Easter Eve

Okay, I know Easter Eve isn't really a thing, but I do love the alliteration. We kept the kids inside all morning with very little stimulation because we knew the rest of their day was going to be nonstop interactions with family. I spent the morning baking rice krispy treats, pound cake, and carrot cake cupcakes. To spruce up the cupcakes, I dyed the cream cheese icing brown, swirled the icing on with a star tip, and placed three candy eggs inside the little bird nests. They weren't quite as exciting as the Peeps cupcakes, but still easy and cute.

After lunch we drove to Gastonia to attend the family egg hunt. My aunt and uncle own several acres of land and do an amazing job hosting our annual fall festival as well as the egg hunt.

We were running late, which prevented my nieces and nephews from being allowed off the deck. Oops! My uncle loves giving the directions (aka long winded speeches) about the egg hunt. Once he finished, the kids were off!

Well, all the kids except James. Admittedly, we were late because we had to interrupt their nap, which resulted in three tired toddlers. James stood in place with his basket while everyone around him gathered eggs.

The girls stayed together. While this was their third egg hunt this week, it was the first one with baskets. With some direction from their aunts and uncles, they got the hang of putting eggs in their baskets.

Of course, Jackson knew what to do. Though he still walked past several better hidden eggs.

After the hunt, the kids emptied their eggs and ate too many sweet treats. Every time I turned around someone else had given Jackson yet another cookie or cupcake! The stubborn trio bit through the wrappers and ate several pieces of candy before it was taken away.

My most recent family yearbook arrived in the mail yesterday, which means I am caught up since the kids were born. Of course I take pride in our family, as well as the amazing print quality of MyPublisher books. I was more than happy that other family members were willing to look through the yearbook.

At one point, my oldest sister convinced us to walk/jog laps with her. The perimeter of my aunt and uncle's backyard is a quarter mile, so we completed 6+ laps together. Maddie walked an entire lap!

After our exercise, we continued to play, relax, and chat. Here are four of my favorite girls:

Jesse and I barely even saw Jackson. He played with his cousin most of the afternoon.

After several hours of fun, we loaded into the van and drove an hour to spend the evening with Jesse's side of the family. We gathered together to enjoy a traditional dinner (ham, deviled eggs, green beans, mac-n-cheese, potato salad). The trio each ate a roll and nibbled on a few bits of food. Jackson's appetite was ruined by the desserts he consumed earlier.

Unfortunately, the photo below was taken about thirty minutes before baby Davis began projectile vomiting.

After the sweet boy was settled, Jesse's mom brought out Easter baskets for all the kids.  MiMi and Aunt Robin outdid themselves once again with the lavish gifts for the kids. Things were a little chaotic so I didn't get any good pictures of the kids going through their baskets.

The girls received sunglasses and bracelets. Amelia reclaimed her nickname as the Diva. She is apparently an accessories girl. Amelia was much more focused on keeping her bracelets on her arm than hunting for eggs.

Once again, James was apathetic about the eggs. He was more interested in climbing the play equipment. Sweet boy!

The kids are so lucky to have so many cousins on both sides of the family to play with. All of my cousins are at least a decade older than me, so I did not have the same bond growing up with my cousins. I love that our kids are all so close in age and love playing together!

We stayed past the trio's bedtime. It felt a bit like Christmas trying to pack in all the gifts and containers of food into the van. Surprisingly, none of the kids fell asleep on the way home, though it didn't take long for everyone to get settled in their beds.

Now Jesse and I just need to finish a few preparations (i.e. stuff eggs with Teddy Grahams and Goldfish and leave a trail of eggs throughout the house) before we can go to bed.