Hoppy Easter!

This is NOT going to be the post about our Easter shenanigans. I still have some resizing and thinking to do about that one - though we did have a splendid time. But I did want to send belated Easter wishes with the home "photo shoot" I did with Eliza for her 6 month birthday. This is reminiscent of Hayden's Santa baby shoot, but with much more pastel. :)

(This one's Hayden, in case you couldn't tell by the change of outfit...)

Can you believe our little Easter bunny is 6 months old?!!! And so freakin' cute!!! (I mean, I love bunny ears on just about anything, but Eliza really makes them adorable in my completely unbiased opinion.)





And like I said, bunny ears are just the greatest, whether on an extremely tolerant dog...a smiling (or yawning or screeching) baby...

or homemade ones on a two year old. Who, by the way, has recently made a habit of donning these bunny ears and hopping around the house singing "here comes Peter cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail." Makes me laugh just to think of it.

Anyway, I hope you had a happy Easter!
Happy Six Month Birthday to Eliza!
(yes, it was a couple weeks ago - we've been busy.)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!

I hope the Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate eggs and you were able to spend Easter with family on a sunshine and flower-filled day. We ended up having Easter in Richmond, Virginia in a hotel room with Poppop. One of my college friends (roommate, teammate, etc) had lost her father to cancer in March and her family scheduled a memorial service for him on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Though I didn't know him all that well (my main memory of him is a wonderfully touching father-daughter dance at her wedding, still brings tears to my eyes), I wanted to go to the service to support Amelia. Since Richmond is much closer than her current home of California (soon to be Oregon), and another college friend I hadn't seen in a couple years was also making the trip, we decided to make the drive down. As an added bonus, Richmond is south of State College, so we'd get to have some warmer weather, spring flowers and a visit from Poppop (Grandma had to work all day Saturday) for our Easter celebration.

We didn't end up taking all that many pictures for the weekend. Despite gathering with people we hadn't seen in a while, it just doesn't seem quite right to take pictures at a memorial service. Amelia did absolutely amazing with her organization of a wonderful slide show (set to music) of her dad's life and gave a heart-warming, tear-inducing speech. I gave her the biggest hug I could, but I know she's got a lot of healing ahead of her. Hayden didn't make it through much of the service (she did like the slide show, pointing out bikes and dogs) but luckily, the service was at the botanical gardens, so Jason had lots of space to let her wander around. And then during a reception afterwards, Hayden quickly warmed up to my college friends and spent most of the time running around, eating pretzels and strawberries, and giving out hugs and smiles. I think she was a well-needed distraction. She even managed to stay in decent spirits when we went back to Amelia's house for more food and socializing, despite it being right in the middle of naptime. She never did nap on Saturday, (5 minutes in the car on the way to dinner doesn't count), but somehow she survived and there was only a minor breakdown at bedtime. Admittedly it seemed bad at the time, but in retrospect, it wasn't all that bad.

Easter morning we enjoyed our second complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel and then headed back upstairs to stage a 28 egg hunt in the living room portion of our hotel room. (we had a lovely 2 room suite - a great find!). Twenty-eight eggs is a lot for a 21 month old in a small space but she made it through finding most of them, while only getting a little bit distracted along the way. I've included a video to showcase part of the fun. Please note the distraction and redirection, the egg dancing/shaking (gotta test what's inside), and the request for a "bite" of candy towards the end.



We also took a few regular photos to document, but it really wasn't the most festive Easter. No pretty dresses. No siblings/cousins to compete against in the egg hunt. No gorging on Easter candy. No church. But I'm very glad we came to support Amelia and to get to see Poppop. Hayden really enjoyed spending time with him. And lest you think, she's only an "in the moment" child, when we saw Poppop, she gave him a big hug, then stepped back and stared at him quizzically and asked, "grandma?" knowing he was missing someone. Very cute.

Not even furniture can stop her...

I don't think I want to eat this. (it's a Peep.)

Look at that knee bend, complete with a steadying hand.

The post-hunt spaceout. Note the chocolatey mouth.

Hayden shares an egg with Poppop.

A day without a nap makes for a sleepy toddler when packing up.
How soon can I nap in the car?

The family on Easter morning.

And as one final Easter video bonus, here's Hayden trying a peanut butter egg.



She's still trying to figure out peanut butter. She doesn't completely dislike it, but she doesn't always want to eat it. I think Poppop gets lots of grandpa points for accepting her mushy chocolate "offering" without complaint!

Hayden's First Fourth of July Weekend

So Hayden's first Fourth of July Weekend started with a pre-party "long foods" barbecue with Mandy, Scott and Noah on Thurs evening. (MSN were headed out of town the next day - very few people eat grilled meats for breakfast!). Hayden and Noah enjoyed turkey hotdogs and homemade popsicles (banana-mango!) while the grownups had grilled corn and brats. Hayden also did some power-lifting, complete with grunting!

The next day, there was some photo op-ing with a cute flag onesie. Yay America!

Even Blizzard got in on the fun, as Hayden practiced her "where is...?" expression.

And then, strangely, after the photo op, Hayden decided the grass felt weird to sit on, so she kept one leg lifted for a LONG time until finally the strain knocked her over. :)
For the evening festivities, we headed over to Lori's to eat pizza and sundaes. At the appointed hour, we headed up the hill to take our front row seats on the track for the 40 min, set to music, fireworks show that State College does every year. (it's awesome, you should come check it out!).

Hayden was awake at the beginning, tucked into the wrap on Momma's front, but after the first few minutes, she decided sleep was better. That's right, she FELL ASLEEP while watching fireworks. Silly girl!

Then on Saturday morning we headed to Columbus for some family time with Grammy and Granddad.

They threw a wonderful early birthday party for Hayden complete with presents and cake!

Hayden says, "I LOVE CAKE!!!"

We even managed to have a nice family photo taken out on the front porch on Monday before we headed home. Happy July Fourth everyone!