Hoppy Easter!

I've made it no secret that Easter is not one of my favorite holidays - one of the major reasons being that it's on a Sunday, so I always have to travel!  This year my family did me the honor of letting me hostess Easter at my own house, so it made it just a little bit sweeter.

We spent Saturday at Alli's first ever softball practice where she demonstrated her mad (inherited) softball skills.  Seriously, this kid is a natural.  After practice, we went to Academy Sports where the men determined she needed a pitch back and some practice balls to work on hitting.  We spent the entire beautiful afternoon on the patio playing ball.  Alli couldn't get enough.

That evening we grilled burgers and dyed Easter eggs.  Riley observed and Ryan did most of the work. And I made sure Alli didn't color every single egg like a Ninja Turtle.

Alli left carrots and Reese's eggs for the Easter Bunny.  I have it on good authority that he enjoyed the eggs more than the carrots.  And he wishes she'd leave wine instead of water, but it's totally fine either way.

The next morning, Alli awoke to 23 eggs hidden around the house and a basket full of goodies.

Because she wasn't familiar with all of the good hiding spots in this house, she needed all of the egg hunting help she could get.

I know you're not going to believe me, but after egg hunting and breakfast, we got this house full of people up and to church at 9:45AM!  We even got there early, so we got good parking and good seats.  The service was beautiful and we sang some of my favorite hymns.  Riley made it to the sermon when Ryan took her in the narthex with the other daddy-baby combos to play until it was time to sing again.  We had beautiful weather to come home and take pictures as well to document that we all got prettied up and went to church together.

After lunch of fried chicken and chocolate layer dessert, we kept softballin'.  It was really a fantastic Easter.  Maybe I'm starting to come around on this holiday...

Emma and Easter

For Easter weekend, we Lowes headed down to the Rock town to celebrate Easter with the fam.  My aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin in law, and new baby cousin Emma Grace were all coming in town from Ruston, and I could not wait to get my hands on that sweet sweet sweet baby.

The problem was that I could barely get her away from Alli and Ryan!

And if it wasn't them, it was Mom, Daddy, Buddy or Nini.

I mean can't a broody pregnant lady catch a break?  In addition to fighting over who got to snuggle that little bundle of sweetness, we also found time to dye eggs.  Ryan and Aunt Noni tackled the tie dye eggs, and after a little practice, they turned out pretty cool.

The next morning, the Easter Bunny hid a whopping 45 eggs, but not before he left us presents.

We then went over to Nini's house for fried chicken, more egg hiding/hunting, and some more holding that sweet baby.  It was so wonderful to celebrate Easter with so much of our family!!  And thank goodness we finally got to meet Emma.  She's pretty much perfect, and she made us even more excited for our sweet Riley Rachelle to get here in May!!

Egg-cellent Easter

After a rough week last week for our family, we were anxious to get down to Little Rock and celebrate Easter this past weekend.  Easter is not one of my favorite holidays, and I can list a few of those reasons for you:

1. Easter is inconsistent.  How many times from January to mid-March do you ask people "When is Easter this year?"  Who ever knows when it's going to occur?  What's it based on?  The first Sunday with a full moon after the first day of spring when the tide is high and the Pope turns around three times?  Pick a day, Easter.  Give us another official holiday.
2. Easter has bad food and entertainment associated with it.  What is tasty about ham and potato salad?  Absolutely nothing.  There's no gravy, there's no casserole, and there's no football.  And there are no presents for me.  Entertainment on Easter?  Hiding eggs in the same place over and over for a kid.  And then letting them hide for you.  Not cool.
3. Pastels.  We've all read this blog enough to know how much Mama likes bold colors.
4. Easter is on a Sunday.  Which makes sense, given the reason for the holiday.  But Sunday?  I'm always going to have to travel on Easter.  I'm always going to have to go back to work the next day.  Give me a day off, Easter.

Let's get this straight, though.  I am eternally grateful for the purpose of Easter - having a Risen Lord who sacrified all for my sins.  I love the church hymns associated with Easter.  And I love the new life that comes with Spring.  I'm just not a huge fan of the details surrounding Easter.  But I digress.  We went down to Little Rock to spend some time with the family, and we had a ball coloring our Easter eggs.  I got a kit for Majestic Eggs, and that was awesome.  You put an egg in a sandwich bag, drop some dye in, roll it around and Presto!  Gorgeous marbleized-looking eggs.  We did several regular eggs as well.  We had a good time, and Alli especially seemed to enjoy it.

That next morning, we got up, hunted eggs, and the Easter Bunny left Alli a basketful of goodies.  Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!