Easter 2011: The Adventures

This is a long post. There were many stories on Easter. 

I bought Drew's Easter dress in February. Since then, she has appeared downstairs wearing it with several rotating accessories (tights, ruby shoes, necklaces) at least three times a week. She refers to it as her Alice dress from Alice in Wonderland. 

Hallelujah! Finally the day arrived when she was allowed to wear it outside. I dread the day we get her a wedding dress.

Before any Easter egg hunts or chocolate-eating, we took a few pictures on Saturday. It could be the last time the dress is actually white. We started off with her pose of choice (above), and then I had her stand in front of the "bee flowers" to snap another few. 

No Drews were stung in the shooting of these photos.

 The Easter Bunny at El Niguel. She also got a butterfly balloon animal, a butterfly painted on her arm, a few pony rides and some quality time in the bounce house (where she only managed to get kicked in the head once). 

 BFFS holding hands before the big Easter Egg Hunt.

 The hunt. This was the year of the Golden Egg. Once it was announced that the finder of the Golden Egg would win a special prize, Drew became obsessed. When they let the kids loose, Drew walked over no less than 200 eggs looking for the Golden Egg, which is why she ended up with only 6 non-golden eggs. When I finally convinced her to pick up the eggs she was stepping on to put them in her basket, there were very few left and she was pissed she hadn't found the Golden Egg. A 2-year-old boy (yeah right) found the Golden Egg...and then Drew got really pissed. She mentioned several times that day (and once this morning) that she really wanted to find the Golden Egg and didn't want that boy to win or to get another egg ever ever again. 

Any tips on how to crush a child's competitive spirit are welcome.

A bunny lollipop did cheer her up momentarily.

 After church on Easter Sunday (where miraculously the spirit of the Lord kept Drew quiet for the entire hour service), Drew came home to check out her Easter basket and hunt for eggs. In her basket she got the movie Tangled, some books, a baseball glove and mitt (to which she is totally uninterested) and some other little things. The biggest hit of the Easter gifts was the Hello Kitty wallet Grammy and Boppa gave her (which includes an expired Costco card, a Golden Spoon frequent buyer card and pictures of Baby Grace and Baby Lauren), and the Alice chapstick the Easter Bunny left her. She hasn't left the house without her purse yet.

After Saturday's "practice round" Drew found most of her eggs in less than 2 minutes. Daddy played the "hot/cold" game with her to find the remainders. The Easter Bunny may have to get a little more clever next year.

A quick family photo before we headed up to Auntie Nancy's house.

It turns out the Easter Bunny also hit Auntie Nancy and Uncle Don's house, and after waiting for the boys, Drew got down and dirty.

She didn't really need to though, the boys were giving her most of the treats they found. They were very sweet and held each other accountable for making sure they each equally gave her their candy. 

Carson (on the left) couldn't look more like my cousin in this picture if he tried. Well, maybe if he was wearing a Westlake High t-shirt and a Star Wars wristwatch.

Boppa, Drew and Grammy

The girls

Drew and Cadey Boy....moments before Drew was whispering in Cade's ear "will you take a picture with me?" I did not ask her to do that.

 And then, during the one hour of warm sunshine we had on Easter, the kids went kamikaze off the diving board. Thank the Lord for Nancy and her 85 degree pool. Drew didn't hesitate to copy her cousins and try out dives, flips and 360s. Nevermind that she hasn't done any actual swimming since October.

 She also has never been on a diving board before... or tried a half dive half flip, but that didn't stop her. Hurrah, last year's swimming lessons stuck!

  We did get a couple more photos in before the swimming took place. Boppa got the boot off the couch and Papa was happy to be crushed by his granddaughters. Drew just wanted to swim.