Easter Sunday

We love Easter.  First and foremost, it is the most important day in our Christian faith.  If Jesus had not risen from the dead on third day, all of Christianity would be a lie.  It's a wonderful day to celebrate.  As with any celebration, that means there are lots of fun traditions.

The first tradition is giving the kids Easter baskets on Easter morning.  I love getting to decorate with the same bunny decorations my mom used.  The girls baskets were very similar.  Each received a princess bubble wand (Cinderella for Mia; Belle for Lily), plastic eggs with Tinkerbell and princess stickers, Jellybeans, M&Ms, new sparkly pencils, new sunglasses (Hello Kitty for Lily, Rapunzel for Mia), a 3D movie (Tangled for Lily and Beauty and the Beast for Mia) and two new books (Splat the Cat's Easter and From Head to Toe for Mia; Fancy Nancy's Easter and Olivia Forms a Band for Lily).

 They had a lot of fun looking through their baskets.

 Trying out their new glasses.

 They have been needing these.

 After breakfast, we got ready for church.  We went to Chattahoochee for service this year which we all enjoyed.  The girls love wearing matching dresses.

 A sweet family picture.

 The girls love their Bama!

 After church, we all go home, change clothes and then head over to Judy and Robert's house for a family get-together.  It's filled with lots of great family time, fun activities and delicious food.

The girls had fun hula-hooping.

 Lily didn't want to stop!

 Mia and Zac had fun in the sand pit.

 The annual picture of all the kids.  This has most of the great-grandkids now, but it used to be my generation (the grandkids).  It's fun to see a growing family.

 The kids leave the steps to start egg hunting.

Lily scored big right by the steps; there were lots of eggs in the bushes.

 Having a blast!

 Mia took off running into the yard.

 Carefully watching her step to find eggs.

 Ready to go through their baskets of eggs!

After the egg hunt, we played for a little bit longer, and then it was time to leave.  We didn't have time to participate in the egg toss this year, maybe next year.  What a fun afternoon!

FBCC Egg Hunt

For the fourth year in a row, we had a great time at First Baptist of Chattahoochee's egg hunt at Whittier Mill.  There are lots of fun activities, and it's always nice to catch up with long-time friends.

Mia started out by decorating and eating a cookie.  She loved getting to ice it and then put sprinkles on it.  This activity was new this year; great idea!

 Of course, they love the playground too.  Fearless Mia climbed right up!

 Both girls loved getting tattoos on their hands.  They did not want to wash these off anytime soon.

 Lily picked a pink butterfly while Mia went with a bunny that said "Hoppy Easter!"

 We missed seeing Granna who was in Tennessee, but we were all excited when Popa came!

 Swinging is always fun.

 Flying high!

 The girls always love the balloon shapes.  Lily picked a dragonfly while Mia wanted a pirate sword.

Finally, it was time for the egg hunt!  Ryan went with Lily in her age area. 

Scooping them up!

 Picking up one and heading for the next.

 With a basket full!

 Liz and I stayed with Mia who was in the more crowded 2 and 3 year old area.

Mia loved finding the eggs! 

 Picking up as many as she can.

 So excited about her basket with eggs!

 Showing off their baskets.

 Of course, the most fun part is going through the loot!

This is always a fun event!



Easter Egg Coloring

One of my very favorite annual traditions is Easter egg coloring.  I have loved this ever since Meme did this with all 5 of her grandkids each year.  I love it and look forward to it each year.  The weather wasn't ideal outside, so we covered the kitchen table and set up shop there. 

The girls couldn't wait to get started!



 This particular set came with a crayon that you decorated the egg with before dipping it in the color.  It didn't work too well, but the girls had fun trying.

 Concentrating so hard.

 Carefully dipping an egg.

 Mia preferred to use her fingers for dipping.

 Having fun!

 Watching all the eggs get colored.

 Getting a lesson from Bama.

 Lily showing off her favorite egg.

 Mia's eggs.  You may notice some of the colors are not the standard colors you find in an egg-dying set.  It look Mia about 5 minutes to go through all of her eggs, while Lily had not yet even completed half.  So Mia decided to redye her eggs.  She would take one, put it in red then blue then yellow etc until all the colors had been used each time.  She loved her rainbow eggs!

 Lily enjoyed displaying her eggs on these little stands.

 Mia showing off her basket full of eggs.

 Mia sat her basket down, picked up this egg and exclaimed "Oh no Mommy!  This egg is hatchin'!  We have to take it outside to hatch!"

 Lily showing off her basket of colored eggs.

And so the tradition continues...love it!

Disney on Ice

I'll start this post by being completely honest.  I love Disney on Ice; always have.  Don't really know why, but I do.  There, I've admitted it.  So, with that admission, you can understand why when Ryan and I saw that Disney on Ice was coming to the Gwinnett Arena on March 31st, I thought to myself, "We're going and we're taking the girls.  Nevermind that tax season is beyond hectic, I want to go.  The girls will not always want to go, nor will they always have the belief in Disney magic, so I'm putting work to the side to enjoy this day with my family."  For the record, very smart move on my part.

The arena is about an hour away from our house, and given that you never know how traffic will be, we left in plenty of time; we arrived about an hour early.  This gave us lots of time to walk around, see the sites, buy a few fun things and enjoy time together.  Here we are testing out seats beforehand: three excited girls!

 Each girl really wanted a Tinkerbell spinner; they love these things!

 What trip to Disney on Ice would be complete without snow cones?  Mia picked a Cinderella cup with rainbow snow while Lily wanted a Tinkerbell cup with rainbow snow.  Since we had plenty of time, we ate them outside so the pieces that fall down (and a lot of pieces fall down) wouldn't land all over our seats.

 We were all eyes once the show started.

 We were using our iPhones to take pictures and unfortunately, it had a really hard time with the ice and its glare.  But here are a few pictures that turned out alright.

First up was The Incredibles family.  They (along with a couple dozen skaters) showed everyone in the audience how to warm up and exercise.

 Next up came Alice, the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Dum and White Rabbit all getting ready for a happy un-birthday party.  Of course, the queen and her card soldiers came in later which is what this picture is of.  They had some really cool choreography of synchronized moves for the cards.

After Alice, Peter Pan, Wendy, John and Michael came out to play.  Of course, you can't have those kids without Tinkerbell who flew above the ice.  The girls loved it!  Also, Captain Hook and Mr. Smead came out; Mia loves them, so she was excited to see them.  They loved seeing the big alligator slither across the ice in pursuit of Captain Hook. 

Next up was The Lion King which the girls know well since we went to see it in the theatre last fall.  They loved seeing all the lions though Mia kept asking for Scar the mean lion.

 The costumes for The Lion King, whether on stage or on ice, are always impressive to me.

Snow White and her dwarf friends came out for a little while.  They cleaned, the witch came and gave Snow White the apple and she slept until her prince came. 

Of course, you can't have Disney without Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  They came out for a little while which all the kids loved.

 This is how Mia and I spent most of the second half of the show.  Trust me, I didn't mind one bit!

 The second half showed us Jasmine and Aladdin who flew across the ice on their magic carpet.  The girls were amazed.

 Peter Pan and the Lost Boys came back out and prevailed over Captain Hook.  Woo-who!

Next up was what we were waiting on: Rapunzel.  It was a lot of fun to watch Rapunzel and Flynn Rider skate under the lanterns that were flying high above the ice.

 Last up all the princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Arora, Tiana, Pocohantas, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Mulan and Ariel) came out and skated with their princes.  The girls loved this part.

 Joining them were Prince Mickey and Princess Minnie.

 The show ended with lots of sparklers and confetti while everyone skated away.

Such a fun family outing.  I told several people, the reactions from the girls was exactly what you want when you plan an outing like this.  They were enthralled throughout the show.  The excitement on their faces was priceless, and I will remember those faces forever.  Just perfect.