I was driving to the store yesterday and was feeling a wee bit grumpy because Easter hadn't gone the way we had planned.
We had started planning the "perfect Easter" Amelia's first, weeks ago starting with finding matching
Easter dresses for the girls. I bought things for their Easter baskets, and planning an Easter dinner..........
But then on Wednesday Amanda got sick....on Thursday she got worse.....but on Friday it appeared she was on the mend and that we would most likely have to miss the egg hunt we had planned to go to on Saturday, but we might actually make Easter services on Sunday since if she stayed healthy it would be a full 48 hours.....until she got sick again early Saturday morning and decided to share the virus with little Amelia.
As I drove to the store, the thought of missing church on my second favorite Sunday of the year, and all the family traditions, and it being Amelia's first Easter so I wanted it to be the "perfect EASTER"really bummed me out.
When I thought to myself, there is no way you can recreate the perfect Easter because it already happened when Jesus went to the cross for your sins girlfriend! It isn't about the Easter dress, or hat, egg hunt, meal, or even the church service (although, all of them are nice) BUT it is about the EASTER HEART.
Once I had that little reminder I perked right up and decided this couldn't be the "PERFECT" Easter since that happened a little less than 2,000 years ago, but it could be a "SPECIAL EASTER" with my girls and hubby and believe me, it was one of my favorite Easter celebrations all because "Jesus is the real Easter story not the pretend one."
Is there a doctor in the house because we sure need one today!
With both girls sick with a nasty virus we had to adjust our Easter plans and stay inside and make the best of the holiday. We started with a yummy daddy-made breakfast of cheese and egg omelets, sausage, and hash browns. Good job daddy!
With both girls sick with a nasty virus we had to adjust our Easter plans and stay inside and make the best of the holiday. We started with a yummy daddy-made breakfast of cheese and egg omelets, sausage, and hash browns. Good job daddy!
Next we moved into the living room to see what the Easter mommy and daddy bought.
Hubby and I decided to have the Easter mommy and daddy visit our girls instead of the Easter bunny. We wondered if we were depriving our kids out of the "FUN" of the holidays by not lying to them and telling them Santa brings presents and an Easter bunny comes and brings you treats. So we didn't make a big deal about Santa or the bunny and just focused on the true meaning of both holidays since they are both the reasons we live our lives with such joy! We felt if we told Amanda these lies that she would eventually wonder if the stories we told her about Jesus were false also.
Someone even questioned us once about not doing Santa but our daughter has taught us that our decision really was the best one for our family, because we never had to tell her there wasn't a Santa or an Easter bunny because she told us over a year ago that they were not real. It shocks me what kids pick up on and I am glad we can be open and honest about the little things now, since she will need to know she can trust what we say when she grows up and deals with more difficult issues and needs us to be honest and able to trust us.
Today she told us that "Peter Cottontail is the pretend part of Easter and Jesus is the real part" To this we can only say, "Thank you God, she gets it!"
I don't know if we could say that at this point in her life had we opted to buy into the "gotta do Santa and the Easter bunny or your ruining the holidays for your girls lie"
Our pastor preached a sermon once and said that there are no such things as white lies to your children or anyone for that matter.
Amelia opened her card from us today and thought, "hey where is the money?" She had money fall out of the card she received yesterday from mammaw and pappaw.
Amanda had a Tiana doll in her basket, since we didn't put a lot of candy in there this year she got a toy instead.
Amanda also got some special princess flossers which she loved! We like using them over dental floss since it is something she can do and actually enjoys doing.
Amanda also got some special princess flossers which she loved! We like using them over dental floss since it is something she can do and actually enjoys doing.
Amelia just looked at us like, "dental flossers in an Easter basket?"
"Come on people!" (but I deleted that pic by mistake)
The girls got one toy, and Amanda got some candy, and Amelia got none....but she did get her very OWN book. They also received three books to share for the family library.
Amelia and Amanda both love to be read to and Amelia is really into all the touch and feel books we have right now. I don't remember Amanda being as into them at this age but maybe I have forgotten.....
I will say for a sick girl having to run to the bathroom every few minutes, miss out on a lot of fun plans we had made including an egg hunt, and our Easter traditions.....she sure did have a great attitude all day. She went with the flow and didn't dwell on what she had missed but kept that smile even when her tummy hurt.
Amanda was thrilled that her doll actually turns into a frog, two toys in one. Why can't they make all toys this way?
If given a choice to play with plastic or paper Amelia would choose both. The picture proves she loves to play with plastic and her diaper today proved she loves to eat paper!
After the girls opened their baskets we dyed eggs with Amanda while Amelia took a nap.
We let Amelia chew on a carrot and she loved it.
Since we made a resolution to have a healthier lifestyle in the New Year and not have a lot of unnecessary sugar in our home.....we decided not to make our traditional bunny cake and make a veggie and dip bunny.
Hubby and I made this together while Amelia napped and Amanda played. I was quite impressed that hubby and I made something IN THE KITCHEN TOGETHER that turned out this nice because that is the ONE PLACE that we do not work well together. Let's face it there is the right way of doing things and then there is the man's way of doing things. ha ha I am just kidding about that since 99.9 percent of the time his way usually works best, but let's not run and tell him that OK? It can be our secret!
Peter Rabbit may have gotten away from Mr. MacGregor and out of his garden but he didn't stay our of ours!
Amelia was not happy with Peter Rabbit for disobeying his mommy so she gave him a talking to!
She told him she still loved him but was disappointed that he disobeyed.
Amelia and Amanda both love to be read to and Amelia is really into all the touch and feel books we have right now. I don't remember Amanda being as into them at this age but maybe I have forgotten.....
I will say for a sick girl having to run to the bathroom every few minutes, miss out on a lot of fun plans we had made including an egg hunt, and our Easter traditions.....she sure did have a great attitude all day. She went with the flow and didn't dwell on what she had missed but kept that smile even when her tummy hurt.
Amanda was thrilled that her doll actually turns into a frog, two toys in one. Why can't they make all toys this way?
If given a choice to play with plastic or paper Amelia would choose both. The picture proves she loves to play with plastic and her diaper today proved she loves to eat paper!
After the girls opened their baskets we dyed eggs with Amanda while Amelia took a nap.
We let Amelia chew on a carrot and she loved it.
Since we made a resolution to have a healthier lifestyle in the New Year and not have a lot of unnecessary sugar in our home.....we decided not to make our traditional bunny cake and make a veggie and dip bunny.Hubby and I made this together while Amelia napped and Amanda played. I was quite impressed that hubby and I made something IN THE KITCHEN TOGETHER that turned out this nice because that is the ONE PLACE that we do not work well together. Let's face it there is the right way of doing things and then there is the man's way of doing things. ha ha I am just kidding about that since 99.9 percent of the time his way usually works best, but let's not run and tell him that OK? It can be our secret!
Peter Rabbit may have gotten away from Mr. MacGregor and out of his garden but he didn't stay our of ours!
Amelia was not happy with Peter Rabbit for disobeying his mommy so she gave him a talking to!
She told him she still loved him but was disappointed that he disobeyed.
After our lunch of bunny veggies and mini hot dogs we made little peeps cupcakes. ( You didn't really think I would keep the sugar out of Easter did you? Everything in moderation.)
We tried a new recipe to make marshmallow icing using something called Marshmallow Fluff. I had never purchased that before and let me tell ya it took me FOREVER to find in the grocery store. It wasn't anywhere I thought it would be........it was in the peanut butter and jelly aisle!
(I should have known, my roommate would eat the fluff on peanut butter, banana, and mayo sandwiches in college and no, I never took a bite.) Gross!
Looking at Amanda's cupcakes made me think, "It is the process not the product."
Oh the product is looking better!
The final products looking good but as you can see Amelia is not letting Peter Rabbit off the hook very easily.
After making cupcakes we had a surprise egg hunt in the basement since we missed out on a couple of hunts yesterday and our annual mammaw and pappaw hunt this year.
Amelia's first egg hunt. She found four eggs with daddy's help!
Found another egg!
Amelia's wondering, "is that bunny real?"
Guess who found the most eggs?
Amelia?
Nope, that would be Amanda. Since her sister didn't care and they were both sick we will cut her some slack this year but next year she is going to have to share some more eggs with her little sis!
We finished our day with carry out from one of our favorite restaurant, a movie, and finished decorating the eggs we dyed earlier in the day.
My favorite part of the day was reading the Easter Story to the girls, that would be the "real story of Easter, not the pretend one!"
Sometimes the holidays we don't spend planning away are the ones we enjoy the most! We had a wonderful family day together and made lots of wonderful memories!
We tried a new recipe to make marshmallow icing using something called Marshmallow Fluff. I had never purchased that before and let me tell ya it took me FOREVER to find in the grocery store. It wasn't anywhere I thought it would be........it was in the peanut butter and jelly aisle!
(I should have known, my roommate would eat the fluff on peanut butter, banana, and mayo sandwiches in college and no, I never took a bite.) Gross!
Looking at Amanda's cupcakes made me think, "It is the process not the product."
Oh the product is looking better!
The final products looking good but as you can see Amelia is not letting Peter Rabbit off the hook very easily.
After making cupcakes we had a surprise egg hunt in the basement since we missed out on a couple of hunts yesterday and our annual mammaw and pappaw hunt this year.
Amelia's first egg hunt. She found four eggs with daddy's help!
Found another egg!
Amelia's wondering, "is that bunny real?"
Guess who found the most eggs?
Amelia?
Nope, that would be Amanda. Since her sister didn't care and they were both sick we will cut her some slack this year but next year she is going to have to share some more eggs with her little sis!
We finished our day with carry out from one of our favorite restaurant, a movie, and finished decorating the eggs we dyed earlier in the day.
My favorite part of the day was reading the Easter Story to the girls, that would be the "real story of Easter, not the pretend one!"
Sometimes the holidays we don't spend planning away are the ones we enjoy the most! We had a wonderful family day together and made lots of wonderful memories!
