Easter 2011

Well you could have blown me over with a feather when it came to picking up eggs on Easter. We had the kids all pumped up about getting the most eggs, ganging up on their big cousin Oliver, we even did some trash talking about "The Eastsiders" (where we live in Milwaukee) coming to rock the egg hunt. Hmm, I guess we didn't practice picking up eggs with distractions such as a swing set or wood chips or a pile of grass with a bulldozer at my sister's house...
Since the eggs for the babies had different contents than Oliver, we had to set up the eggs for the babies in the side yard and the eggs for Oliver in the back yard. My mom and sister were making fun of me and what a mean mom I am. I filled the eggs with goldfish, Cheerios, raisins and dried peaches. No candy. They don't need candy. My mom filled some of the kids eggs with stickers which was an awesome idea because they LOVE stickers but the problem with the stickers was that they didn't make noise when shaking the eggs. The kids learned real quick that the good eggs are the ones that made noise. So that being said we put like 100 or 150 eggs for the trio in the yard...
It was slightly chilly out and the ground was wet so of course I was worried about the kids getting cold. Nothing like collecting Easter eggs in snowsuits. See Eloise in the background? She never even picked up a basket. Just headed straight for the swing set.

Addy was very focused and cleaned up about 1/4 of the yard- only collecting eggs that made noise when she shook them.

And we now we lost Becket to the lure of the swing set. Check out the totally AWESOME red truck that Sarah and Jim restored. The plan is she is going to sell herbs and flowers out of it this summer at local Farmer's Markets. The best part is that she can barely drive it because it is really hard to steer so I picture her pulling up to the market aand fruit and vegtables flying as she hits stands, people scattering and everyone yelling- Get out of the way, here comes that crazy lady in the red truck again! So if you see this truck with a totally cool, creative and super chatty friendly woman at a local market in WI, buy something from her! She probably owes money to the other farmers whose produce she decimated on her way in.

This is the perfect day for Eloise- first time on a big girl swing- with lots of mulch underneath to pad the falls.

Beckett found the bulldozer, filled it with Easter grass and then plucked grass one piece at a time to try and fill the bucket.

I didn't get a picture but we had all 3 in the wagon with Oliver pulling. Addy stayed in the wagon and broke open eggs to cherry pick all the goodies.
We spent all this time and energy on the eggs and all Beckett wants to do is make piles of mulch and throw it the tree.

Finally it warmed up a bit so we could take off their snowsuits. This the weather and picture I was waiting for...
Of course, Addy was the first one at the table waiting patiently for cheese.

This was the display on the buffet that Eloise could NOT wait to get her hands on.
What was really funny is that they didn't even go for the candy first. The eggs were the first victims. Then Addy found the jelly beans and was eating those saying, "yummm, yummm." So despite my best efforts they did get to eat treats besides Cheerios and raisins.

Happy Easter!!!