Gearing Up For Easter

So we had a pretty busy weekend and still didn't get quite everything we wanted to do in (we missed Eva's birthday party on Saturday night, but had a much needed, and planned for a while, adult only dinner out with Paul and Katherine!). So here is what we have been up to...

Sunday we went out to Grandma's house to make our annual Easter ravioli. Auntie brought some donuts that everyone enjoyed, but Jillian really seemed to like getting into the chocolate frosting on hers! After some nourishment (don't tell anyone I'm an RD!) we made some ravioli for Easter. All the kids really got into it this year which was a lot of fun. Grandma made 3 batches of dough, Auntie Christy had the boys set up with the pasta press rolling out the dough into sheets, and I had the girls playing with flour, measuring cups, and pretty much whatever they wanted to make a mess while filling and sealing the ravioli. After some cleaning up we sat everyone back down at the table to color Easter eggs. Joey and Andrew had a great time coloring the eggs, Emma was more interested in trying to suck on the dipper that holds the eggs, whereas Jillian didn't want to use it at all, she just stuck her whole hand in the colored water to dunk her egg in and fetch it out when she was ready. A messy, but fun day! After heading home for naps we all met back up at the mall to attempt an Easter bunny visit. It was 4:15 and we showed up to the area where the bunny was. But he wasn't there...he was taking a break. Ok, so we stayed in line and at 4:30 when he was back we waited, and waited, and waited. Let me also tell you that our mall recently got a train (not sure if its for the holiday or what) that takes kids through the mall. Andrew had been on it before, but Joey had not, and the two were fixated on the train. So after waiting a little while longer, Auntie and I looked at each other, I left the line to see what the train line looked like and $15 later we had sent Grandma off with all the kids on a train ride! The real kicker was that as we were walking back to the train station to meet everyone we saw the Easter Bunny coming back from yet another break! We saw the line and wouldn't have moved in almost an hour! At that rate, the Easter Bunny is going to be late!


We weren't too upset about not visiting the Easter bunny. Last year we didn't have Jillian sit with the Easter bunny even though it was her first Easter because she had fallen asleep and Joey was terrified. Saturday Jillian proved to us that she loves the Easter bunny and tried booking towards him before we could even check in at the Bunny Bash! Uncle Mark, Auntie Miya, and Nathan joined us for the Bunny Bash at our park district where we took a quick picture of the kids with the Easter Bunny, Joey bounced in the bounce house, Nathan, Joey, and Jillian played some games, pet some of the bunnies, chicks, ducks, and lambs at the petting zoo, danced around to some music, made some crafts, and tumbled around on the mats for the Easter egg hunt. Thanks for coming to play with us Nathan! Note, Nathan is a fast guy...every time I tried to snap his picture he'd turn around or walk out of the picture!


As I mentioned earlier we had a nice dinner Saturday night with Paul and Katherine. Here are some of the other happenings in the past few weeks. Remember when it was in the 70's and the kids didn't need to wear coats? Hopefully those days are coming back, but during that time we took advantage of as much outside time as we could. Java and Snowy even got a play date in too!