Dyeing Eggs!

We dyed our Easter eggs tonight, with only two egg mishaps--once when RUS got too excited and leaned on the table while holding an egg in his hand (oops!) and once when R colored on her egg a little too hard with her crayon (uh-oh!)--so there are 10 gorgeous eggs waiting in our fridge for the Easter bunny to hide on Sunday!

Easter Pictures

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

This past Saturday afternoon there was an Easter Egg hunt in the neighborhood. R and I headed down but RUS was napping (the hunt took place at 1 p.m. and he is usually down for the count by noonish).

Here she is at the start of the hunt:
And she was a little shy about picking up the eggs, but did end up with two!

Both of her eggs had chocolate in them, YUM. I couldn't stop her from eating them both right away--here she is, thrilled as punch, with one of them.
And there was a surprise appearance from the Easter Bunny!! I was so proud of R for being brave and approaching the bunny herself for a hug.

Wrapping up the Easter Festivities

Things have been busier than usual around here and I have to confess-- a little embarrassedly-- that holiday festivities like dyeing Easter eggs and getting the children's Easter baskets ready (not to mention everyday things like doing laundry and washing dishes) would not have been possible over the last couple weeks if Grammie and Grampie hadn't been here to help out. Huge thanks to them both for all the help they've provided. J and I are so lucky.

Here are the last of my favorite Easter photos for your viewing enjoyment. The purple dress is R's Easter dress, a gift from Grammie and Grampie. She LOVES it. And I love that it will also make a great summery dress for her to wear. She also received a little gardening kit, complete with tiny watering can. Every day she wants to go out and water the garden, and insists that we fill up her can with the hose so she can painstakingly pour it out over the line of radish seedlings we have coming up.

Here's R opening her Easter basket from Grammie and Grampie. The hat was part of the gift, and it's been her favorite thing to wear since she got it.



I love that RUS looks like such a little man in his Easter outfit, also a gift from Grammie and Grampie. Here he is sitting next to R's Easter basket from us, which included some sidewalk chalk, "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and a plastic egg with M&Ms in it.

And, I just realized, looking through these pictures (all the ones posted in this post are from Grammie's camera): THANK GOODNESS for grandparents who remember to take pictures of the baby! I have been seriously negligent in taking pictures lately and I am thankful that I have these wonderful ones of RUS. Can you believe he is almost 6 months old already? Yikes!
I think he likes the forsythia!!

"It's Just Like Trick-or-Treat!"

Dyeing Eggs

After the neighborhood egg hunt and a nap and a nice dinner at a local Thai restaurant, we came home and had to get eggs ready for the Easter Bunny to hide! R had a great time dyeing the eggs and seeing them turn such bright colors--they were super-vibrant! Then she had to hide a carrot for the Easter Bunny before getting ready for bed. She was really excited for the Easter Bunny to come, especially after meeting her at the park.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

Our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt, complete with Easter Bunny sighting! R had an amazing time. She and J arrived just as the kids were starting their egg hunts (RUS and I were back at the house since RUS was eating and about to fall asleep. I eventually left him with Grammie and Grampie and headed down to the park to meet up with J and R).

J said R was a little slow to get started but once she got the hang of it, she really got excited about finding the eggs!
After they found all the eggs, the kids emptied them of goodies and turned them back in. R came out of it with a bunch of peanut butter cups, bazooka gum, skittles, and tootsie rolls. She was SO excited to show off everything she got to anyone who would look-- various neighbors and people at the egg hunt, me, J, Grammie, Grampie-- everybody!
Later in the day, as she was settling down for her nap, J overheard her telling her bear all about the day. She described meeting the Easter Bunny and how she gave her a pillow (an extremely-girly pink pillow that she LOVED) and finding all the eggs and how she sat on the bunny's lap and gave her a hug.

Hunting for Easter Eggs

R and G had a great time hunting for Easter Eggs at Grandma and Grandpa's house this weekend. It was the cutest thing to watch them looking for the eggs together.

Our little ghost

So, R's Halloween costume has been completed - and no, it's not a sheet full of holes. But maybe we should have gone the ghost route? She's been getting into this game of peek-a-boos. I know, she came a little late to it, as I know her peers were covering their eyes at half her age. But the way she does it is so distinctly R. She puts her hands over her face and sometimes she closes her eyes and other times, she's peeking in between her fingers. Then she waits. We watch. We wait. She waits. Then you hear, just barely, as if she's muttering to herself, this little "boo." And her "b" sound is a little different. Kind of like the spanish "v". A little bit of a "bvoo." It's short. It's quiet. And then the hands come out, and you see that all the while she has this impish little grin. Of course, we respond with our own "boo!" or "gasp!" or "There she is!" (this last after going on about looking for R while her hands cover her eyes). And she smiles really big and puts those hands right back up in place. What an excellent little ghost she would be.

She will in fact be a cat for Halloween. And a fine cat she will be. If you ask her what the cat says, she will often tell you "maow." She also says and signs cat and she loves to follow our own cats around. Not to mention she has taken a liking to her tail (if not her ears). So she will be a natural as a cat. I have no regrets.

But then again. We bought a stand-up ghost decoration for our porch at the last orchard visit and R really loves pointing at it and saying "bvoo" or when I tell her what it is "goad." Maybe we'll have to cut some holes in a sheet after all.

(She also likes to say hi to both the cat and the ghost).