Easter Sunday 2016

We had such a good Easter Sunday.  I was a little worried because as per usual, Josh had to work overnight Saturday night.  I knew it was possible he wouldn't be home on Sunday morning for the surprise of Easter baskets and he'd also be sleeping most of the day after working all night meaning he'd miss church.  I know I say it about almost every major holiday, but it really is tough to be away from all of our family.  I prepped the girl's Easter baskets and set everything up the night before.  I get WAY too excited about the thought of Ryan's excitement but when you are a stay-at-home mom, it's the little things in life.

Thankfully, Josh did make it home just as the girls were starting to stir and he was able to witness the finding of the baskets.  Ryan's excitement lived up to my expectations although she was definitely most thrilled about the jelly bean filled eggs and the fact that we let her have some treats for breakfast.  Rory was content to take it all in for her first Easter.  But I will say that both Gumby and Pokey have made excellent teething toys and were the big highlight of her basket.

After, I scrambled around getting myself and the girls ready for church which is absolutely no easy task.  We left the house covered in plastic eggs, fake pink grass, and half eaten jelly beans and made it to church only 10 minutes after the start of the service.  I basically call that on time when you are a mom of two and doing it solo.  It was a beautiful day by Massachusetts in March standards and we were able to spend some time in the backyard playing after church.  It took about 207 pictures for me to finally get a couple of decent ones of the girls in their Easter dresses.  They sure make me work for it these days!

We even got Dad to join us outside for a bit at the end of the afternoon.  I made hamburgers for dinner and we treated ourselves to ice cream from a local creamery for dessert!

It was a beautiful and low key Easter and we were so thankful to celebrate together as a family of four.  I hope everyone's Easter was equally fun and that you were able to spend some time thanking  Jesus for sacrificing Himself to be the Savior of the world.

Easter Week

I'm ALL about the build-up for holidays.  Christmas preparations start the day after Thanksgiving.  Halloween attire can be worn the entire month of October and pink and red should be rocked all of February.  This year, there wasn't much time between St. Patrick's Day and Easter and so I felt the need to jam pack the couple of weeks leading up to Easter Sunday with lots of Easter goodness...bunny ears included.

This was the first year I let Ryan dye Easter eggs.  Josh asked me after the fact what the point of this activity is.  And to be honest, other than having pretty colored eggs I'm not entirely sure.  But Ryan thought it was fun and that's all that matters right?  I let her dye nine eggs.  I think 6 of the 9 made it through the toddler egg dying process without getting cracked.  Not too bad.  However, then at least three more ended up cracked when said toddler tried to get them off the counter later.  Thank goodness I hard boiled them!

Rory wore this "HOP" sweatshirt almost every day last week.  I found it at Gap last year while I was pregnant in the "boys" section for about $4.00 and I'm so glad I got it.  I wish I would have bought it in like every size!  There's just something about babies in sweatshirts that I can't help but love.

And forget the Easter Lilies.....I'm all about the tulips.  Like all about them.

We didn't visit the Easter bunny.  Shocking I know.  But I've never been a huge fan of seeing the Easter bunny.  We were actually at the mall on Friday and we saw him from a distance.  I asked Ryan if she wanted to go see him, to which she said yes.  But then when I asked if she wanted to go sit with him she said "nope."  So we waved from the gate and there were no tears and I got to save my $30.00.  We'll chalk that up as a win.

Easter Brunch & Egg Hunt

Yesterday, we Scurlocks hosted a potluck Easter brunch and egg hunt for some of our best friends and their kids.  Josh has to work next weekend and I really wanted to do something that allowed him to celebrate some Easter festivities with the girls.  Plus, I really needed a reason to thoroughly clean my house and having company come over always promotes that. :)

I spent a majority of the week running errands to get the necessities for the party with my two tag-a-longs in tow.  One day we even ran to Target in our pajamas because getting kids changed and out the door at 9am... ain't nobody got time for that!  Although my Mom definitely told me on the phone later in the week that "She NEVER took us out in our pajamas when we were kids and she had four of us."  Well, I don't remember her drinking a glass of wine at 5pm most nights either but hey, Moms gotta do what Moms gotta do.

In order to keep the hosting costs at a minimum, I made the party a potluck.  We provided a "waffle bar" which was a hit as well as mimosas and a few fun and festive treats.  However, at 10pm the night before as I was decorating the 24th cupcake and the 20th cookie and hand dipping bunny peeps in chocolate and sprinkles I did wonder why on God's good Earth I do this to myself (cue the reason to serve mimosas).   It's all for the kids right?  Hmmm it's possible it's entirely for me.  Or Josh. Okay that's definitely not true.

The egg hunt however, was totally for the kids.  It was a chilly 30 or so degrees but they didn't care.  They were so excited to go hunting for the eggs.  This was the first year we had tried an Easter egg hunt with Ryan and I'm just so thrilled that she had fun.  Although the plastic eggs have barely left her sight since she found them and she keeps asking when we are going to go looking for eggs again.  I'm pretty sure we will be hunting for non-treat filled plastic eggs around the house every day until the novelty wears off.

Ryan won't let Rory play with her eggs but she is willing to show them to "Ro-roars" as she likes to refer to her.   If Rory does manage to get ahold of one, Ryan is quick to grab it away.  Sister love at it's finest.

It was a truly fun day and while I wish stuff like this where the whole family is together could happen more often, it makes the days that it does seem extra special.  We are so blessed to have all of our friends here in Massachusetts and so happy that we get to celebrate these kinds of things with each other.