April | 2012 | birdiewatchers

Just seemed fitting to us that Easter and adoption both have a theme of hope and newness…. Eli officially becoming a Medford, as well as this being his first Easter celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, really gave us reason to be extra thankful! Could the idea of HOPE really be any clearer for us this year!?!?

We always start our Easter mornings off with a yarn maze to the Easter baskets. As I was telling my friends, Eaton and Nisa, I read about this fantastic Easter idea in a random parenting magazine (mistake #1!) that all “great” mothers organized, when Lexie was 18 months old… what little foresight I had… now, three children later and a rather unsafe home from the hours of 11pm to 7am Easter Eve, we continue with this much coveted tradition. So, Eli received his blue yarn this year to follow to his Easter basket. The girls had him go first as his yarn was the “easiest” to follow. Shockingly enough he knew what to do without much instruction from the older masters of this tradition!

Ok, so many of you know I’m “mean” and don’t do much candy…well, unfortunately for our children, I don’t relax over Easter either so Eli received one plastic egg with some jelly beans in it. Pretty generous, I thought! He figured out how to crack it open in about 2 seconds and then tormented his sisters’ and their unprotected eggs for the remainder of the morning;-) Ah… what happened to the Sweet Hunk of Adorableness then, ladies???

Emily following her yarn as a bunny;-)

We enjoyed Easter at my Aunt Marsha’s, who graciously organized an egg hunt with loads of candy! Eli enjoyed some lovin’, and in all honestly, some much needed egg finding/gathering skills, from his cousins, Adrianna and Shawn. Thanks, guys!

Lexie Lou Lou Bean, focused and in motion!

The cousins…..

Eli really loved Shawn!

After Aunt Marsha’s we headed to Papa & Gigi’s for more candy!!… seriously. Papa has a long standing tradition from when Andrea and I were children of lining everything in their home that has a ledge with candy….wainscoting, vents, end tables, everything!! The girls look forward to this every year so it was time to introduce Eli to this much loved event. He already loves Papa but this really solidified any remaining hesitations! I must also mention that it was 8:30PM at this point… and yes, Eli really was shoving the candy in as fast as his little hands could grab it…. I asked Gigi for a container rather than his lil’ mouth; he couldn’t even wait for his basket!

Needless to say, Eli, and the girls, fell asleep from sugar comas before we pulled out of Papa & Gigi’s driveway…. dreaming, I’m sure, of jellybeans and Peeps…. and hopefully some sweet remembrances of the angels rejoicing, “He is risen, just as He said.” Amen!

Eli’s 1st Easter celebration with us….. we’re really looking forward to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Sunday and part of our family traditions leading up to this special day include egg dying. I don’t remember egg dying with an almost two year old being quite so…. aerobic or exciting! I thought for sure the table, Eli and everything in his immediate realm was going to be stained blue, green, and pink with his vigorous desire to handle his own eggs with no parental assistance;-) Must get this independence wave from Jody;-)!

I can dunk the egg myself, dad….