Easter Weekend 2015

Another Easter weekend!  Goodness - wasn't it JUST Christmas? 

Be prepared for a photo-assault of our festivities...I want to get everything added, otherwise I forget and just don't do it. 

 

We started our Easter LAST weekend by dying eggs.  A family tradition indeed.  Oliver seemed less than interested in our adventures - in fact - I think he may have been judging us...What are those crazy people doing now??

On Friday, we all went to my parents for our first Easter celebration.  I had off and Andy had to work, so he met us up there at the end of his day. 

First we had to dye even more eggs.  Gotta love my nephew and his allegiance to Marquette...well, OK, he made a Wisconsin egg too. 

 This picture just sums up perfectly how Oliver's evening went.  Eleanor is always hanging on him and Collin just adores him as well.  Miles thinks his cousin is pretty cool, but is the one kid that can love on him without smothering him.  And that car?  Well, it's loud!  And it moves!  I think Oliver was a little scared...and definitely overwhelmed!

Proud Godfather!

Finally Andy got through the traffic and our Easter Egg hunt could begin.  Each kid had a certain amount of eggs they had to find and the "Easter Bunny" did a pretty good job of age appropriate egg hiding - Each kid finished up at about the same time. 

 

 

 Even Oliver got an egg!  Of course...he was a little more interested in eating his egg then anything else.  Oh!  And please don't mind Oliver's outfit selection of the evening...However, it actually was very appropriate as all 4 kids had worn those very pajamas...pajamas that I purchased for Collin upon learning my sister was pregnant with him (If I was an awesome blogger, I would insert a picture of each child in those pajamas *here*, but let's be real - I don't have patience to go on that hunt!)

Then it was the adult's turn for the Easter Egg hunt.  Someone had a great idea to let the kids hide the adult's eggs.  There were 13 of them.  My sister definitely cleaned house on the hunt - but those kids were pretty tricky!

Of course, it isn't a Schroeder holiday with a little more "gaming" and in each egg, there was a letter.  We had to spell what we were getting for Easter.  Well we tried just about EVERY combination of those letters.  My mom had to keep giving us hints.  Finally, one of those smart adults said...wait, I thought there were 13 eggs. Sure enough!  My sister, who had commandeered most of the eggs, still had one in her pocket.  And it just HAPPENED to be a W!  I mean...we could have solved this pretty easily with a W!  But excited that we are all going to the Brewer's game next Sunday...Although, a Trick Beer Set would have been pretty exciting!

And, sorry, but I just HAD to add a picture of our dinner because it was SO amazing!  My mom was really stressing about what to serve for dinner on Good Friday - we had to go meatless and really it's supposed to be a day of fasting and here we are having a feast!  But my gosh - delicious!  Salmon, two types of shrimp, flounder and lobster. 

Just had to add a picture of Oliver looking cute, playing with measuring spoons during dinner

 Then we had to take a walk after our meal and - surprise, surprise - I just loved the sunset clouds.  Aren't they beautiful?

Lucky for us - we were all safe, taking a walk with our ninja bunny.  I mean...really...this kid.  I just can't even put into words how much I love her - and her quirkiness.  Stay proud and strong kiddo!

 

 Andy ended up leaving around 9 PM, but Oliver, Eleanor and I spent the night at my parent's house, because I had to be back in the Burg the next morning at 9:30 for a haircut (yes, we've discussed this before, yes, I still drive to Cedarburg to get my haircut and no, no that will not change).  Sleeping at my parent's house is just delightful for me.  I mean, they are still in the house I grew up in...and it's all still the same.  This was a particularly strange night - staying at my parent's house - without Andy - and needing to go to bed early enough, because I knew I'd be getting up with Oliver.  So as I fell asleep that night, I could hear my mom getting ready for bed.  I could hear my dad putzing around downstairs - and I could hear the one lone car drive through their neighborhood.  Man, just like my childhood.  It was SO comforting.  And deafening quiet!  Holy cow was it quiet!  So I turned my white noise machine on and was asleep in minutes....only to wake up shortly after to feed Oliver...only to wake up shortly after that for another feeding.  Dang Oliver...when are you going to start sleeping through the night??

The next morning I left for my haircut and Eleanor and Oliver went for a walk with Grandma...except that we didn't have a jacket for Oliver...so he wore one of Eleanor's.  Oh...he looks thrilled!

Oh!  And this happened on Saturday morning too!

His arms got tired and he gave up rather quickly, but it did happen!

Saturday night - finally back at home with our entire family - we dyed some more eggs!  We used a kit from 2012...so...well....they didn't turn out great - but we had fun doing it!  We also enjoyed the beautiful weather with some grilling!

Hang in there - almost done!
Sunday morning was Easter!  We made Eleanor stay in her room until we got up - which, of course, was the morning that Oliver decided to sleep in a bit and at 6:58 AM we went downstairs to see if the Easter bunny came...(Although, pretty sure Eleanor had been up since 6:13 - especially since she was already dressed for church!)

 Oliver found his eggs pretty quickly and tried to get to them...so close to crawling folks, so close!

Oliver seems pretty excited to try his new puffs!

Then it was off to church - which was WAY more packed than last year - it's so great to see, but it made us wonder if the late Badger game didn't have something to do with it...

Have I mentioned how much I love these two?

THEN, it was off to (great) Grandma's.  Thank goodness for a beautiful Easter, the kiddos all got to run around and play outside and there was minimal driving of the adults nuts!

But, of course, mom had to take a few more family pictures. 

 

Oh my gosh! Couldn't you just DIE from the cuteness??

Are they really BOTH looking at my camera? 

We did lots of lazing around grandma's and left around 3:15.  Still time for me to do my weekly grocery shopping (ummm, did you know Target was closed on Easter??  I found this crazy hard to believe) another family walk, baths for both kids, a batch of pears made for Oliver and another dinner on the grill.  Oliver had a rough last hour of his day, but he was just really over stimulated from the long weekend. 

Now - we head into our first Spring Break with Eleanor, but the rest of us get to head "Bach to Reality"...I think I'm ready for it!