Easter Festivities!

Happy belated Easter!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  It was an especially fun year for us because Melia could (sortof) actually understand what was going on. 

At my mom's house we had a little pre-Easter celebration.  We had a big Easter Egg hunt.  My mom always has the eggs hidden in stations and each kid gets one from each station--a station consists of a hidden bag of eggs.  Each group is paired in teams so the little ones can find the eggs too.  Melia was paired with her cute 18 year old cousin Ryan who adores her.  It was fun to have her go with him.

The eggs my mom hides are not only filled with candy but fun little toys and gadgets too.  Melia's favorite was a yellow wind-up jumping bean, and these cute bunny glasses.  She wasn't so sure about wearing them over her eyes...

 She looked so cute and silly.

 But she loved wearing them on her head.  She wore them all day the day of our neighborhood Easter egg hunt.

 Here she is wearing her cute Easter hat that my mom gave her.  (This is the one she wore to the airport when Mike and Spencer and I got home from Florida--the one I promised to post pictures of later.)  :)  I love this hat, I need to get more pictures of her in it.

 Here's Melia happy as can be at the Neighborhood Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt.  This is such a fun activity that our neighborhood does at the park.  Melia was so excited to be outside at night with so many other people!  She LOVES being outside!

 She was excited to see her friend Celeste, but didn't want to have to hold still for the picture.  :)  Celeste is such a cute "little mommy" and adores Melia.  I love it.  She's the one who keeps asking her mom how much it'd cost to buy baby Melia.  :)  Yesterday she asked me if I knew if I was having a boy or a girl baby.  I told her it's a boy and she said, "Well...that's okay.  I can still play with Melia."  :)

 Here's Spencer and his best friend in our ward, Cameron (Celeste's brother).  They're lined up before going out for the hunt.  Spencer loves wearing the head-light so he doesn't have to carry his flashlight.  :)

 And here are my cuties after the hunt. 

 Sorting their loot with some of the other kids.  (Jaxon on the left, Cameron in the center, and Celeste on the right.)

 Here's Melia at her third egg hunt.  This was the one at Mike's parents house.

 She was excited to go out and collect the eggs.

Here's Melia's biggest competition.  :)  This is Lydia, Melia's cute cousin who is 2 weeks younger than her.

 Here's Spencer searching for the "big kid eggs."

Halfway through searching Melia decided she needed a break and just went and sat on the slide.  I think she really wanted to go down the slide, but couldn't figure out how to get to the top, so just sat there.  :)

 Here's Melia's loot!  :)

 She was so proud of her findings.

 Melia and Lydia got matching Easter dresses from Mike's mom.  They are SOOO CUTE!  We tried to do a little photo shoot but Melia wasn't in the mood to smile for the camera.  Lydia on the other hand was happy as could be and was hamming it up for the camera!

 This was the best we could get of the two of them together.  They're such cute girls!

 This was the best smile I could get from Melia.

 Lydia started pulling the eggs out of the baskets and throwing them on the ground.  She was laughing so hard.  Melia wasn't so sure about it though.

Look at those dimples on Lydia!  Oh my gosh, so cute.   She was LOVING throwing the eggs.  The full eggs would crack open and the candy would fly everywhere.  I couldn't figure out why Melia wasn't quite so amused...

 Until I realized Lydia's parents had emptied all her eggs and her candy and treats were inside.  All the ones shattering and spilling candy everywhere were Melia's eggs.  :)  LOL.

I tried to do a little evening shoot with Melia by all Grandma's beautiful flowers.  The lighting was terrible though and Melia was not really in the mood.

 We got a lot more of this than smiles.  :)

She is such a silly girl!

 Easter Sunday was just a calm relaxing day for us.  We went to church and spent the rest of the day just the 3 of us (me, Mike and Melia).  It was our week to go to Mike's parents house for dinner but Mike's mom ended up going out of town that day so we had a little Easter celebration at her house the night before and spent Easter on our own.

Instead of really celebrating the holiday the day, we held off on the festivities until that Tuesday when Spencer came over.  The EB left clues throughout the house that led to the kids' Easter gift and baskets.  Spencer got a remote control helicopter and Melia got her first baby doll.  In their baskets Melia got some little toys and books, as did Spencer, although Spencer got much more candy than Melia.  The both got a DVD too.  Spencer got Despicable Me and Melia got Tangled.  With all the Easter excitement, Spencer just couldn't stop talking about how he couldn't believe that Melia got Tangled from the Easter Bunny.  Lol.  I don't know why that excited him so much.  :)  I think maybe it was the first time he realized that she might actually like something he likes!

Here's Melia wearing the bunny ears she got in her basket.  I was surprised she'd keep them on her head.

 Here she is holding her new baby doll and my first dolly, "Strawp."  She found Strawp in the basement the other day in a box of my old stuff.  She has loved playing with her.

 Melia loves her new baby doll and is such a sweet "little mommy."  Here she is giving her a kiss.

And hugs.

 Just taking good care of the baby.  :)

 Of course we needed to do something to focus on the real spirit and meaning of this powerful holiday.  My sister-in-law, Angela, sent me a link to a recipe and lesson for these neat "Resurrection Rolls" or "He is Risen Rolls."  Here's the link she sent me, and the recipe I used:  http://mustardseeds.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/he-has-risen-rolls.html.

Anyway you make these rolls and they represent Christ's tomb.  You wrap a marshmallow in the "tomb" and the marshmallow represents Christ--pure and sinless.  You also use cinnamon-sugar and butter which also have significance.  This is what the rolls look like when you get them out of the oven.

 When you bite into the DELICIOUS roll though, you find this:

An empty tomb.  Because He is risen.  (Photos courtesy of www.feathersfrommynest.com.  She has a slightly different recipe, but the same idea.)  I am telling you though, these rolls were DELICIOUS and even at Spencer's age, he was shocked to see that the "tomb" was empty.  It was a really cute and fun activity.

Here's Spencer reading Melia one of the books she got in her Easter basket. 

Melia LOVES books more than anything, and she especially loves reading books in the bathtub just like Mommy.  The neighbor gave us a Sesame Street "bath time bubble book" that she LOVES.  I found more of those books in the dollar bins at Target and bought all of them!  :)  Melia loves them, and loves pointing out all the Sesame Street characters.  Her favorites are Elmo and Zoe, but she likes all of them.  She doesn't really watch Sesame Street but she knows them from her books.  :)  Spencer is such a sweet brother and she LOVES for him to read to her.  I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but Melia is sucking on her baby doll's binkie.  I think it was her favorite part of Easter--getting that binkie.  She sucks on the baby's binkie all the time.  It's pretty funny cause it's just a little nub that fits into the baby's mouth.  She would not set the baby or the binkie down!  :)

HAPPY EASTER!