Easter Extravaganza!

Our neighborhood had a big Easter event the day before Easter.

It rained a bit the night before but the weather ended up turning out pretty nice!

They started off with an egg hunt. The girls loved egg hunts but somehow our strategy didn't work out so well and the girls only ended up with a few eggs. Oh, well. They had plenty more to hunt at home.

They enjoyed finding a few eggs and there were lots of other things to do.

Because of the rain the field they normally used was too wet and from what others said it would have been better because there was a lot more room to scatter out (and probably more eggs too!)

This narrow strip of grass was all that was not soggy and muddy.

But there were bounce houses!

And probably the favorite part was the petting zoo.

But before we went to the petting zoo the girls rode the train!

They saw one of their good friends and she rode with them!

Next we waited our turn for the petting zoo.

The girls LOVED petting all the animals. I think the rabbits were their favorite.

After they petted the animals we found their friend to say good bye. It was a lot of fun for the girls and it was just a short walk down the street. 

Easter

We had such a good time celebrating Easter this year. Grace was really in to Easter this year and I think she really understands what Easter is all about. 

On Thursday we colored eggs.

 On Friday we made Easter cupcakes (didn't take a picture. Oops!)

On Saturday I took Grace to the egg hunt on post. She has never been to a big egg hunt before so this was something new for her.

She had so much fun! We didn't count her eggs but I think she found about 10. It went pretty fast since there were so many kids there. I think most kids got a basket full though. Out of the baskets I saw Grace probably had the least.

 

 She had fun going through her eggs on the way home!

Sunday morning Grace woke up to see what was in her Easter basket. The night before after she had gone to bed Dustin went outside. She heard the door and told me "Oh, I think the Easter bunny is at my house!"

Olivia loved her Easter basket too! And, yes, that would be her Christmas pj's she is wearing :)

They each got a dollar coin and that was Olivia's favorite thing! 

And then it was time to get dressed up in their new dresses for church!

Don't they look so beautiful?

After church we had lunch at my parents and an egg hunt. Both girls got quite a bit of money and candy in their eggs. Even though Olivia found the fewer eggs than her sister and cousin she ended up with the most money. We took Grace to Wal-Mart to buy the fairies she had been wanting for a month. She had been waiting to have enough of her own money to buy them.

We had another egg hunt that evening with more family. My Grandpa had some beanie babies and eggs and money and candy. Grace found a "golden egg" and won the BIG chocolate bunny! Grace also found 44 eggs! And Olivia won the prize for the least amount of money and got an extra $5.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter despite the rain. Our plan was to go to Phil and Jacquelyn's for breakfast and then color eggs and let Grace hunt eggs in their backyard. Since it was raining most of the day we hid the eggs inside instead! Grace did a great job finding all of the 66 eggs. I think she only left one behind!

That afternoon we headed to church for an Easter celebration. They grilled ribs, chicken, burgers and hot dogs and there was lots of other food and desserts. They even had an indoor Easter egg hunt for the kids. We didn't know they were going to be doing that and left the camera in the car and didn't have time to get it until after the egg hunt was over. Dustin barely made it with Grace's basket in time. After the egg hunt one of the ladies told the Easter story to all of the kids using Easter eggs. She had numbered the eggs and then passed them out and asked the kids to open them one at a time. Each egg had something to remind us about the Easter story.

This year was so much more fun since Grace was actually able to hunt the eggs herself. Even with the rain we had a great day!

{Looks like the Easter Bunny came!}

{Lots of candy}

{checking out her basket}

{New beach toys}

{Oooh... CHOCOLATE!}

{the cupcakes I made... copied off of Kelly and Maggie!}

{dying eggs}

{So messy!}

{pretty eggs}

{being goofy}

{hunting for eggs}

{prize egg!}

{Another prize egg!}

{All of her eggs}

{Grace started playing in the cooler and before long there were about 6 other kids playing with her!}