Easter Weekend, 2012

Easter weekend was packed full of holiday traditions, visiting with family, traveling and celebrating the resurrection of our Savior!

We started the weekend by dyeing Easter Eggs, or as Ava called it, "painting the eggs."

When the first batch of eggs was done, Ava wanted to examine each and every one. For the most part, she followed directions, and was very careful with the hard boiled eggs. The little orange egg you see pictured below, fell to the floor about 3 seconds after I took the photo.

Why not use this teachable moment to show Ava what is inside a hard boiled egg? So, I did. After peeling off the vivid orange shell, I handed Ava the egg that had been left inside. Ava had never seen a hard boiled egg before that morning, so she wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. "Eat it!" I said. But she proceeded with extreme caution. She smelled the egg. Pressed it to her mouth. And even licked it.

Then, finally, she took a bite.

And quickly realized that unlike me, but just like her daddy, Ava is not a fan of hard boiled eggs.

Like the southern lady she is, Ava politely spit out the egg and said, "I don't like it."

Not wanting a perfectly good hard boiled egg to go to waste, I took a bite and tried to convince Ava that it was worth giving another shot. To my surprise, Ava was curious about the yellow yolk now poking through the egg. I asked her if she wanted to try it, and was shocked when she said yes. Instead of taking a bite, Ava carefully licked the yolk... And I'm guessing you can tell by the picture, that she didn't like it any better the second time around.

Here is a picture of Ava's Easter Eggs.

And the batch of eggs I dyed after Ava lost interest.

Friday afternoon, we hit the road and headed to my parent's house for the night. Ava enjoyed some time snuggling up with Oma while Opa serenaded her with her favorite songs.

During the day on Saturday, Ava got to take part in her 2nd egg hunt of the season. This hunt, unlike the one at Marc and Lauren's house last week, had only one participant... Ava. She did not have to fight other kids for the eggs, nor was she rushed for time in collecting all 40+ eggs. That's right folks, 40+ eggs. There was some major bribing happening toward the end of the hunt, just in an attempt to get Ava to finish finding the eggs.

Wouldn't you think that after all of the eggs had been collected, Ava would have wanted to see what was inside? That's what I thought, and clearly I was wrong. Instead of looking through her egg basket, Ava threw one of the most epic screaming fits I have ever seen. Why the fit, you might ask? Because I wanted to take her picture. Sheesh! Oh, and in case you're wondering, Matt got every second of Ava's fit on camera. I have a feeling that video will resurface at some point in say, 13 years or so. Muah ha ha ha (evil, blackmail mom laugh)!

Ava's fit resulted in time out. Which clearly did not make her happy either. Live and learn, baby girl. Live. And. Learn.

Eventually, Ava pulled herself together, and we spent Saturday afternoon celebrating my Dad's birthday. My mom did such an amazing job putting together a fantastic dinner for my dad, she forgot one of the most critical parts of a birthday celebration... the candles. Look closely at the cake. Yup, that is most definitely a tea candle. Doesn't my dad look thrilled to blow out the vanilla scented, home decor candle?

After spending great quality time with my family, we headed back to Greensboro Saturday night. Sunday morning, we headed to our amazing church to worship our resurrected Lord with friends and family. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and how much Ava learns from the Bible. As a family, we read several pages in Ava's children's Bible each night before bed. We have already made our way through Ava's Bible, beginning to end, several times and she becomes increasingly familiar with each story each time we read it. I know there are many more details surrounding the Easter story than Ava is aware of right now, but what a refreshing reminder that while the details are significant, the most important part of the story is able to be recognized by such little children. Jesus died on a cross. He died for my sin and yours. Jesus was buried, but the story does not end there. 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead, conquering sin and the grave! Praise God that Jesus is alive and lives in me today!

Following church, we headed over to Tim and Kathy's house (Matt's aunt and uncle) for Easter lunch. Tim and Kathy have a beautiful backyard, so we took advantage of the scenery and took a family photo.

Ava may not have appreciated the beauty (and no doubt, the hard work) of Tim and Kathy's backyard, but regardless, I was able to get some pretty adorable pictures of her taking everything in.

Got to love a cheek smashing shot.

I love the following picture of Matt and Ava. I love everything about it... except the fact that while looking simply adorable, Ava is gesturing that she would rather be doing anything other than taking a picture. What is even more frustrating is that I took about 7 pictures of Matt and Ava, cheek to cheek and Ava has the same gesture in every. single. one. Happy Easter, everyone!

Fortunately, Ava got her fingers back in line and managed a precious, and non-profane picture with Mimi and Poppy.

There is nothing classier than a little girl wearing a beautiful Easter dress, fancy shoes and dolled up hair. Oh wait, there is something classier... Take said little girl and watch her dig for some Easter gold.

Sunday evening, Ava got to dig through her Easter basket. She found the "Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" movie (the first movie we took her to see in the theater), a chocolate bunny, a new pair of sunglasses, and the thing one thing she had been asking for, "frip frops."

Mimi and Poppy came over for a sunset picnic and egg hunt. Ava searched the backyard, while wearing her new frip frops and my latest sewing creation.

Thanks to 3 egg hunts in one week, Ava officially has more chocolate candy than she knows what to do with. I guess Matt and I will have to pitch in and help her get rid of some.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Easter!