Easter Fun: Part One

Easter was a lot of fun this year finally having two of our kids get excited about it and be able to actually participate. The days leading up to Easter were filled with a lot of egg hunts, parties, and pics with the bunny! It started off on Thursday, where the boys had Easter parties at their school. I was helping out with Bradley's party, so I was able to snap some pics from his first hunt this year. After hiding the eggs on the playground, the kids were released into the wild! Bradley just stood there for the first minute or so, but once I showed him what to do, it didn't take long for him to catch on.

The hunt was over in about 4 minutes and we tried to get the kids to sit still for a pic, but you can see how well that went.

Here are B's two girlfriends. He is obsessed with the little girl sitting next to him. I don't blame him, they are both pretty precious. He demands hugs from them when they leave school.

I feel like he looks so old {and big} here! After the hunt, they did a little cookie decorating back in the classroom.

I was unable to attend Ryan's party as there are limits on the number of parents who can attend, but I am sure their hunt went even faster! That afternoon, we ironically had a dentist appointment for the boys. It didn't end as well as we had hoped for Ryan. We were pretty sure he had a cavity, but not 6! Plus two of those will need a kid version of a root canal. Apparently his teeth are super close together and are prone to get food stuck in between them, leaving them as breeding ground for cavities! Anyway, that's an update for another day - we'll be going to round 1 of treatment in about 10 days. Once we made it home, we had a little hunt with our fun neighbors at the park across the street from us. They are all so sweet, we' re lucky to have met all of them! And a few of them will even be starting Kindergarten with Ryan in the fall.

 Ryan was on a mission to get the most eggs as possible, so he could hardly stop for a quick pic.

Bradley was not quite as concerned with how many he could get, but if he could get the most difficult of the bunch.

The next morning was Good Friday and Wes had to work, but Ryan really wanted to go see the Easter bunny. So, I decided we could do this by ourselves (my parents were set to meet us later) and we all got dressed, loaded up the car, and headed to the mall. It all started out pretty well, although Charlie was a little off on his sleep schedule - he was still in a good mood. When we arrived, the line wasn't too long and looked to be about a 20 minute wait. Here the boys are in pretty good spirits at the beginning of the wait.

Little did I know, that about halfway through, there comes a point where no strollers are allowed. This was very unfortunate. I had Charlie in one arm and was trying to make sure neither of the other two ran off, and then it happened! The computer system crashed! Of course this occurred once we were already inside the fenced part with no strollers. Then, to make matters worse, since everything had come to a halt - the bunny stood up, turned around, and made eye contact with Bradley. He completely lost it. I felt so bad for him, he was shaking and could not stop crying. I had to make the decision whether we should stay or go, and could tell I had a lot of eyes on me as I was clearly not handling the situation as others would've preferred. No one wants to listen to a 2 year old have a melt down in cramped quarters. Luckily, a few minutes later the system was up and running again, and they had a cute little set-up for Easter pics before getting to the actual bunny. B enjoyed holding the eggs long enough to get a cute pic of all the boys.

Bradley was fine after that until it came time for the actual picture. I felt like such a cruel mom making my sweet baby do this, but just so you know he stopped crying IMMEDIATELY after the pic was over. Even sweet Charlie was trying to comfort him.

Here is a little side by side comparison of the past 3 years at the Easter Bunny. I think it is safe to say that B is not a fan of him. Maybe next year?!?! He kept calling the bunny "hop hop" and with every mention of his name he would say "cwy, cwy" because he couldn't stop crying. He then proceeded to torture himself by peeking over to get a glimpse of him and then terrifying himself all over again. There was a promise of a cookie afterwards, which he quickly reminded me about and that made everything better.

By the time we waited 30 more minutes to actually buy the pictures, my parents arrived. We then headed over to the carousel and Chick-fil-a to drown our sorrows (or B's, I guess I should say)! After lunch, we made good on the cookie promise and took the boys over to play at Frolic's Castle.

My sweet boys had such a fun time. B was pretty nervous at first and wouldn't leave my sight, but he quickly took off and then there was no stopping him.

Happy baby!

By the time we left, Charlie had been awake for nearly 5 hours which he has never done, I was worn out as was Ryan, and B didn't want to leave and was having the time of his life. I think he was over his traumatic experience with the bunny. However, he did talk about him the rest of the weekend. Oh and to top off a hectic day, I got a flat tire on the way home. Thank goodness after pulling over to examine it, I was able to drive it to our house or else we may really have had some tears from all 3 boys {and probably mom, too}! Next up - Easter Sunday!