finally, easter sunday had arrived! ellie received her basket from grandma the day before, but she was eagerly anticipating the one from the easter bunny himself. so we left a plate of carrots out the night before and hoped he would find the special treat before hiding our eggs :)

as you can see, he DID eat the carrots and even left a few crumbs behind, but all ellie really cared about was her loot. her basket included a stuffed bunny, a flower headband, dora the explorer lip balm, two bouncy ball eggs, squinkies, an abby cadabby cup, jelly bellies, dumb-dumbs, a (plastic) pink pearl necklace, a slinky, a shirt from old navy and a book i loved when i was little called the country bunny and the little gold shoes. needless to say, she was thrilled.

after the excitement of the goodies wore off, we ran out to the backyard where ellie was sure the easter bunny had hid her her decorated eggs. it was pretty gloomy outside, but we made it out early enough to beat the rain that started shortly after.

as soon as we stepped out the door, ellie was off and running. she found the entire carton of eggs in a matter of minutes, even thought the easter bunny did his best to hide them well!

the egg hunt was so much fun, she was so disappointed when it was over. i guess we’ll just have to do more next year.

later in the afternoon we went to dinner with ryan’s side of the family. i had a small salad, ryan had an appetizer and ellie munched on some bread so we would still have an appetite for dinner at my mom’s, which wasn’t only for easter, but also for my brother’s birthday.

we brought balloons for danny and nan & pop set up a little easter egg hunt of their own for ellie. she was thrilled!

we had a delicious spaghetti dinner, watched danny open presents and blow out his candles, and ellie spent a little quality time reading with pop <3

then it was late and time to head home with all the new easter friends ellie had made over the past few days. can you tell which one is her?! ;) hope everyone had as magical an easter weekend as we did. all our love to you and yours!

i guess the easter eggstravaganza has been going on for years in the city of dublin … i just never knew about it because i didn’t have a kid, or a nice friend named tara who knows all about these kinds of events in the tri-valley :) luckily she told me about it months ago because it’s one of the city’s most popular events and it sold out in a matter of weeks.

there was a big easter egg hunt for the kiddos (for the plastic kind with little goodies inside) and all kinds of other activities from face painting and coloring to bounce houses and a balloon clown lady. there was even a little petting zoo. ellie had a great time collecting eggs and looking inside them to find candy, stickers and other little surprises.

we missed tara but ran into our friends eric and alicia, which was nice because we hadn’t seen little miss brylie in months and she’s almost 1! however short, it was nice to spend some time with them.

after ellie got her flower balloon (which i later popped when we went to sit down on the grass – oops) and a little coloring, we sat down to have a snack and relax a bit. we enjoyed the break, as you can see :)

i think we’ll have to go next year, too <3 thanks for the 411, tara!

i have about ten posts to catch up on, starting with the events that occurred on easter weekend, so bear with me! we decided to color eggs on friday because saturday was going to be a busy day.

i boiled the eggs while ellie napped and we waited until ryan was done working so he could take pictures. she’s been so into crafty things lately, i knew she’d loooove the whole decorating thing, and i was right! pure fascination.

she had a great time turning the eggs around and around to make sure there was enough color on both sides. the only thing she had trouble with was being patient. she wanted to drop them in and take them out instantly so we could do “more, more, more!” so i had to explain, of course, that getting nice, vibrant color takes time. “WHATEVER, MOM” is what i’m sure she was thinking.

she did a fabulous job and the eggs turned out beautifully. after they dried, we put stickers on them. what fun!

can’t wait to do them again next year <3

new year’s eve was so fun this year … the portion of it that i was awake, anyway :) i drank too much too early and passed out before midnight. LAME. still, what i remember of the evening was a fabulous time.

we had matt, alyssa, doug, bekki and brianne over for food and games. we munched on chips and queso, taquitos, salsa, guacamole, and, keeping with the mexican theme, ryan made a super awesome taco casserole. mmm!

then everyone who wasn’t already wearing pjs changed into them and we were all jammy matchy (except brianne, but that was ok because she had to leave early).

we put the kiddos to bed and played phase 10 (introduced to all of us by brianne), apples to apples (always a crowd pleaser), and pictionary … which i was shamefully terrible at because i lost all ability to draw after two turns.

to wrap it up and kick off the new year, some wishes for you, dear readers, that i stole from my lovely friend kat:

‎”may your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. i hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. and i hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” -n.g.

happy 2011 to you and yours <3

everything about christmas this year was incredible. it was a three-day celebration filled with food, friends, gifts, laughs, family and all the love we could ever hope for.

we hope you all had an amazing holiday full of memories that will last a lifetime <3

(p.s. the proverbial “they” are right. christmas is so much more fun with a little one in the house)

“christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful…”

it’s christmas eve and ryan and i are sitting here listening to the folk holiday station on pandora while ellie takes her nap. little does she know what santa has in store for her tomorrow morning! the festivities kick off tonight when the lewis family comes together for dinner and presents. santa will come tonight, of course, and tomorrow morning we’ll open gifts and have breakfast with grandma and grandpa. then we’ll head over to my parents’ house for dinner and presents with my family, and sunday we’ll head to camino for celebration number three with the lack side of the fam. so much fun in one weekend!

on a side note, i’m thrilled with all the cards we’ve received in the mail this year. they’re all beautiful, but my favorites are the ones with photos of all the families and friends that make our lives whole <3

i hope christmas cards are a forever kind of tradition. merry christmas, everyone <3