Easter 2012

We spent Easter this year at Peter & Phyllis' house again and as usual, we had a great time seeing everyone and enjoyed some great hospitality.

Grandma Schwake bought the girls matching Easter dresses this year. It was a bit cool, but I got creative with their closets and added some leggings, a cardigan, and cropped jean jacket.

Grandpa Schwake sure has developed a soft spot for babies.

And we got to visit with this cutie too, my nephew Bowen.
Babies are just so cute when they see other babies.

This little guy is Sam. He is my cousin Nate and his wife Jen's son. So I'm not sure what that makes him to me. 2nd cousin? First cousin once removed? Anyway, it was cute to watch Sam and Meredith play together.

And this other little guy is Matthew, Nate and Jen's other son who will be 2 this summer.

This egg hunt tradition goes back as far as I can remember (thank you Phyllis!). My earliest memory was when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade back in 1985 I think. It was the year I got my first Cabbage Patch Kid and I distinctly remember carrying that doll around during the egg hunt.

And Uncle Chris (who was referred to by Sam as 'The Silly Guy' did not disappoint the littles.

Easter Eve

The part of Easter I dislike the most is eggs. I despise hard boiled eggs. I always have - even when I was a little kid. They stink up your refrigerator and the texture makes me gag. Greg doesn't like them and neither does Meredith. But I remember dying Easter eggs and how much fun it was and Meredith was so excited to color eggs again.

We bought one of those kits where you can make your eggs into animals.
Here are the finished eggs. They turned out cute! And Meredith did actually say she wanted to try an egg again. She picked the blue bunny. After one teeny bite, she decided she really didn't like hard boiled eggs after all.

Anna just sat by and watched.

Osman Shrine Circus

Last year I discovered that the Osman Shrine Circus does a few shows where they offer Grandparents priced tickets for $5 each for people over the age of 55 and their guests. They are normally $20 seats so this makes for very cheap entertainment for a 4-year-old.

Once again, they offered the same special on tickets so my mom, my sister, me, Anna, and Meredith spent Friday morning at the circus. I didn't go last year so this was my first time going to the Shrine Circus in about 20 years or so. The last time I was there was in about 9th grade when we volunteered with the Girl Scouts.

The show was actually really good! Meredith really enjoyed it. When they turned down the lights, you entered a world of blinkie toys. And they made that known when they would say over the loudspeaker "boys and girls...please turn on your light up toys and show them off now! If you don't have one, make sure you get one!". ::eye roll here::

The girl in front of us had this elephant fiber optic blinkie toy that Meredith decided she wanted so Grandma was waiting patiently for one of the vendors to come by our seats so she could buy her one. In the meantime, I had taken Anna to the bathroom to change her diaper. On my way back to our seats, imagine my surprise when I walked by a curtained off area right outside our section out on the concourse that had a hand-written cardboard sign that said "Everything $1". And they had light-up blinkie toys! They had the elephant one that Meredith wanted. At first I thought they were reject toys and I even asked the Shriner selling them if they were broken or had worn out batteries. He told me they were just trying to clear out old inventory from last year.

I headed back to my seats with the new $1 elephant blinkie toy and my bag of cotton candy that I got from a vendor in the concourse. My mom told me that Meredith almost had a meltdown when she asked one of the vendors if he had the elephant blinkie toy and he told her they must be all sold out because he didn't have any.

I handed Mer the elephant blinkie toy and all was well. Grandma went out the the $1 blinkie toy booth and bought 4 more blinkie toys. LOL!

During intermission, Meredith and Grandma went for a ride on an elephant since Meredith was a bit apprehensive to try it last year. I was in my seat with Anna (and our small digital that fits in the diaper bag) so the pictures are kind of crappy. Grandma is wearing pink and Meredith is wearing orange.