Our Big Easter!

It is funny how amazing the holidays are now that Colin is older! Easter was last Sunday and what a wonderful day we had with the little man! As I tucked Colin into bed on Saturday night, I told him that the Easter Bunny would be coming to leave him a present and he took things quite literally...he woke up at 7am on Sunday morning and immediately headed into the living room. He said "There is no Easter Bunny here!" HA!! He thought the big guy would just be waiting for him on the couch! I showed him the basket that was left for him and he was beside himself with excitement. He got a new pack of construction trucks and a new model airplane, as well as a stuffed bunny and some finger paints. He was glued to his new stuff until Jer told him to look in the backyard for the hidden eggs. He ran outside and began the hunt, which consisted of him stopping to open each egg and eat the candy inside before going to find the next one. :-) He thought finding candy in those eggs was the best thing that ever happened to him. It was so much fun to watch! The candy overload continued as we got dressed and headed over to Jer's parents house for our annual Easter lunch and egg hunt. Mom Mom and Pop Pop had tons of presents for him and a lot more candy! After sorting through his second batch of Easter loot, he headed outside for the egg hunt, which was absolutely hysterical. After finding candy in the eggs during the first hunt, he assumed that all eggs had a prize inside. He kept opening the eggs at Jer's parents house and tossing them to the ground with a puzzled, "There's no candy inside!!"...he was so upset about it that I was having a hard time not giggling at him. Mom Mom saved the day by sneaking some Hershey's Kisses into the last few eggs and his love of Easter was restored. The day was so wonderful; we shared a great meal and a fantastic afternoon.

Now for a couple of funny tidbits from the last few days:

*Colin is IN LOVE with Hershey's Kisses. He asks for them constantly and the very best part is that he calls them "slurpy kisses". It is so crazy adorable that I keep giving them to him even when I shouldn't. :-)

*When we got home after our big Easter outing, I had nothing planned for dinner. Since we had been eating all day, I just threw some fish sticks in the oven and corn in the microwave for Colin. He went absolutely insane over it and must have eaten 12 fish sticks. With every bite he kept informing me that "this is the BEST thing you have ever made, Mommy!" and "Mommy, this is SO GOOD, thank you so much for making me this". Yes, I make wonderful meals from scratch every day of my life and the frozen fish sticks are the best thing I have ever made him. You just gotta love a two year old. :-) He had only eaten chocolate for about 12 hours straight at that point, so I am hoping it was the starvation talking. HA!

*So back in early February, I took Colin with me to buy some earrings for my good friend Kimberly's birthday and made a big deal about letting him *help* pick them out. Today...as in April 7th...he looks at me and says, "Mommy, I have to go. I need to get Kim some earrings." Absolutely hysterical! In case there was any doubt...Colin remembers everything now....for a long time!

*I really wanted to attend Easter service at church this year, but we decided against it. The huge Easter crowd would absolutely not have worked for Colin at this point. I hope we can make it next year!

And now...let's end this long post with the pictures! :-)

The look on Colin's face when he realized that there was no candy in the eggs. SO FUNNY!

My handsome man! How cute are those plaid shoes?!? :-)

Just after waking up and already hunting eggs in the backyard!

JOY! There is CANDY IN HERE!

Happy again because Mom Mom hid some "slurpy kisses" in the last few eggs!

I just stuck the camera down and snapped this without looking...what a precious shot it turned out to be!! Probably my favorite from the day.

Me and my most precious Easter gift!

Mom Mom and Colin hunting eggs.

Easter Dinner

We have had a wonderful and blessed Easter Sunday! Colin had a hard time going down for his nap (mainly because he was excited and amped on sweets) but he finally went down and took a decent rest. When he woke up, we headed over to Jer's parents house for our big celebration. They had two big Easter baskets for Colin as well as an Easter egg hunt that Jer's mom set up all around the house. He saw the first egg immediately when he walked in the door and he took off after them! It was adorable. The rain finally let up and the sun came out, which was a welcome treat. It was very wet outside, but Colin still managed to put some laps in around the yard. We had a fantastic meal of pork rib roast with my favorite pineapple stuffing (Jer's mom knows how much I love it!) and all kinds of goodies. Mom Mom made homemade cupcakes, which Colin lost his mind over. It was just a fabulous afternoon! We took gazillions of pictures...here are some of my favorites:

Colin being the king on his throne. :-)


My sweet family! I still can't believe Mark got this picture of us...Colin is actually smiling and looking at the camera! Do note the dog paw. ;-)


This is going down in history as one of my favorite shots. We were trying to take a picture with Colin, but he ran out of the frame as usual. This is what we ended up with. HILARIOUS!

Colin running down the stairs during his egg hunt!

Colin rolling with laughter while eating his cupcake:

Me and the little man...he was yelling here because I snatched him up for a picture.

Wearing his bunny ears and looking at all his Easter goodies with Mom Mom.

Lots of Easter loot from his grandparents!

Easter Giggles

We just got home from our awesome Easter dinner and I will be posting lots of pictures shortly. This video just HAD to be posted immediately. His Mom Mom (Jer's mom) was cracking him up! Enjoy! :-)

Easter Zoo Trip

Happy Easter! At this moment, it is 10:15 in the morning and we are having a VERY rainy day. The storms moved in last night and it has been raining ever since. We are heading over to Jer's parents house this afternoon for Easter dinner and what I am sure will be an indoor egg hunt. I was hoping for some adorable outdoor shots of Colin today, but that is not in the cards. :-) I am sure I will have some cute pictures to post tonight regardless. I am a Colin photo-holic. I should probably seek help!


We went to the zoo yesterday morning as planned and thank goodness we went first thing! As we were leaving at around 12:30, there were police directing traffic and the first two parking lots were full! It was total chaos. I knew that was going to happen since the weather was beautiful, but scheduled to be yucky today. We were all glad that we avoided the huge crowds by going in the morning. Colin had a great time running around the zoo like a mad man and we had fun chasing after him. We also just happened to run into one of my best friends from high school, Kelly. I was so excited to see her and her little boy, who is just about 6 months younger than Colin. They actually live close to us and we exchanged phone numbers and will hopefully have a play date soon. The only unfortunate part of the trip was that Colin fell asleep in the car on the way home, which you all know ruined any chance of a real nap. After chasing Colin around a huge park, Jer and I would have loved a nap ourselves, but that was not to be. :-) Here are a few shots from the day:

Colin and Daddy watching the gorillas. Colin loves nothing more than to be on Jer's shoulders these days. Jer's back is killing him today from doing this all around the park. Oops!


I think my boys look absolutely adorable in this picture. Colin thought the flamingos were awesome, mainly because they were so close.

Colin trying to climb into the giraffe exhibit. He would have made it if I had not grabbed him. ;-)

Colin and Mama getting ready for the carousel. It should be noted that he was NOT a fan. He was ready for a nap at this point and he did not enjoy the ride!

Easter Weekend Kick-off

Colin and I attended another egg hunt this morning that was thrown by one of my meetup mommy groups. Colin had a lot more fun at this event because there were only about 40 kids and there was plenty of room for everyone to hunt and actually find eggs! The location was a great park that I had no idea existed and I am very glad that I know about it now. One entire playground was completely covered, which will make for a great spot when the Texas summer is upon us. This morning, however, it was very cold outside! It was 55 degrees when we arrived and I had not checked the weather before we left! I was freezing in my thin shirt and flip flops and Colin was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt! Thankfully I keep one of Colin's jackets in the car for just these occasions. It ended up being a wonderful morning and I am glad that we attended. Tomorrow we are taking Colin to the Ft. Worth Zoo, which I am very excited about. We are going right when they open to hopefully avoid what will inevitably be a packed day. Easter Sunday will be at Jer's parents house, so the weekend is full and ready to go!

Colin is doing all sorts of new and adorable things at the moment. He is suddenly very interactive, which I LOVE. We hold the beginnings of real conversations with each other...I am starting to slowly make out words from his steady stream of babbles and I make a huge production out of him saying something right. His newest move is to make the bear sound. I say, "Colin, what does the bear say?" and Colin says, "GRRRRRR!!!". Let me tell you, it is the cutest thing ever. I find this far more adorable than the doggie and even the monkey sounds he does. ;-) It really is hysterical. He makes a big show out of saying it nice and growl-like. He has a LOT more words and my doctor was certainly right, it does come in explosions. He did something today that I found especially cute, which I have to share for memories sake. He was sorting through his candy filled eggs when we got home and inside were Hershey's Kisses. I have never given him one of those in his life, he has never seen one. In fact, I have never handed him a piece of candy at all before that I can think of. Anyway, I am sitting on the couch and he is standing beside me holding this kiss in his hand. Without hesitation, he begins peeling the wrapper off very carefully, like he is thinking very hard about doing it right. I keep quiet and watch. He peels the whole thing and then holds up the chocolate for me to see. He then stuffs the kiss in his mouth, looks somber for a moment, and then breaks into a huge, chocolate teeth covered smile. I was rolling with laughter. Apparently some things are innate in a human being...important little tidbits like what candy is, how it comes wrapped, and how to get into it and eat it. There was really no need for explanation. :-)

HONEY BUNNY!

Today was VERY windy and the high was only 60, which almost stopped us from taking Colin to "Easter in the Park" at Centennial Park in Southlake. I was determined to brave the weather because they were supposed to have a petting zoo and Colin loves animals. It was a little too windy, but it was still worth the visit because we got to see THIS BUNNY!

Have you ever seen anything so adorable?!?! His name is Cody and he is a French Lops. Those feet were the best things ever!!! I was so enamored with that precious bunny that I wanted to steal him. ;-) It was really the highlight of the day. Did I mention those bunny feet?!?!

Besides my awesome moment with the bunnies, it was a quiet and uneventful day. After the Easter event, we walked over to the park and Colin found yet another slide and set of swings he adores. He now cries when you attempt to remove him from a swing! I think we would still be there if we let him keep going. We had dinner at Spring Creek and now Colin is tucked into bed. I am heading in to watch the Academy of Country Music Awards that is recording on the DVR as we speak and then I will be off to bed. We have a very busy week planned including another egg hunt and a visit to ride a pony!! Tomorrow we absolutely must make a big grocery run, which I would really rather not do. I have been putting it off and we have nothing to eat around here. I will stop boring everyone with the mundane and leave you with one last picture...Colin, the King of Swing. ;-)

Easter Egg Hunt and Assorted Saturday Stuff

Colin attended his first Easter egg hunt this morning! Our town sponsored a big hunt at one of the city parks and it was adorable. Ellen and Aubrey joined us and we all had so much fun. The hunts were sectioned off by age group and it was mass hysteria. Colin's group went first, which was 0-3 years. For that group, one parent got to walk with each child...which ended up making it really crazy. The eggs were gone in a matter of seconds and Colin only got one little piece of candy. It did not bother him, but he did seem to wonder what we were all doing walking up the side of a hill holding baskets. We were at the back, so the eggs were snatched up before Colin even touched the field. It was still a blast despite the hunting debacle. :-) There was a bounce house, Smokey the Bear and the Easter Bunny, lots of booths with goodies for the kiddos, and two big parks to play at. The event was also sponsored by a tree farm who handed out free baby trees. I thought that was SO neat and we managed to get one before they were all gone. The only drawback to the morning was when Colin tried to get in the bounce house. He was holding two handfuls of prizes that he could not take in with him and he very literally flipped out when I took them away. Gotta love those meltdowns! I sat down with Colin to calm him down and put his shoes back on when a gentlemen walked up to ask where we got our tree. We told him that they were all gone and then from behind me I heard a voice say, "Chalna?". It was Dana's friend Melody! She and her son Luke were the ones we met during our special playdate with Dana and Gabby a couple of weeks ago. Her husband just happened to ask us about the tree. Such a small world! I have already decided to harass Dana into giving me all of her info so that we can schedule another playdate. Sorry Dana, I think I am stealing your friend. hehehe!

I had one of my introspective moments today during the event. The mayor was there and as he was opening the festivities it hit me that I now consider this place my home. We have lived here 4 years next month and I finally feel like this is my "base" and where I am from. I feel apart of the community and I have a vested interest in what happens here. It was such a sweet event and I was proud to be a member of such a great community. I found myself picturing Colin in that same park over the next few years, hunting eggs in each different age group and I finally realized that I am home here and our roots are settled. I love that!


Afterwards we headed over to our favorite Mexican place for breakfast and back to the house for a pit stop. I felt bad that Colin missed out on the eggs, so I scattered plastic eggs around the backyard and he had a blast picking them all up and putting them in his basket. It was adorable! Colin was too keyed up to nap and we packed up for a trip to Toys R Us. We finally purchased a toddler picnic table and climber slide for the backyard. On the way home we got Sonic for a late lunch and took it to the park to eat and play. Jer put the new goodies together in the yard when we got home and Colin was beside himself with joy! He LOVES IT!!! We played until dinner time and even then I had to drag the little man inside. What a GREAT day!!

Here are some of our pictures from this morning. This is our little family shot taken at the park.




Colin hunting eggs in our backyard.


Waiting patiently with Daddy for the hunt to start. I really wish that horrible shirt was NOT in the background. ;-)

Ellen, Aubrey (under her arm) Colin and I grabbing loot from a treasure chest. They LOVED this part!

Aubrey and Colin grabbing goodies!