Easter! Easter! Read all about it!

As you all know, this past weekend was Easter.  Hoorah!  One of my favorite holidays for the kiddos.  Right up there with Christmas and Halloween.  I started preparing for Easter about 6 weeks in advance and purchased their Easter baskets as soon as they hit the shelves, then spent the next several stocking up on supplies for them.

I've always made their Easter baskets myself.  My mom always made ours, so naturally I made my kiddos'.  Honestly I didn't even realize you could buy premade Easter baskets until Cooper and Chloe's first Easter and I started shopping around.  (Yes, you read that correctly.  They're so close in age that they both had their first Easter's the same year. LOL)  Anyway, some of the premade baskets are SUPER cute and I certainly used them for ideas for toys and little gifts, but for me it's just fun to make them on my own.  It's like filing their stocking on Christmas.  Technically Santa does that and technically the Easter Bunny does their baskets, but since this is my private "mommy" blog, I can confess to you all that I am Santa and the Easter Bunny!  *insert evil laugh*

Well last weeks, with Easter quickly approaching, we (the hubs and I) decided to take our little bambinos to the mall to see the Easter Bunny.  Got them all dressed up, looking cute, called ahead to make sure he (or she I guess...) would be there, and headed to town.  Upon arriving at the mall, all hell broke loose.  Brodie was freaking out from the moment we entered the mall parking lot and was none stop crying all the way into the mall.  We passed the Easter Bunny on the way to the bathroom to re-group, check his diaper etc., and Bro took one look at him and screamed even louder.  We tried everything to calm him down...clean diaper, bottle, ride in the stroller, rocking, EVERYTHING, but nothing worked.  Josh and I keep switching back and forth holding him.  All of the kids had had runny noses the previous week, so at this point I'm thinking he has a massive ear infection and we need to go straight from the mall to the doctor's office.  Well everytime I hand him to Josh I notice the backs of his legs are beat red. ???  At first I thought it was just from getting out of the carseat, but 20 min later he's still screaming and his legs are still red.  I'm confused, but try to think about what's causing this, when I look down at his feet.  He's wearing a pair of "new" used shoes we had just got from his Auntie.  So I think, "Maybe he shoes are on too tight?"  I go to them off and the slide right off.  BUT, Brodie stops screaming IMMEDIATELY.  Don't know what it was or why they were bothering him, but that was the problem.  Maybe it's just the shape of the shoe or something because they were the right size and they weren't on too tight at all.  Whatever it was, he can't wear those shoes again LOL  Bummer too because they're SUPER cute.

Anyway, after everyone was calmed down we decided to make our attempt at a pic with the Easter Bunny.  That was a no go for sure.  Not one of them was at all interested in the Easter Bunny.  Probably shouldn't have bought them "Sweet Butter" popcorn only moments before....and the mall shouldn't have put him (or her) right across from the play place.  All they wanted to do was go play.  So, we headed into the play place and let them have it.  :)

They love that place!  Don't know if I've wrote much about it in my blog, but it's this play area in the mall, completely inclosed with about 3' high walls and bench seating all around for the 'rents.  It has several toys and play things, a play house, and a small slide and it's specifically for younger kids (although not all parents abide by the age limits and occasionally there'll be a giant 10 year old running around...)  Anway, the kids can take off the shoes and go nuts.  It's great! And...it's FREE!  Can't get any better than that for a family of five LOL

So no bunny pic for mom this year, but we did wonder into a photo booth and got some of the cutest pics we've ever had for $3.00.

After that we all headed home to await Easter!

Josh and my dad had to work Easter Day, but my mom picked me and the kids up early and we kept them entertained with Easter activities until the boys got home.  We did tattoos, colored Easter pics, and colored cookies shaped like Easter eggs.

(Mommy "helped" with Brodie's)

(Got a tattoo to match Daddy's)



When Daddy got there we started coloring Easter eggs, but Chloe had not had a nap and she'd had enough.  Bro was exhausted too, but there was too much going on for him to go to sleep.  Coop had a blast with it though.  We colored two dozen eggs and he still wanted to do more LOL  Chloe passed out on Daddy immediately after egg coloring and Bro went down shortly after that too.  When Papa got there they were still asleep and only Coop was awake, so we had dinner and tried waiting for the other kids to wake up, but the were O-U-T, OUT.  So we let Cooper find his basket and hid some eggs for him inside (by this time it was dark and chilly out).  He was hilarious finding the eggs and kept making the funniest face.  We had one egg sitting on the fan (the one I thought would be the easiest) and he had the HARDEST time seeing it.  Took him like 10 minutes! And we were giving him all sorts of hints LOL  Once the other kiddos woke up we headed home and Chlo and Bro got to find their baskets at our house the next day.

So Easter turned out great and the kids had a blast!

In other news, they're all doing wonderfully.  We've had a few "off" days with Cooper using the potty and he's had a few more accidents than normal, but a belive it's pretty typical to have some regression here and there.  We've got him back on track though and he's doing great.  Even pooped in the potty this morning!  (Have I mentioned that training potty is getting a little small for my "little" man's BIG dookies?)  And this morning Chloe went up to Josh and took her own diaper off and TOLD him she needed to do pee pee.  She even ran (yes literally ran) in there by herself to go!  Yay!  And of course of little Bro-dacious is turning 1 THIS WEEK!  It's crazy!  His birthday is Friday, his party is Saturday, and he has his check up next Wednesday (which means shots...boo)  Anyway, it's just crazy how fast time flies!

Well that's all for now.  Thanks for checking in everyone and I'll of course be back shortly with updates from Brodie's party and appointment. See ya!