Poor Bunny

I am a slight bit behind on blogging...the next few posts (the next MANY posts...) may be a little out of order and all over the place, but bear with me...

First, let's start with Valentine's Day!  I made a pancake dinner for Spencer, Mike and Melia.  Heart pancakes, heart eggs, and heart bacon!  It was a fun Valentine's celebration.  It just may become a Valentine's tradition.

 And now on to Easter...

We had an Easter egg hunt at Mike's parents house.  Ev wasn't entirely sure about what to think of the eggs.

 Melia loved filling her basket.

 What a stash!

 Ev warmed up to the idea of Easter eggs though.  He loved playing with them in the grass.

We also had a hunt at my parents house.  There, each kid was assigned a partner.  Melia was partnered with my cousin Brittany.  There were a number of special locations where eggs would be hidden in a bag.  Each person got one egg from each bag hidden around the house.  Britt was so incredibly patient with Melia and let Melia actually search for the eggs, and let her retrieve them too. 

 Here are a bunch of the other kids running to collect their eggs and be the first to get them all.

 Here are Rach and Kali coming through the gate on their hunt.

 Here are Spencer and his partner, Brayden.

 And one more shot of Britt and Melia.

Our neighborhood (i.e. our old ward the we were sadly ripped apart from in the ward split) has an annual Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt at the park.  The kids always LOVE that hunt.  This year Mike's sister and her family were in town for a few weeks and they got to join us for the hunt.  Melia loved spending time with her cousin Evelyn. 

 Gotta love the Easter Bunny hat.

 Even Ev enjoyed the hunt.  Here he is with Mike and our friends Matt and Jane.  Can you believe Jane is just one month younger than Melia!  She is so tiny and cute!

Here is Evera with our cute (former) neighbor, Celeste, who just moved away, but only about a 15 minute drive, so I suppose we'll survive.

Even Ev likes the bunny hat!  :)

 Easter Sunday was great.  Saturday night I told Melia how the Easter bunny was going to come in the night and fill her Easter basket and leave Easter Eggs.  She was so excited when she went to bed that night.  Melia got up early and was excited to find the loot that the Easter Bunny had left in the night.  Evera's basket is on the left (with all the baby food and toys), Melia's is in the middle (with all the pink stuff and the elephant pillow pet) and Spencer's is on the right (with the green football water bottle and the Hunger Games poster).

 Melia loved collecting all the eggs the Easter Bunny left.

 But she was probably the very most excited about the new pink watering can (just like Mommy's big one) that the Easter Bunny left in her Easter Basket. 

 She also really loved eating her Peeps!

OH YEAH!

 She also loved her new sunglasses, spatulas, and Cinderella necklace (that unfortunately a friend of hers has already broken...)

 {Funny story about the necklace...Melia was upset when it broke--so I was I, it was such a cute necklace, and she loved it.  At any rate, since then (and in no relation to the necklace incident), we've had talks about not whining and crying.  Sometimes I start singing, "Big girls don't cry-y-y; they don't cry.  Big girls, don't cry-y!"  Every single time I sing that now, Melia responds, "Big girls CAN cry if their big girl necklace breaks."  And I say, "Yes."  :)

 Back to Easter...Evera also liked his new Batman glasses that the Easter Bunny brought for him!

  Here are the two silly kiddos wearing their new glasses (and Melia is eating another peep!)  :)

We went to our old ward for church on Easter Sunday as my father-in-law was speaking in that ward.  It was at 11:00 AM.  During church I tried to have a talk with Melia about the REAL reason for the holiday.  We talked about Jesus and how he died for us so that we could be together forever.  

After church we had an early Easter dinner at Mike's parents house.  At dinner, Mike's mom asked Melia what the Easter Bunny left for her in her Easter basket.  Melia got a very serious and upset look on her face, furrowed her brow, and replied in her concerned voice, "The Easter Bunny died."  

Poor kid, I cannot imagine what exactly was going through her head.  I mean the poor bunny had JUST BEEN at our house, and then he died?  I tried to comfort her by saying, "No honey, no.  The Easter Bunny didn't die.  No sweetheart, Jesus died..." but then I felt so sacrilegious comforting her about the Easter Bunny by telling her it was in fact, our Savior who died--as if it were a relief.  I suppose this is the problem with celebrating a pagan holiday with such an important religious holiday.  However, the death of our Savior which then brought forth the tremendous resurrection IS, in fact, a relief.  I tried to have a long talk focusing much harder on the consequential RESURRECTION and the sheer magnificence of that occasion.  I hope one day she will truly understand the spectacularity of the resurrection and the real reason and meaning for this wonderful holiday.

Happy Easter!