Easter 2011

Before we had Skylar Easter really wasn't a holiday we thought too much about.  We just saw family on Easter Sunday, ate, and that was it, but now that we have Skylar, Easter felt like a month long holiday.  

It started off with having professional Spring photos taken of Skylar.  Our Stroller Strides group had a professional photographer come in after one of our classes and for a great price took pictures of each kid.  I was nervous since there were several kids, I knew we wouldn't get much time with the photographer and that Skylar may just put her stoneface on and we wouldn't get any good photos of her, but it was the exact opposite.  She was the perfect subject and we got 10 great shots in just a matter for minutes.

Jake and I really dropped the ball on Christmas with taking Skylar to see Santa.  Poor thing had to take a picture with the Southwest Airlines Santa who looked to be a 22 year old Arabic guy.  So I really wanted to make up for it when I took her to see the Easter Bunny.  I searched online to find a Easter Bunny since we are new to the area and found a mall only a few miles away.  I had been to this mall once before and wasn't too impressed with it, but I figured how bad can the Easter Bunny be.  When we got there the set up wasn't to bad and I thought the Bunny looked alright.  So when it was Skylar's turn I sat her on the Easter Bunny's lap and jumped up and down trying to make her smile for the camera.  Four quick camera shots and $40.00 later this is what we got.  I was pretty disappointed with the turn out.  No smile from Skylar, the picture looks to be very far away, pretty blurry and has a corny border around the photo, so put us down as 0-2 with holiday photos.

A few weeks ago while we were in Riverside attending a family gathering I discovered my new obsession.  One of the desserts there was Whoopie Pies and I was hooked from the first bite.  I ran out and purchased a Whoopie Pie pan and decided I would bake them for Easter.  So four hours later I baked about 50 Whoopie Pies for both our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt and our Easter Sunday Dinner with the Family.

Our neighborhood held there Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck on Saturday afternoon and since we are the newbies to the neighborhood we decided to attend and hopefully get a chance to meet most of our neighbors.  Jake and I are pretty prompt to things, but since we didn't know anyone we didn't want to be the first people there.  Luckily Jake looked out the window and saw families already heading up to the park, so we decided to be there right on time.  Well, it started at 4:00 pm and I swear we arrived at 4:02 pm and the kids were already running around searching for eggs and the adults looked to be in deep conversation.  Skylar really had no chance in the egg hunt, she would of been ran over for sure by all the big kids so she missed out on the egg hunt, but she did get some leftover eggs she found on the ground after the hunt ended, which made her happy.  We met a lot of our neighbors who were all really nice and Skylar mingled with two twin girls who were only a few months older than she.  It was a good time and we look forward to the next neighborhood event which we decided we will be 5 minutes early too.

Finally after all these different events and build up Easter Sunday had finally arrived.  The weather had been beautiful the day before, but just our luck, it turned pretty chilly and overcast.  A few months before Skylar was even born her Aunt Erin purchased the cutest dress in the world for her to wear on Easter so I was super excited it fit her perfectly and she just looked so cute in it.

My mom mentioned she wanted to put together a Easter basket for Skylar, which didn't disappoint.  She had it embroidered with Skylar's name so she could use it as her permanent Easter egg hunt basket.  It was filled with stuffed animals, books, two swimsuits and a cute beach towel also embroidered with her name.  I didn't remember, but she said that swimsuits were always something Matthew and I received in our Easter baskets when we were kids, so I thought it was really cute she did the same for Skylar.

It was a pretty quiet Easter for my family, which was actually nice for a change.  The food and company were great and just seeing Skylar walking around looking so cute and happy really made my holiday.  Next Easter is going to be even better when she will be running all over the place particapting in Easter egg hunts and getting so excited opening each eggs to see what treats are inside.