Easter 2013 Recap

Dear Em,
We woke up Sunday to find a beautiful sunshiney morning. Actually that's not really the truth. It wasn't quite sunshiney yet when you ran into our room at the crack of dawn to ask us if the Easter Bunny had been to our house. "I don't see any eggs," you whimpered.

That was mostly because I hadn't put any out yet...for a few reasons. The first reason is because we had decided to go candy free at our house this year. I feel like when people read this, half of them will probably think we're crazy & the other half will think we're model parents. I promise, we're neither (well, at least I think we're not crazy).

My Easter baskets when I grew up were always filled half with fruit & half candy. We did that last year for you & things were great (I loved your cute little cheeks full of strawberries), but then we went out to visit extended family. There was another egg hunt with more candy, & you quickly went into candy overload. I hardly recognized you. You weren't even speaking in coherent sentences anymore. There were tantrums when we told you no more candy, & I felt like people were looking at me like I was depriving you of oxygen when I tried to take the candy away.

In order to avoid your candy-zombielikeness this year, Daddy & I decided to go refined sugar free at our house that morning. We filled your basket & eggs with fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, apples, pineapple, & grapes) & snacks (peanuts, goldfish, & Cheez-Its). We wanted to keep the fruit refrigerated, which made it impossible to set everything up on Saturday night. Plus, I knew if we did, our cats would just get into everything anyway & you would've woken up to an Easter disaster.

That is why you were hanging out in our room with your daddy Sunday morning while I scrambled to set up an Easter scavenger hunt. You had so much fun with Daddy's birthday scavenger hunt, we thought you'd enjoy an Easter one as well. Rather than just hiding your eggs, we hid them with twenty clues eventually leading to your Easter basket. The clues took us all over the house & outside. I don't know who had more fun with it, you doing it or Daddy & I watching you. You looked beyond adorable in your purple ballerina jammies with a pink skirt. You had cute little bunny ears on your head. I loved watching your eyes light up as you figured out where each clue was telling you to go. After that it was full steam ahead as you ran to the spot where your next clue was hidden. Sometimes you stopped to munch on the treat that was inside your eggs & sometimes you placed it in your basket & told us you would save it for later as you asked us to read the next clue.

Your last stop was the Easter Basket which was filled with a new kite, a back float for swimming, unicorn Stompeez (soon after Christmas you told me what your new Christmas list was & Stompeez were at the top of that list), hair chalk (which sadly, even after begging on my part, you wouldn't let me use for your Easter hairdo), Wreck it Ralph on DVD, & all kinds of things for crafting. After oooohing & awwwing over the gifts in the basket, you were thrilled to find a pineapple & apple in your basket. You clearly didn't mind the lack of candy at all.

The rest of the morning was happily spent making breakfast at Daddy's restaurant, crafting, & playing in the Easter sunshine. It was my kind of Easter morning.

After you took a nap, & we headed to visit extended family for dinner & an egg hunt.

There was tons of candy & cakes & cupcakes & pie. After dinner, we let you eat it to your heart's content. Perhaps due to the lack of refined sugar that morning, you didn't turn into a candy terrorist this time. The whole day was actually quite nice.

We finished our lovely Easter snuggled up on the coach watching Wreck-It Ralph (remember it was the first movie you watched in theaters). Daddy grew up playing video games, & he loved watching it just as much as you & I did the first time. It was a great way to end a wonderful Easter Day. 

I love you so,

Mommy