Easter weekend

finally, Easter is over! seemed like it was a week long celebration this year. i guess as the kids get older, there are more holiday kid-centered activities to attend. 

macy had an easter egg hunt at school- unfortunately (or fortunately for me!) it was the week i was away with brian.

then last week tate's class dyed eggs and had a egg hunt- like the good little volunteer i am, i went in to help out in the classroom. (i'll spare you those pictures!) but i must note how surprised i was that several kids in the class had never dyed eggs before! (it's not my favorite thing to do, so i wonder how those parents have successfully avoided it!)

friday afternoon brian was able to leave work a few hours early, so that put us in fresno for dinner. we had a great night at ambra's just hanging out with her family and a couple friends of hers as well.

saturday morning brian went golfing with frankie and friends. ambra's big kids watched my little kids and the two of us snuck out for some Easter basket shopping. 

we got home in time to grab brian, kyra and my two kids to head to a egg hunt at a local church. it was THE perfect egg hunt! there was so much fun stuff for the kids to do, with free everything- from easter bunny photos to food! plus, it was a warm, sunny day which made it even better. 

macy went with tate for the egg hunt, so she was out there with the 4-7 year olds. this meant that she was a lot slower than the rest of them. she collected 2 eggs, while tate filled his basket! they "hid" 600-700 eggs for each age group!

getting ready-

 go macy go!

 tate got plenty!

he's proud of his loot!

here we are helping them sort their loot!

 in the fields they had the cutest painted animal cut-outs. who can resist the photo op-

 bounce house time!

 instead of face painting, macy chose the easter bunny to be painted on her hand

 this bunny was creepy! brian had to hold macy for her to get close. we didn't blame her!

 kyra is such a good sport!

what's an egg hunt with a tour of a fire truck, right? HA!

saturday night was just another fun family night in. jacob's girlfriend, my mom and a couple ambra's friends and their kids came over too. brian and frankie enjoyed some suspicious "pimp juice" together-

 the kids jumped on the trampoline for hours and hours all weekend long-

 apparently if you drink enough "pimp juice" you too join in the jumping! (the kids loved that he was jumping with them!!!)

 of course we had to dye eggs too... in the dark!

 i took pics while brian helped macy!

 jake's girlfriend, Jessica was an awesome aide to tate-

and here are the beautiful eggs-

the kids woke up to find their easter baskets tucked away up high on a shelf! they had to wait several hours before they could open them...

 everyone returned Easter morning at 8:30am for an egg hunt!

 tate found a slug in this egg- gross! (guess that's what happens when you hide the eggs at midnight after the pimp juice!)

 palm trees work great for hiding eggs!

 success!

 jess let macy have some 9am candy!

 finally- 10am (they'd been up since 6!) and it is time to open the baskets! tate was thrilled to find a new skylander in his basket!

 macy got some new light up sneakers!

 check out this cool dude! (the easter bunny brought spider man sunglasses too!)

 on our way to church-

 we went to jacob's church- he could have won an award for bringing the most guests! (or CEO people- "Christmas & Easter Only- as his pastor said!) There were 17 of us- we took up 2 full rows!

we had an awesome easter feast, complete with more play time outside and surprise Easter baskets from titi too!

some of you may remember this crazy bubble blowing goop from when we were kids-

 (sorry for the shirtless, skinny boy above- it was over 80 and mommy didn't pack any shorts or t-shirts!)

macy was thrilled to get this chocolate bunny lollipop from titi ambra! (we do stuff, not candy in baskets...)

these are ambra's friends, alex & lydia with 2 month old daughter aubrey. they also have 5 yr old daughter allison who both tate and macy loved playing with! they live in the same town as ambra. she and alex went to law school together. their family spent most of the weekend with us, which made it fun not only for the kids- but also for us adults!

after dinner and dessert, we had to get on the road to head home because brian had to work monday morning. we hated to eat and run, but there was no way around it. we were relaxed and stuffed and dreaded the 3 hour drive home...

however, before we could escape- ambra remembered the 3 dozen confetti filled eggs that have become a part of Easter for her family! this is an old Mexican tradition. they make such a mess and you will have confetti in your hair and on your lawn for weeks and weeks! but the kids love em...

 macy wasn't so sure this would be fun-

jake is getting a little too old for the fun too!

 jess has very long, thick hair so getting the confetti out was NO fun!

i luckily had the excuse of getting in the car, so no one could get me!

thanks to my sister and her fun family for hosting a wonderful Easter weekend complete with new and old traditions and lots of new memories and laughs!