Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Our Easter Holiday

I've said this in previous posts, but Easter is one of my favorite holidays! Now that Ellie is a bit older, I couldn't wait to celebrate it with her. I've been buying Easter treats for her basket for a few weeks, see what was in it here. A week or so ago we also bought her a 4-in-1 Radio Flyer Tricycle. All week long, Matt and I were so excited about the her new tricycle and talked about how much fun it’s going to be for her and our family walks. I knew she was going to love it so much and I couldn’t wait to give it to her. We’ve been talking about getting this for her since just after Christmas and thought it would be a great Easter gift (we already have birthday plans/gifts for her next month).

On Saturday night, Matt started putting it together and there was no hardware with it! We couldn’t put it together! We were so bummed out and upset, but then we remember that Target had it on sale so I called around and a store nearby had it in stock still and was holding it for me at their customer service desk. I am so happy we were able to get one in time for her! I know we could have given it to her any day and she would have loved it just as much, but I wanted to give it to her on Easter and make the moment a little bit more magical with the holiday. Target for the win!

We put together her basket and bike and then left an empty basket next to her bedroom door and a trail of eggs leading her to her goodies. It was so cute in the morning! She opened each egg individually to eat the treat inside before moving on to the next one (thank goodness each one only had one jellybean!) and then started to keep each jelly bean in her hand and put the empty egg in her basket.

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When she reached her Easter basket and bike downstairs her eyes absolutely lit up and she ran over to the bike! We had to put her in it right away and take a few spins around our first floor. She keeps saying “wheeeee” every time we round the coffee table in our formal living room. After a few laps around the downstairs, she settled in on the basket and took everything out one by one. She was obsessed with all her Frozen stuff and opened her other Easter eggs to find different treats and $2 bills.
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After we were done opening her gifts, we had fresh squeezed OJ and started getting ready for the day. We packed everything into our car and headed to Matt’s parents house for some bagels and strawberry cream cheese breakfasts and more Easter activities. Once everyone arrived (we got there super early), we had an Easter egg hunt and Ellie did so much better! She still wanted to open each egg, but soon learned it was better to dump it in her basket and then check out the goods later. She is the youngest of the cousins (for the time being) and has so much fun with them! They teach her so much and she just has a ball playing with them. I’m so happy that she has cousins that she can grow up close with- something I had and always enjoyed.

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Then we headed to spend some of the holiday with my side of the family, we’re really lucky that both sides of our families lives near each other. It makes it easy to split holidays if we need to. There we ate and ate and then ate some more. It was the first time seeing some of my family since our Baby #2  announcement and it was fun to catch up with everyone. We hid so many eggs, the kids were finding them still hours later! The egg hunt was so much fun and Ellie really understood it by then, she was looking around and not wanting to go to the easy ones on the lawn that were for her (she’s the youngest on my side too).

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I made these sweet coconut macaroon nests for the kiddos and they were a big hit! They're so easy to make too! Just 14 ounces of coconut, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 4 egg whites then mix and place into muffin pans for about 30 minutes and they're done! They were so easy and everyone enjoyed them so much, I think I may make them for my sister's bridal shower, but dip them in chocolate!

Overall, we had a great day! It was so much fun to see both sides of our families and share all the magic of Easter with Eleanor. When I was watching her look for eggs, I kept thinking about how next year I’ll have another little one that may or may not be crawling by then and how they’ll be in matching dresses, then the years after that they’ll both be searching and comparing their finds together. It really made my heart so full knowing that Ellie will have a sibling to share her childhood with and that our little family is growing.

I hope all of you had a great Easter holiday!

3 comments :

Meg O. said...

Ellie is just so precious! I love the easter egg garland. AND YOU LOOK SO AMAZING! :)

Jess Scott said...

What a fun Easter! I am so glad you were able to get the bike together...so frustrating! I second Meg...you look AMAZING!!!

Kristen said...

Thanks so much girl!! You're too sweet! That egg garland I made last year using fishing line! Super easy and inexpensive!