Easter 2012

Brace yourself, it was a long weekend! I'll try to keep to the pertinent details.

The Thursday prior to Easter we introduced Harrison to egg dying which he took to enthusiastically. You will notice two large water spots on dad's shirt, that's because a couple of eggs jumped out of the little dipper into the dye before they should have.

But the real Easter planning started in 2011 when my neighbor and I took the kids to the city's Easter egg hunt; we had to go through two rounds of hunts and practically cheat so our kids could get a couple of eggs each and we decided that we could throw our own egg hunt at our park.

Fast forward to two weeks ago and I hadn't done anything when my neighbor called and we said she wanted to do it. We did some quick math and planned on 20 neighborhood kids and I went to the dollar store and bought 300 plastic eggs while she printed out fliers and bought the candy. As we started talking to others on the street, we found out the family closest to the park owned a "small" bouncy house and using Michael's plethora of extension cords we were able to set it up for the big day.

To top it off, another neighbor rented a bunny suit and a rumor went around the block that Michael had volunteered to wear it. Although he didn't really want to do it, Michael donned the suit, causing joy in half the kids and fear in the rest.

Harrison was very excited to see the bunny and was one of the first to give him a hug. He came running back to me and watched as the bunny waved and hugged other kids. After a minute or so, Harrison said that the bunny was "just a man" and he understood that it was a "bunny costume." A few seconds later, a parent made the comment, "why is the Easter bunny wearing shoes" which Harrison overheard and promptly inspected the shoes. A few more seconds later Harrison says, "it's my daddy, it's my daddy!" I shushed him and admitted that it was his daddy (he had noticed sometime before that Michael had gone missing from the party) and begged him to keep the secret.

He thought this was kind of funny but after another minute he actually got a bit scared and began to shake his head and stammered out words saying he didn't want daddy to "come to his home" in that bunny costume. This was a real concern and I had to promise it wouldn't come home and explain to him that dad borrowed it from his friend's mommy. This seemed to pacify him.

For the egg hunt, we divided the park into two sections with easy to find eggs for the little ones and slightly more difficult to find eggs for the older kids. Evidently I underestimated their savvy because the big kids had the park cleared in maybe two minutes.

Harrison awoke us Easter Sunday early in the morning and we went downstairs to a basket from mom and dad, a basket from the Easter bunny and a package from Po Po, Grand Hart and Aunt Chyna. He was so excited for everything he received he was bouncing up and down like a bunny. Even though I tried not to make it Christmas II, it was close enough in his mind.

After church, we let Harrison play at the adjoining playground which was a great way to get out all his wiggles. To his credit, he made it through a solid hour of church making this the first time we haven't had to take him out in the foyer, we were very proud of him. I wish we had gotten a family photo though, we all looked lovely.

The weekend had been mostly sunny and warm(!) so we drove the scenic route through Kirkland and stopped at Carrilon Point. You can't tell from this photo, but the Olympic Mountains were visible and gorgeous. 

Later in the afternoon we went to Grandmama and Zaidy's house for dinner. We brought Harrison's peddle-less bike to show off his awesome skills (I keep meaning to post video...). Dad bought his a new bike with peddles, but he is a bit resistant to learning to peddle so Zaidy pulled his bike out and showed Harrison what fun it is to peddle and ride together with family.

After dinner, Harrison had his own special egg hunt in the living room. He found that grandmama had filled eggs with Disney trading pins (to add to his collection) as well as playdough filled eggs. He also got his third Easter basket of the day which Zaidy filled with a plethora of fund toys including foam airplanes that you shoot with rubber bands.

You may have also noticed the basket Harrison was using to collect eggs, it is the same basket he sat in for his very first Easter picture when he was three months old. What a big boy we have!