Easter 2010

Easter is always a fun time with my family, my older sister Jennifer has her 4 kids and now I am bringing my kids into the mix, makes for a very entertaining holiday. However I think my kiddos will need to get a little older to truly appreciate the egg hunt part, but it'll happen.

In the morning I got our stuff packed and luck would have it my sister, Ashley was in the area visiting a friend so she came over to our house in the morning to drive up with Tre and I so Jammer could surf and then drive her car up after. We were worried with the length of time Tre has been napping (3 hour naps) that we wouldn't get up to my parents house until 4:30 or later so I thought I would try my luck at putting Tre down for his nap at my parents house and Jammer would benefit from another car coming back to OC so he could surf and then come up. So we get to my parents house and get the room ready for Tre and things were not going so well, he is not adjusting so well to sleeping in different places, especially places where he can hear everything that is going on in the rest of the house. So I almost got him to fall asleep, left the room thinking my job was done and it was time to get in the shower before people arrived, when I think my sister Ashley came back from getting ready at her house and my parents new dog barked and voices were heard and Tre popped up quickly and started crying, calling out Auntie Ashley's name and then yelling for Mommy. I ended up finishing my shower as quickly as possible and got dressed and had to head back in to the room. At this point in time Tre had a poopie diaper and it was all over from there. No nap for this kid, I'm hoping that maybe he got at least 5 mins in. I decided to at least give him some down time and we kept the lights off in the room and brought out a simple toy for him to play with on the floor. I changed his diaper, got him dressed and finished getting ready in that room while he chilled on the floor. I still had to go to the store to finish up my potatoes I was making so my sister Ashley came up to the room and hung with Tre while I went to the store. We might just have to be late in the future so Tre can get his nap and not throw things off for days to follow after the nap is messed up, we'll see.

This year is a big year in my family...in addition to us having our 2nd little munchkin my sister Jill is getting married, which I may have mentioned before. However, to really get in the spirit of this happy union Jill had invited her fiance Damon's family to our Easter get together. Plus Damon has a niece who is 2 months older than Tre so there was another little toddler roaming around this time. My youngest nephew is 6. It was great to meet some of Damon's family, unfortunately Damon had come down with something so he was unable to attend the Easter gathering but it was nice that his family was still able to come.

As people were arriving I was in the kitchen getting some food cooked and my younger sister Ashley and I were all of a sudden feeling the house shake! I thought I was having a dizzy spell and grabbed on to the kitchen counter for support but then looked over at Ashley to notice that she was moving as well. The house rolled and it slowly came to a slight rumble until it completely stopped. The pool was moving and only half the group felt the quake. I sure felt it! I think from that point on I didn't feel quite right, my tummy was queasy for the rest of the day. But what a trip, it had been a LONG time since I had felt an earthquake!

Egg Hunting is a serious game in our family and Tre had some practice prior to the family egg hunt but my Dad, brother-in-law and hubby are a bit too good at the egg hiding, so we had to make a pre-egg hunt set up to include Tre and Erica (Damon's niece) who are both under 2. I ended up just throwing some plastic eggs out on the grass and in front of the entry where they would see them as they walked out front. It was cute, my Dad stopped Tre before going out to the eggs and explained to him what he needed to do, look for the egg, pick it up and then put it in your basket. Tre was like, Okay Papa, went for an egg and then wasn't sure he wanted to put it in his basket, hehe. But a few of the eggs did go in the basket and a few were held in his hands for a while. As soon as the bigger kids, my nephew and 2 of my nieces (ages 6, 8 and 12), got started on their egg hunt Tre was wandering around watching what was going on and then just wanted to run around in general. So funny too, last year we had some plastic eggs we couldn't find and weirdest thing, found them this year.

After the kiddos egg hunt, my Dad had gotten the adult egg hunt ready (actually most of it ready before people arrived). This is the serious business side of egg hunting. My Dad is a GREAT egg hider, a little too good sometimes as we seem to ALWAYS lose one or two eggs. I didn't take part since I didn't know what to expect (some of our egg hunts have gotten a little physical and my being pregnant I didn't want to get involved). So Jammer did the hunt for the Anderson side. He and my sister Ashley found the most eggs, but my niece Breanna (age 16) cleaned up financially, she made the most money from the eggs. That's where the seriousness of this game comes into play, a portion of the plastic eggs in hiding are concealing some money! Up to $20 in one egg. Can't remember what the actual amount of eggs with money were this year. It was funny to watch the group hunt for eggs, heads were moving all over the back yard, up, down and all over. Digging in the ground and picking up rocks that were real and fake.

After the hunting was over it was time to eat some yummy food and just socialize. I had to also try on a dress for Jill's wedding to confirm that the size would fit me. Since we don't know exactly how big I will get (but we have an idea from when I carried Tre) we went with the larger size.

So the event was coming to a close and people started leaving, since Tre did not take a nap that day Jammer and I were thinking we needed to get on the road and get this kid to fall asleep in the car for some much needed rest. He did pretty good considering, but was definitely exhausted when we were getting ready to go. He even fell asleep in the car without his pacifier in his mouth but woke up 30 mins later crying and much happier when he saw his paci right in front of him.

Long, eventful day, enjoyed the family gathering and the YUMMY YUMMY food. Wasn't so happy to be feeling yucky for the afternoon but got through it and had a great day!

Now for a little comparison...

Here is our family pic on Easter from this year...Tre being almost 21 months old...


And here is our family pic on Easter from last year...Tre being 9 months old...