Wait- it's almost Easter?

Last week Mike had to go out of town for a few days. Thankfully the boys and I survived, and even did pretty well. On Saturday the boys and I went over to Mike's mom and step-dad's house to do a little early Easter celebrating.

First we had a delicious lunch from Panera (my favorite!). Then while Jake hung out with Grandpa Curt,

Drew and Zach hunted for Easter goodies.

Shortly thereafter we decided to dye eggs. Thank goodness Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt were on top of this, because I hadn't really put much (or any) thought into when we were going to dye eggs. Dying eggs with the boys is like frosting sugar cookies with them- I would love to take my time and make them neat and pretty, but- who am I kidding?- they're 3 and 5 years old. They want to drop the eggs in the dye and move on to the next one. They care a little bit about how pretty they are, but not too much.

Drew is like me in one regard when it comes to dying eggs- he likes dying them, but not really eating them. Zach, on the other hand, LOVES hard-boiled eggs. I think he ranks them right up there with candy and other desserts. He'd eat 5 in a row if I'd let him. He decided he had to taste one of these right after we dyed it. You can see what he thought of it.

Mike got back Saturday evening, and we had a nice evening. On Sunday we actually made it to church- something we haven't been great at since Jake's been born. Drew walked in and woke us up at 7:08, and amazingly, we made it to church just in time for the 8:00 start. I'm not gonna lie- I think it's pretty darn impressive that Mike and I were able to both shower and get ourselves and 3 kids under age 6 ready and out the door in less than an hour. Later in the day Mike and the bigger boys went to the driving range and then Zach got to go to a bowling birthday party.

That evening we had our small group from church over, and I was inspired by the season, so I made these little nests for dessert.

The kids loved the treats, but Drew wasn't into the Peep on top, which surprised me. Zach was happy to eat what was left of Drew's chick, though.

Next weekend the festivities will continue with an Easter egg hunt at the club on Saturday, lunch with Mike's dad and step-mom on Sunday, dinner with our small group Sunday night, and church somewhere in there. Oh, and of course the Easter bunny will be visiting our own house. I did manage to get Jake's Easter basket ready this weekend, too. So although I haven't been very on top of things as far as Easter is concerned (I'm still not sure what I have for their Easter baskets, and I've put no thought into special Easter outfits for the boys), at least I don't think the boys will have any complaints.

Easter Celebrations- Many Pictures Here!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Easter.  Our Easter celebration started a week ago, when we went to Mike's mom and step-dad's house for a little Easter egg hunt.  

Here's Zach with Grandma Linda, checking out one egg.

Zach had a blast looking for eggs.  At one point, he stopped the hunting to go potty.  However, while he was going potty, he saw an egg.  He was so excited about that egg that he didn't even wait to pull up his pants- he HAD to get it!!!

We belong to a HUGE church, and it's a great church, but I'll admit I don't always appreciate the size of it, which is part of the reason why we usually go to the 8 a.m. traditional service as opposed to one of the other 4 services every weekend.  Well, as expected, Easter weekend is a huge weekend for church attendance.  Our church used to do one main Easter service downtown at Wells Fargo arena, but they added on a year or so ago, and decided to get Easter services back in the actual church.  Last year we went to one of the services, and it was packed.  I remember it taking us about a half-hour to get out of the parking lot.  Sitting still in traffic is not something I do well.  I get very impatient, especially when you throw the kids into the mix.  Anyway, of the 5 Easter services our church was putting on (5 & 7 p.m. Saturday, and 7, 9, and 11 a.m. Sunday), really only 1 worked very well for us considering Drew's sleeping schedule, and that was 5 o'clock Saturday night, which was touted as a "kid-friendly" service.  We decided that was the one for us, but then Saturday morning Mike heard that was supposed to be the busiest service of all.  Ugh.  We temporarily considered changing to the 7 a.m. Sunday service, but that would mean waking the kids up and leaving home by about 6:45, and that didn't sound so good, either.  As I drove past our church at about 4:20 p.m. on Saturday (on my way home from DSW, because at about 3:30 I decided I HAD to have new shoes to go with my Easter outfit- I got some cute, red, Steve Madden heels), the parking lot was already practically full.  I could feel my stress level rising.  It didn't help that when Mike called me at 4:30 (as I was about a block from home), he asked me if he should wake Drew up.  I thought Mike wanted to leave home around 4:30, so I expected everyone to be ready, and that I would run in, change clothes, and get back in the car.  Stress level going up a little bit more.  However, it all worked out fine in the end.  We decided to park across the street at the bank, and Mike's mom went early to save us seats, which was really helpful and much appreciated.  The service was good, the boys did GREAT, and we got out of the parking lot at the bank without waiting at all!!!  We went and grabbed a quick dinner at Z'Marik's, and then headed home.

Here are the boys all decked out in their Easter duds on their way to church.

When we got home we decided to throw in a quick load of laundry, including the boys' pants.  Drew was unhappy that Zach wouldn't move over so he could help put the clothes in the washer.

But he was happy once Zach skooched (I'm not sure how that should be spelled) so that both boys could watch the washer once it started.

Since they were just in their white oxford shirts and no pants, they boys decided to do their best Tom Cruise in Risky Business impersonations.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here.

Here are the boys' Easter baskets.  Zach had asked me a month or so ago to get him his own watering can, and I told him that maybe the Easter Bunny would bring him one, so he was very excited to see his basket with a watering can in it.

Drew likes playing with the pinwheels that were in the baskets.

Zach was pretty excited to search for Easter eggs when he got up Sunday morning.  I was glad we had gone to church the night before so that we didn't have to rush around Sunday morning.

We had Kevin (Mike's dad), Cynthia (his step-mom), and Katherine (his little sister) come over for Easter morning brunch.  We had a great time and were so happy that Aunt Katherine came home from college for the holiday.

This is the crazy chocolate bunny that Mike's dad picked up. It was hollow inside, and Katherine wanted the head to take back up to college with her.  Mike seemed to enjoy dissecting the poor thing.  I'm not a huge milk chocolate fan, but it sure is good chocolate!  Thanks, Kevin!

Here's our family on Easter morning.

I just could not resist dressing the boys alike.  It seems like something that is ok to do on holidays, especially Easter.  And I thought the ties were too cute.

Here's Zach painting the little plastic sun-catcher fish that the Easter Bunny brought him.  Now the Easter Bunny needs to go get a suction cup or something to use to attach it to the window.

This was a fun little project, though some of it required fine motor skills a little bit beyond that of a 3 year-old, which is probably why it said it was for ages 5+.  

Drew decided not to take an afternoon nap on Easter, so he got to watch a little bit of the Masters with Dad.

These next two pictures were my attempt at catching Drew blowing kisses.  He puts his two fingers in his mouth and goes, "Mmmmmaa!" and pulls the fingers out and away from him.  It's very cute, but these pictures don't really do it justice.

 

 

Here are the boys just being kind of silly.

After we got Drew in bed, Zach and I worked on planting the little seed starter kits the Easter Bunny brought.  Zach got 2 kits for strawberries, 1 for red peppers, 1 for basil, and 1 for zinnias.  He was very excited to get the chance to use his watering can, and just to plant something.  I hope these work and we have plants soon!

Finally, just an update on Drew and how it's going with no pacifier.  It was rough for a while.  If you read my post where I first talked about taking it away, I mentioned how we were going to let him keep it for naps.  Well, after a week, that just didn't seem to be working well.  Drew suddenly started crying and throwing a fit just upon entering his room, and he wouldn't even sit for reading books in his chair like we've always done before naps and bedtime.  Finally I decided that maybe having the pacifier at naps but not at bedtime was just confusing him, so on Friday I didn't give it to him for naps.  I was worried, but it went much better than I expected.  The last two days he has been back to being a good little reader, snuggling while we rock before bed and naps, and not usually even crying when I lay him down in his crib.  So, if you're thinking about getting rid of a pacifier for your baby, I would say do it in one foul swoop!

Also, I think Drew is saying his first word, which is bye.  He suddenly is very consistent when we say something like, "Ok, time to go bye-bye," and he waves his hand and says, "Bye," but it sounds like he says it with a southern accent, kind of a mix between "bah" and "bye".