Prelude to Easter

The kids are at a really fun age this year where they get so excited about holidays and the preparations that lead up to them. Maura was especially into Easter this year. She was a big help when I put out the Easter decorations. Tristan just tools along behind us and undoes all our work, but he's enthusiastic about it!! I couldn't wait to break out all the Easter traditions and fun activities for them this year.
Dyeing Easter eggs was always one of my favorite holiday activities. My kids couldn't wait to don their paint smocks and get started. Tristan immediately grabbed as many cups as he could and plunked in his eggs. Check out that hair--I LOVE IT, but I did get it cut before Easter because he was starting to look like Frodo Baggins.
This is the result of Tristan's egg dyeing extravaganza. Next year, I think I'll take a page from my friend Hannah's book and let them dye the eggs in a wire whisk. Now why didn't I think of that??

Maura was super proud of her egg dyeing expertise. She did produce some really beautiful eggs this year--a big difference from last year when they were mostly a greenish grey color.
On the Tuesday before Easter, we headed over to Angie and Sarah's house for an impromptu Easter Egg hunt. Do these girls look ready to hunt or what??
Tristan wasn't going to let anyone move in on his Easter Egg territory.
Maura was busy stuffing her basket. She was especially intrigued by the fact that we hid "real" eggs. Our family doesn't hide the hard boiled variety--just the plastic kind, so she was excited to find some real "breakable" eggs!
Tristan was all done with the Easter Egg finding--time for a peek through the fence at the puppies!
On Easter Saturday, we headed up to the park for the community Easter Egg hunt. We took our gigantic Easter baskets along with us. I didn't realize just how gigantic they were until I looked at them next to most of the other kids' baskets. I just knew the Easter bunny was going to need that much room for all the fun things he was going to bring. Maura was super excited to get started. Brent stayed with her during the hunt, while I hung out with Tristan.
Brent had the camera during the hunt, so you can just see the aftermath. Candy, candy, candy. At this particular hunt there are only a few prize eggs and the rest of the hunt is for candy scattered on the ground. Once Tristan figured out there was candy available for the taking, he was hooked. He kept looking, saying, "Mo candy! Mo candy!" He ended up with more candy than Maura!!
The kids and Brent in a coerced Easter Bunny shot. Don't they look happy? We left the hunt just after this, only to have the heavens open on the way to the car and a surprise downpour hit us. Thankfully it was short lived and we had a beautiful Easter weekend. More to come...