Easter Morning 2012

The bunny visited!

Their loot:

Grayson's:

Maddie's:

Maddie's beyond excited face at seeing the Lala Loopsy ferris wheel:

Grayson's beyond excited face at seeing a new basketball:

A boy and his ball (and snowman jammies and random hat that Mike put on him):

Sweet girl

So happy.  Ferris wheel and snacks.  Who could ask for more?

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday

We had such a fabulous Easter Sunday!

After church in the morning, we headed to brunch with our families.

Then, it was back to Nana and Poppa's house for dessert and an egg hunt.

Our almost four year old!

These were the baskets from Nana and Poppa and Tommy and Veronica.

She was quite the lucky girl!

My sisters, Annie and Megan

My brother, Tommy and his sweet girlfriend Veronica.

Maddie adores both of them.

Poppa hid lots of eggs in the yard!

She was so happy (and had no competition finding the eggs, haha!).

My dad and brother :)

The eggs were filled with coins so after the hunt, Veronica helped Maddie open each egg and drop the coin in her new bunny bank.

And finally, Mike and a super pregnant me. :)

Easter Celebration

Each year, our church throws a huge Easter celebration for the community.

We had such a fun time. There were bounce houses, games and a gigantic Easter egg hunt.

Maddie and the bunny :)

Some serious face painting going on!

Maddie got to spend the day with so many of her friends, including Owen!

This is post-egg hunt. :)

Emma, Maddie and Lilly had a blast.

Maddie has already started asking when we get to do it all again. Ha!

Dying Easter Eggs

A couple nights ago, we dyed Easter eggs together.

We just used a store kit but it was certainly enough to make Maddie happy!

She stirred the colors and mixed in the color tablets and vinegar.

I don't know why she has a silver hairpin in her hair. Ha!

Maddie and Daddy dipped one in a plastic sleeve, which was pretty cool to a certain three year old. :)

And, our finished eggs!

Maddie decided that she needed to take a picture, too.

Here's her inspired work. Ha! :)

Easy Easter Craft

I've taken the easy route with crafts lately, stocking up on the dollar crafts from Michaels. She loves those little wood ornaments and foam magnet things.

But, we've been doing a lot of bunnies and eggs, which doesn't really (well, at all) explain what Easter is all about.

So, she made this colorful egg with watercolors and then we talked about what each of the colors stand for.

She painted the stripes and when it was dry, she cut it out.

Then we discussed each color and labeled the sections.

It was easy and fun and got some great discussion started with us!

Easter Sensory Tub

Last night, I pulled together an Easter-themed sensory tub and then anxiously waited for Maddie to wake up and play!

I dyed the rice in pastel colors and then hid all sorts of tiny Easter trinkets.

She was SO excited to come out and see it this morning and immediately had to sit down and find the objects.

She loved finding the tiny (and big!) eggs the best.

After she found the items, we took turns hiding them again for one another.

Then, she decided to sort all the items by type (eggs, flowers, animals)...

So many options for play (she's currently burying her hand in the tub; ha!)!

To see this tub (and more sensory tubs like this one), check out our Time for Tots store!

Side note: I can't believe Easter is coming up! I also can't believe we're having a baby next month!!!

An Egg-citing Easter Fair!

Our church hosted an amazing Easter egg hunt, but it wasn't just a hunt. There were bounce houses, games, prizes, the bunny...

It was fabulous.

Maddie enjoyed the egg hunt candy.

I enjoyed my two loves.

We all enjoyed watching the poor bunny juggle three toddlers (who were, by the way, all very happy, despite the expressions on each of their faces!).

So thankful for our friends who joined, too!

More Easter pictures to come (check out the five bazillion posts I've done tonight! I must go to bed. Must get some sleep!).

Doing the best we can

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and a wonderful Easter Sunday. In so many ways, I feel like time is just spinning almost entirely out of control. As I watched my little girl race around, grabbing Easter eggs, I felt my eyes get blurry with tears.

For one, I'm so thankful for her. I'm so thankful for the sweetness and innocence that just is Maddie. Watching her get so excited to "find" the eggs that were in absolute and entire plain view on the grass made my heart ache in such a complete type of love.

And, for another, I so desperately feel like a chunk of our life is missing.

I know that I'm getting stronger and I'm feeling very blessed that my heart is being prepared in a way that I never truly dreamed possible. But you know, that doesn't mean that the longing I have, the longing of a life that I have for Maddie, doesn't still throb (and I'm finding that's especially true on holidays).

Yeah, it was actually a really, really good Easter. Maddie and I were surrounded by so many friends and again, He made sure that I was never alone. We were completely spoiled by Grandma, Abuela, Nana, Poppa, TT, Veronica, Annie, Megan... Maddie was darn near angelic during church (though, not without the help from a great number of lollipops) and as I held her during the service, I felt such a powerful closeness. A oneness that she's my girl and that we're in it together.

She's my baby and I love her so fiercely. She picked up one of her new word cards and, after reading the word, started spelling it out (I mean, the word was written on the card, but she read the lower case letters and I didn't think she knew the lower case ones). She amazes me.

I want to share her with the world. I want to shout out that she is a miracle and a blessing.

And, I want to share those moments, the egg hunts and the "reading" and all the teeny little moments of discovery and enthusiasm with her dad. I want for her to be able to look over and share that precious, "Did you know I knew that?" expression she gets on her face. I wish that he was around to watch her dance to the music in church and then quietly shush her when she started saying, "Go way now! Go TT's house." I wish that he could've joined her in the trip to the park this afternoon and pushed her on the swings or held her hand down the slide. I wish he could've seen her face when she saw the package of stretchy insects that the Bunny brought (yeah, of all the things she got, the weird, dollar store bugs elicited the greatest level of enthusiasm). I just wish he was here. I know he's in her life, but I wish it didn't have to be scheduled and arranged and, well, so separate.

I don't know if that longing will ever change.

What I do know is that today was good. I'm okay if a piece of me longs for that cookie-cutter life. It's what I'd always yearned for, so I guess I feel like it's understandable if I still mourn it or want it. I also know though that Maddie and I are good and that for this moment in time, we're doing the absolute best that we can.

Thanks for continuing to keep us in your thoughts and prayers and Maddie and I send our hugs (or, as she calls them, "Queeeezes!" That's, by the way, "Squeezes."). :)

Where has the time gone??

Today we went and visited the Easter Bunny. On par with her normal distrust of anything in costume, I thought that for sure, she'd hate him (her?). But much to my surprise, she loved him. Adored him. Borderline flirted with him ("No ticklin' me Bunny!"). This wasn't the picture that we bought, but it's from my camera (and yeah, that's half my body there on the side. Apparently, kids are considered a high flight risk around the bunny and it's imperative that parents stay nearby. Psh. I was cropped out of the final product).

And, just for kicks, here's last year's bunny picture (same mall, same bunny):

Who replaced my little roly poly with a big ol' toddler?!

Tuesday Morning Activities

I made this new felt board set for Maddie last night. Itsy Bitsy Spider is one of her favorite songs (mine too-ha!) and I thought she'd love acting it out with the pieces. And, after seeing a similar set on Etsy for $12, I was inspired to do a much cheaper version. We've played with it off and on all morning!

While Mason napped, we worked on threading spools and noodles onto pipe cleaners. It was tricky because if she used too much force, the pipe cleaner would bend. So mostly, I'd hold it and she'd thread them on. It was very entertaining.

Two things about this picture: One, introducing the Easter egg hunt was a terrible, wait, I meant, wonderful idea. She woke up wanting me to hide the eggs (and we’ve done so over and over and over…). Secondly, she’s bouncing on her knees. This is something many of you have seen; she has done for months, but it is so curious to me. She does it across the carpet, the cement, anywhere… Ouch!

A Better Evening

The last post was a little bit of a downer. Sorry. The truth is just that this is a really hard time for me and the bottom line is that I miss my husband terribly. There. I said it. :)

But, Maddie and I had a great evening and I can honestly say that I was a little sad when she went to bed tonight. She's such a little character and truly keeps me laughing. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was on and I guess Mickey was trying to figure out which shape tire would be best for the car. Anytime there's a pause for a question on a TV show, she'll always look to me, with a curious look on her face. So tonight, I wasn't necessarily watching the show, but knew they were asking questions. She'd look at me and I'd say, "Nooooo!" I guess Mickey had chosen a circle tire and when I blindly answered 'no,' she got up, came over, put her hands on my face and made me nod my head "yes." Of course, the whole time, she was cracking up, too. :)

We had our first Easter egg hunt today (because really, it's never too early to start training and I am the long-standing egg-hunting champion in my family so it's only right to start grooming Maddie). :) She LOVED the eggs and especially when we put little toys "ihhh-side." Thanks Megan for creating such fun egg hunts! It was super cute to watch her hunt for them and then get SO excited to "find" one (and by "find" we mean when the egg was in the middle of the room, on the floor). :)

I made some tactile (check the spelling Annie; Lol) letters for Miss Maddie yesterday. I've been wanting to buy some, but when I found sandpaper at the dollar store, I decided to make my own. So, this project cost a whopping dollar, and I hope they'll get lots of use. We sat together this afternoon and traced through some letters and named others. I did the vowels on different colored cardstock to which Maddie started immediately sorting into a different pile. LOL.

Oh my goodness, we had some science fun tonight! Those that know me will already know that I truly am a math and science whiz and have been itching to instill the same love in Maddie. LOL! Totally kidding. But really, I want to try and expose Maddie to a variety of things, and tonight we worked with magnets. Megan was here to help us and can attest to the extreme level of concentration that Maddie was working at (as evidenced by the heavy breathing and the fact that she and the magnets were the only things that existed in her little world). We talked about how they stuck together and how the little balls wanted to be together, too. These were all really awesome finds that I found through the Lakeshore outlet.

This is just a funny shot of Maddie's hair, post-tantrum. She threw an epic fit on the floor of the kitchen (because truly, we don't need to mix popcorn kernels into our macaroni and cheese, do we??) and after she composed herself, this was the result. Love the bow, darling. :)