Easter Day

For some reason this year's Easter celebration was especially fun: it was filled with good food, family and a lot of love. Oh, and desserts. Lots of desserts.   I think a lot of the reason this year was so special was because of Gia. She's at such a fun age. Everything is new and fun and wonderful to her. She loves and cherishes each experience and it's just so amazing to watch and be a part of.  Her happiness & enthusiasm are contagious and you can't help but smile with you're with her. Jon had to work on Easter from 8-4 so the Easter Bunny came to our house on Saturday. Gia was so excited to see her basket(s) filled with fun little toys and gifts.

She had a ball looking at every single item and then asking to eat it or play with it immediately.  

    We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing and baking a delicious carrot cake from scratch.     

On Easter, Gia and I had a leisurely morning. She played with more of her Easter toys and helped me put the finishing touches on the carrot cake. (Notice the not-quite-evenly placed carrots? That was courtesy of my 2 year old helper.) She really enjoyed carrying the basket around with her. And, although we didn't get her much candy at all, she asked me to eat some of it every two minutes. In the afternoon, we got dressed up and headed to Yadi & Joepa's house (my mom & stepdad).

 

At Yadi's house there were more Easter baskets & presents.

So many presents! She's squeezing a light up chick here, hence the odd face.

Gia & her Great Grandma

Kim, Gia and Mummum reading the book from Kim.

And of course it wouldn't be Easter without dancing... 

 

 ...and the singing of Happy Easter to You, sung only so Gia could blow out some candles. 

So, as Gia would say, "Happy Easter Day, everybody!"

Easter Fun

The past few days have been all about Easter & Gia is loving it! She doesn't really understand much about Easter, except that it's a holiday and it involves bunnies and chicks, dyeing eggs, going to church and spending time with family. She calls it "Easter Day".   Last year we had a few friends over for an egg dyeing playdate and we had so much fun that I thought we'd do it again this year.  

  Gia and her friends Christopher & Adrianna had a blast. Gia couldn't wait to "color the eggs". She must have asked me a million times when her friends were coming over so we could get started.

It took a few reminders for Gia to be gentle with eggs.

But she got the hang of it.

Between 3 mommies, 3 kids, and 3 packs of egg dye we could NOT get an egg to turn pink (much to my dismay).  

Oh well, they look pretty anyway!

    Today we took Gia to Abma's Farm in Wyckoff (my old stomping grounds). First we went to their regular petting zoo, which she loved.  

   They were also having a special Easter petting zoo extravaganza. They had bales of hay set up to make a little square pen and the kids sat on the hay and waited their turn to hold a real live bunny or chick.   She sat patiently and it didn't take long until the lady handed her a medium sized white bunny. She kind of froze, so, from behind, I helped her scoop the bunny onto her tiny lap and hold tight.
(It was such a madhouse that we only got cell phone pictures of this part, so please excuse the less-than-stellar quality of these.)

She eventually got the hang of it and was more comfortable.  She sat there with him for a few minutes (or an eternity in toddler time) and then she started to look around. I could tell she'd had enough, so we put the bunny back in the center of the "ring" and let someone else have a turn.

The Easter Bunny is coming tonight (Daddy has to work on Easter morning, so he's making a special delivery tonight) and then Sunday is "Easter Day".  More fun to come!

WW: Goodbye Winter

In an effort to usher winter OUT of here...here are some pictures of the last snowman Gia built this year.    

She loves this bunny hat and loves posing in it.

Helping Daddy                                                         Waving to Mommy