The royal wedding.

Kidding.

Other than the title, this post has nothing to do with the royal wedding.  Know why?  Because I couldn’t care less about the royal wedding. 

How about something better than the royal wedding? 

How about sidewalk chalk and a budding artist with lovely locks?

Anna is honing her artistic abilities by drawing on the sidewalk (and herself). 

Anna outlines her foot.  If she takes after me, this large outline is pretty accurate.

Look, mom, my foot!

Harley the cat got in on the action, too.

We’re been enjoying these cool spring evenings because we know that in a few short weeks we’ll be able to fry eggs on the sidewalk.  Blaster summer heat!

Too many eggs in one basket.

Here’s part deux of Easter-palooza at Mimi’s house.  Last year Anna was a bit too young to participate in egg dyeing and egg hunting.  Although I had great visions of her running from tree to tree in search of a plastic egg or dipping hard boiled eggs into bright and colorful bowls of water, the reality would’ve been much different.  Cue tears, spilled bowls of water, undiscovered eggs to be left all year long with rotting candy contents.  You get the picture.

Now that Anna is full throttle into toddlerhood, she amazes me on a daily basis with her ability to think logically and participate in activities that require dexterity (ahem, egg dropping) and patience.  It makes a mama proud, yo.

Along with my sister and mother, Anna and I had our first egg dyeing session.  Since I lack artistic ability, my eggs looked like Crayola threw up on them.  My sister’s eggs were beautiful, and Anna’s eggs were just perfect.  I’m not biased.

Anna has no idea what’s going on.

Since we’re women, we read instructions.

Anna doesn’t care about instructions. 



The first egg gets dipped.


Dyeing eggs is serious business


Taking a snack break.

Anna with her favorite aunt.  That pacifier lying on the table, yep, it’s her aunt’s.  Anna is much too big to be taking a pacifier still.  :whistles:

Anna with MiMi and Aunt Lea Lee

Anna with MiMi and her incredibly amazing mother

My eggs are the ugly ones. 

Now for the hunt…

Yes, I hid an egg in the pool.  It floated to the center and was pretty darn obvious.  Anna 1, Mom 0.

I wonder how many dogs have peed on this hydrant.

 
So, I thought our egg hunting expedition would last for hours, but I was out-smarted by a two year old.  She found all 12 eggs in less than 5 minutes.  I hid them again.  She found them more quickly the second time around.  Next year I’m going to hide them in my car – she’ll never look there.  Or will she?

I hope you all had a wonderful and memorable Easter holiday.  If you blogged about it, post the link in the comment section.  I’d love to read all about it!

Splash.

Easter was always a fun holiday growing up.  Egg dyeing, Easter egg hunts, jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, jelly beans, Easter baskets full of cavity inducing candy, jelly beans.

I obviously love jelly beans which is why I have three bags of them in my desk right now. 

So, who would’ve thought that Easter would be an even more fun holiday once you popped out a child?  I had no idea!

This past weekend, we did every clichéd Easter activity possible and had a total blast!  Since Joe had to work on Good Friday and Saturday, Anna and I made a trip out to Mimi’s house (her favorite place on earth) to partake in some pre-Easter festivities.   I decided to be a good mother this weekend and actually photograph it all.  I am a true slacker in that respect.  When my child is 25 and decides to take a trip down memory lane, I don’t want her thinking she disappeared between the ages of 2 and 4. 

I think I went a little overboard with the photos.  Oh well, I know my mother-in-law will appreciate my efforts!

So, here we go – photos and commentary of our wonderful little weekend. 

Disclaimer: Yes, my child is wearing a two-piece.  This was a last-minute idea on our part (swimming), and it’s all we could find at the store closest to my mom’s house.  Besides, she looks adorable in it!


Anna and Jackson are ready to swim! 


He’s the happiest baby on the planet.


I wonder if Anna is happy?


Yeah, I think so.

She’s finally starting to smile for the camera.  It’s a Christmas miracle!


She’s ready to swim!  Or sit.  Because that’s all she’ll be able to do in that tiny little pool.


She’s not quite brave enough to “dive” in yet.

Still unsure.


There we go!


Jackson jumped right in!

She looks like a cop with a radar gun.


I see a little crack.



More to come – stay tuned…