kids, so it's a nostalgic thing as much as a delightful indulgence. Then we headed across the street to a neighbor's house for an Easter egg hunt and playdate. Kate's the oldest one among this group of buddies, but there's quite a brigade of 2-3 year old girls.

It was nice to cap off the holiday with some neighborhood socializing, followed by a walk/bike ride, during which the girls were terrorized by a family's three or four dogs that all broke free at once. They both have quite a dog phobia, so that was pretty traumatic, but they survived.

My favorite part of the walk, actually, was seeing a bunny (our neighborhood has rabbits the way most have squirrels—they're everywhere) and this bunny was examining a seasonal yard display full of wooden and stone Easter bunnies, as if to say, "What's up with you guys? Why aren't you moving?" Silly rabbit...

Eggstra Easter Pics

A bad pun is about all the April Foolishness you'll find from me :0) but I did want to share a few more photos of our Easter activities.

Despite the rainy, gray Easter Day (that always feels so wrong, a gloomy Easter!) we did have some festive fun interspersed between our many Holy Week services, which ranged from celebratory to somber, as they are designed to do. By yesterday morning, when Matt left early for church and I told Kate the rest of us needed to get ready to go to church too, she said, "Again?!?!"

Yep, that's Holy Week for a pastor's family!

Before I forget, there are just a few more hours to place an order on my virtual Thirty-One party, so if you still want to check out some great bags and home organization, please do! Here's the link. I'm going to get this cool hanging organizer for my home office :0)

Our first egg hunt was the day before Palm Sunday, when we went to Breakfast with the Easter Bunny with Granna and Opa. Last year, Kate would not go near the Easter Bunny and Claire was fine. This year, totally reversed. Kate was happy to hug the bunny whenever he came near! We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then the girls both gathered eggs like pros.

(People always misspell our last name.)

Thanks for a fun time, Granna and Opa!

On Holy Saturday was our church egg hunt, and again Kate was buds with the Easter Bunny, who, like last year, was actually her daddy. That familiarity did not help Claire, though, who was still pretty wary. 

We dyed some eggs Saturday afternoon (before Mommy and Daddy went on a date to see SNL's Seth Meyers doing stand-up—woo hoo!)

Nala and Popi babysat, since they were in town for Easter. We enjoyed a nice lunch at home after church, before heading back to church for The Road. (I'll echo Kate there, "Again?!?!")

We had just a little bit of time between lunch and evening church to relax, so while Daddy took a quick nap, the girls had a jumping-on-the-bed party! What better way to express the joy of Alleluia when you're a little kid? :0) 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Kelleys! 

Holy Week and Easter Weekend

Palm Sunday held the second of our two egg hunts after church, you'll recall, kicking off a Holy Week that is theoretically supposed to be somber, but sometimes it's hard to keep the fun away. ;0)

Monday night was the NCAA final, in which Kentucky beat Kansas for the victory! This was great a) because my family is a UK family (it's where my parents met, and they were in New Orleans for the game), and b) I had Kentucky beating Kansas in my bracket and in general chose more games right than Matt did, so I won our annual tourney bracket competition.

Tuesday, we met up with my parents as they drove back through Nashville on their way back to Louisville. Since they would be returning three days later for Easter weekend, they didn't come out to our house or anything, but it was dinnertime as they were passing through, so we met up at a Panera by the interstate.

Wednesday, our usual midweek church dinner and discussion were cancelled since there were Holy Week services Thursday and Friday, but we still had choir practice to prepare for our Easter anthem. I was bummed for about a second that I wouldn't get another night to chill at home with the fam, but then I became elated at the thought of a night out by myself! I could run some errands on my own before or after choir!!! (It's crazy what excites you when you have small kids.) I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a new coffee maker, since ours broke a week or more before and that was the first chance I had to buy a new one. And I got an absorbent dish-drying pad. Try to contain the excitement. :0)

Thursday, the girls and I skipped Maundy Thursday dinner and worship because it was gymnastics night. And Friday, Nala and Popi arrived in town just in time to go to Open Gym and play around with Kate before grabbing some BBQ and going to Good Friday worship, a tenebrae ("darkness") service.

Saturday, we had some nice family time with breakfast out, a little shopping, seed-planting, and egg-dyeing. Kate received a cute apron, spade, and seeds for her birthday in January, so it was finally time to plant them, and Nala and Popi were happy to faciliate!

Since the Easter Bunny comes to PKs early, the girls got their Easter baskets Saturday afternoon too. They got some hairbows and headbands, The Lion King DVD, a new paci strap, and stickers.

Then Kate and I dyed eggs together. Kate used the white crayon to draw on the eggs, and suggested we write each grandparent's name on an egg, too.

Easter Sunday began with a waffle breakfast and "not-so-sunrise service" at church, followed by our main worship service, a great celebration of Christ's resurrection and the victory of life over death. We had the grandparents and our friends Tracy and Thomasjohn over for Easter dinner afterwards for good food and playtime. The men fell asleep watching the Masters golf tournament while the women hung in the playroom with the girls.

Granna made an adorable lamb cake...

 And naturally, I had great fun decorating my table.

I made carrot place cards/napkin holders.

As well as a shabby chic spring wreath for the front door (repurposed from a falling-apart fall wreath by whitewashing the twigs and painting the apples pink).

Kate was thrilled to learn that Mommy's friend was named Ms. Tracy because it rhymes with Ms. Stacy and Ms. Casey (her gymnastics teachers). She proceeded to make an abstract Duplo masterpiece and name it "Tracy."

We also had a nice photo shoot before church, of course, in which Nala and Popi finally got a nice pic of them with both girls.

And so did we!!

 Happy Easter to my sweet girls in their matchies, and to all of you!

Two Egg Hunts

After all our family sickness this weekend (or rather, amidst it, since both girls relapsed a little during the Final Four last night—go Cats!) we enjoyed two Easter egg hunting events! The most entertaining aspect of these events to us was the fact that Kate's obsession with matching things, especially colors, has gone to a new level. 

Yes, on Saturday, when she wore a blue dress (and blue Mardi Gras beads, her own addition) she only picked up blue eggs. Seriously. She passed over dozens of other colored eggs that other children snatched up and filled her (blue) bucket with about thirty-five blue eggs. Everyone who noticed just found it hysterical. I chose to think of it as a Go Big Blue kind of omen, but I'm certain it's just her love of matching.

And indeed, today at the church egg hunt, she was wearing pink and only picked up pink eggs. We tried to talk her into picking up green as well, since there was some green in her dress, but the only non-pink one she was interested in was a small orange one, which she was fascinated with just because it was smaller than all the other eggs.

Kate also, to our surprise, absolutely HATED the Easter Bunny. She was fine with Santa and with the big monkey guy at Monkey Joe's (a local bouncy-fun place) but no dice for the bunny. Subsequently, Claire had her picture taken by herself with two bunnies this weekend.

The second one, actually, was Matt, but even knowing that did not lessen Kate's fear and dread of the big fella. She wanted nothing to do with him. Even when Matt gave her a peek under the mask (in case she didn't believe me) she ran and put a folding chair between them so he wouldn't get her.

Whenever the big bunny was out of sight, though, we had a great time. Saturday's event was Breakfast with the Easter Bunny, with Granna and Opa, so we enjoyed a nice breakfast before the (blue) egg hunt.

Today's event was at the church, where Matt got suckered into wearing the bunny costume since someone else didn't show up. Kate did NOT like seeing Granna or me having our picture taken with the evil bunny either. I'm sorry to tell you, I had mercy on the child and did not photograph her terror. I think those photos of kids scared of Santa and whatnot are hilarious, but I tried (in vain) to comfort her instead.

In other news, Claire began solids this week. Only a few times, since it was interrupted by illness, but she has seemed to enjoy her baby oatmeal so far. So much, she has decided that cookies look pretty good too!

Big sister won't share, though!

I'm thinking next year, Kate will enjoy the Easter Bunny and Claire will be terrified but still small enough we can force her onto his lap. That should make for some fun pictures!