Happy Easter 2013

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend.  We kicked off the weekend with a massive parent/child Easter egg hunt and wrapped it up with a big family dinner.  The girls are still a little too young to really get it, but they had fun just being outside.  It's all just training for next year.

We brought home most of Meg's mom dining room set and Meg was able to set up our table with the same china she grew up with at her house--a tradition that she wants to pass on to our girls.


Aunt Mary painstakingly took the time to create name tags for everyone.  The best part is that we can use them for every dinner we host.










Meg made Easter baskets (lower right) for each of her little cousins.


We held a staged egg hunt in our back yard, which allowed me to get some great shots of the girls.






Sophie and Maddy



Meg and Izzy


The "real" egg hunt was a completely different experience.  Tons of parents of 1-2 year olds, lined up along both foul lines of a baseball field, waiting for someone to blow the whistle.  I never would've imagined that a bunch of sub-two-year-olds could clear an entire field full of eggs in less than 90 seconds.  The truth?  They can't, but a bunch over-eager parents sure the heck can.  I have never seen so many adults going so absolutely crazy that they didn't even take the time to let their kids pick up their own eggs.  C'mon people.  Let your kids have some fun and learn to do it themselves.

In the end, we got a couple of eggs for each girl then hung around and waited for everyone to leave so the girls could run around the field without the risk of being scooped up by another parent and put into their kid's Easter basket.



Maddy and Izzy


Besides Izzy's slight meltdown (captured below), the girls had a ton of fun even though they all had a constant stream of snot running from their noses to their mouths.


Sophie, trying to catch up to Maddy to share her egg.







Maddy, running free and looking for any overlooked eggs


Sophie, opening up her first egg


Izzy, looking for someone to come wipe her nose.




Meg, Izzy, & Maddy


Maddy



Izzy




This little lady has been nothing but smiles lately.




After dinner, Meg decided to give Sophie some chocolate.  Dad was not consulted.  As you can see in the series of shots, below, chocolate can be directly connected with meltdowns in children (for what it's worth it can also be directly connected with some awesome memories and photos, too).






Sophie's reaction when mom tells her it's all gone




The other girls were being held by other relatives, but Sophie was fully committed to trying new foods.  Not only did she try chocolate, but also had her first whipped cream fight with Kelly (by the way, Kelly, thanks for being Sophie's whipped cream canvas).

If you're even thinking about it, don't! (by the way, Happy Easter!)

Easter morning 2012.  What a beautiful day it was.  To be honest, most years, there's probably an equal chance that it could've been snowing, but not this Easter.  Waking up, we knew that we had one heck of a day in front of us.  Basically, our entire day was planned around making it over to Meg's aunt's Easter dinner.

This was a big deal for us.  For the most part, almost every activity, walk, etc. has been able to be planned around naps and feedings.  That's just the way it goes when mom has done the world's greatest job getting these girls on a schedule.  For everyone who's had kids, especially multiples, you know what I'm talking about.  Our girls take two naps a day, pretty much on cue, know when to expect their bottles, and sleep almost 11-12 hours each night, the latter due to Meg's persistence in pushing everyone through sleep training, including me.

Well, today, something was going to have to give.  There was no way that the girls were going to get a full, or even remotely restful, nap today.  It just wasn't going to happen.  I was dreading this.  If you're ever bored and looking to experiment with three normally happy and giggly babies, cut their nap really short.  What will emerge is a whole lotta crabby pants!  It's not a pretty sight.

But let's rewind a little.  Knowing that today was all about getting out of the house on someone else's schedule, we had the forethought to take the girls' photos in their Easter dresses ahead of time.  We chose a time when we had help and when their faces were scratched up the least.  If you're wondering about that last statement, no, they don't battle with the cat.  Even though we cut their nails, which I think actually makes them sharper by the way (even when we attempt filing), they somehow find ways to mark up their face from time to time.  "What about mittens?" you say.  Sophia would have those off in under two seconds and would probably use them as an appetizer before she moved on to gnaw on Sophie the Giraffe.

Somehow, we managed to get everyone's photo without them ruining (ie. spitting up on or ripping) their dresses.  So, by the time Easter Sunday rolled around, their uniforms du jour were still intact and ready for a couple of family photos with mom, dad, and grandma.  All of the photos for each of the girls, the family shots, and from the party are at the bottom of the post.  But before I get there, I want to make sure you all don't think I'm Mr. Crabby Pants.  Aside from some unnecessary crying and a lot of eye rubbing, the girls did an outstanding job.  Any part of their behavior was adult-induced.  They looked beautiful in their dresses and there were plenty of ladies at the party who were just itching to hold a baby (yeah, break for dad!).  Besides packing up nearly half of our house to take with us so we had everything we thought we'd possibly need, the day was a success and we proved to ourselves that getting out of the house and breaking routines wouldn't cause the world to come to an abrupt halt.  HOWEVER, I would say that if you're thinking about breaking routines, don't!  Though, if you do, life will go on.  I hope you had a happy Easter and enjoy the photos!

Miss Isabelle















Miss Madelyn















Miss Sophia


















The Fam









The Party

Ania and Maddy spending some quality time together


Kelly and Izzy enjoying their Easter together


Mom, trying to soothe a crabby Sophie


Ania, Kelly, and Steve


Izzy, obviously more interested in something on the floor than with her dad


Almost the entire group, less the kids


The kids


Keegan, Kaden, and Kylie


Look at those eyelashes!


Sophia, trying to steal a couple of z's away from the loudness of the house