Pre-Easter festivites in Tennessee

I need to backtrack for a few posts to catch up on our pre-Easter festivities. We actually left Georgia on April 3rd to head up to Tennessee for a visit. Brent's sister and brother-in-law were scheduled to fly in that weekend and we hadn't seen them for over a year. Maura was so excited to get up to Tennessee to visit with her Nan and Poppa too! I had a terrible night with Tristan the night we arrived in Tennessee, so I missed the excitement of fishing with the Barbie fishing rod in the goldfish pond! Maura had a blast, though!
Brent's parent's church had an awesome Easter Egg hunt on Saturday. It was an outreach opportunity to the community, so they had over 300 people there. We even got to meet the Easter Bunny! My kids were underwhelmed by the Easter Bunny! Easter Egg hunts aren't designed for ten-month-olds! This is about as into it as Tristan got!
Maura was a different story! She couldn't wait to grab the eggs! We had to physically restrain her until they shouted "GO!" Once she started, though, she wanted to open every egg to look inside. We were the psycho parents shouting, "Don't open it! Put it in the basket and pick up another one!" Daddy and his girl after a successful day of hunting!
Momma and her boy. Notice the candy in his basket--we kind of "helped" Tristan find the kinds of candy that we liked the best. Yum! Cute little Easter bunny girl!
Look at the Easter Egg hunting grounds--swept clean in about 30 seconds! Maura enjoyed some playground time.
Maura and Tristan with Nan and Poppa and the poor sweltering Easter Bunny. We arrived back at the house to find that Matt, Amy and Ava had arrived. I can't believe how big she is! We saw her last when she was about six weeks old! She's such a cutie and she has a huge personality.
Nan and her Easter Bunny boy. Brent and Tristan visiting with Grandmother Chambers.
On Sunday afternoon the whole family(both sides) came over for dinner and an Easter Egg hunt. It was great to see everyone. Maura and Jack had a great time playing together. These cousins will be getting into all sorts of trouble in the future. Tristan and John Henry had a little visit too. I'm sure that some of their conversation had to do with the fact that they were in jail.
Nan with Ava, John Henry and Jack checking out the fish. What a cutie! Ava is all girl!
Tristan with his Aunt Amy(or Auntie Mimi--not sure what the kids will end up calling her). This weekend was the first time they'd met. All the kids were super excited about the Easter Egg hunt! The boys hid hundreds of eggs and the kids couldn't wait to get at them!
Tristan found a few eggs--with a little help! Tristan isn't sure about this egg hunt thing!
Maura did great! Yes, those are fairy wings. She wears them around almost continually now! We celebrated Maura, Amy, mine and others birthdays that weekend. My girl took to her cake and ice cream a la The Christmas Story.
YUM! Ava and Tristan checking out the sweet, sweet rides down below!
Cutest little Easter Bunny ever! Tristan tried his very first taste of cake that weekend. It was love at first bite.
Poppa and his grandson enjoyed some snuggle time before bed. We spent Sunday evening dying Easter eggs. This was Maura's favorite activity last Easter.

Ava put a new spin on the whole dying process. She threw her eggs into the dye and watched it splash all over and then repeated with the next color. Maura was a bit more demure, but not much! Check out those hands!
The finished product. Aren't they lovely? I think only a few ended up in one piece. Goofy little monkey showing off for the camera!
On Monday afternoon it was time to leave to come to Kentucky. We gave hugs all around and promised to see everyone in July in Las Vegas! Woo Hoo!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I know that we did! I'm attempting to crawl out of blog obscurity to get these photos on the web. We're in Kentucky this week, well indefinitely, until Lorie has her baby. We're all on baby watch and poor Brent had to head back to real life in Georgia. So, honey, these photos are for you! I know you miss your kiddos so much and I wanted to make sure you had a great dose of them! The Allen Family on Easter morning. NO, Tristan is not wearing a dress! I've taken a lot of heat for this little outfit. I think he looks adorable!

We attended our own church on Sunday morning and it was so refreshing to worship with our home congregation. Well, refreshing up until the moment that I disturbed the whole service by having my cell phone ring right in the middle of a baptism. Embarrassing! Grammy and Aunt Emily were there to welcome us home from church.

Maura was so excited to "find" her basket! The Easter Bunny filled it with lots of little toys and only a little bit of candy because he knew just how much candy that she'd gotten at the three various Easter egg hunts that she'd already participated in! More on that to follow...She did manage to consume an entire row of peeps in about thirty seconds flat!

Tristan was super excited about his Easter eggs filled with fruity Cheerios! My ball lovin' boy was in heaven!

My sweetie has filled this Easter basket for me every year since the first Easter we were dating! What an awesome guy! Who doesn't love a man who brings them chocolate?? Don't worry, Brent received quite a bit of chocolate from me too! Actually, the first year we were dating, Brent showed up for a visit at Easter with a full Easter basket for me. I hadn't done one for him because I figured he would think it was childish. He didn't...he was worried that I didn't care about him because I didn't think about doing one for him! Needless to say, I haven't missed an Easter since!

Tristan got a stuffed bunny from Mommy and Daddy. He loved it. He buried his head in the fur and squealed, then drooled on in. I call that a success! Maura got a kite and a Tinkerbell movie. My girl didn't need any more incentive to wear fairy wings! I might never get them off of her now! Brent had to leave right after brunch to head back to Georgia, so the kids and I said goodbye and tried to enjoy the rest of Easter without Daddy.

Emily and Brad enjoyed playing with Tristan on Easter Sunday. Tristan thought it was hilarious to hit Brad's air filled cheeks. Everyone is a comedian!

After naps, we headed out on an Easter Egg hunt. On this hunt Maura had zero competition. Pappap hid all the eggs and Maura had all the time in the world to mosey about and find them without another kid grabbing them out from under her nose. It was her kind of hunt! Scott and Katie took control of Tristan's stroller for our "high speed" Easter egg hunt. Don't they just look so natural pushing a baby stroller. This could be you in just a few more years, guys

Grammy and Tristan took a time out from the hunt for a photo op. Did I mention that the egg hunt took awhile?? It wasn't that the eggs were hidden so well, it's that my girl is a little bit of a space cadet and has to practically step on an egg before she sees it! We took a very leisurely walk around the yard to find her 44 eggs! Her favorite part of the hunt--rescuing an egg from the tree.

Tristan says, "Where's my eggs?" Lorie and the kids and I took a walk up the lane. We're trying to walk that baby out!! She's due on the 26th, but we're all hoping for a MUCH sooner arrival. Go baby, go!!

Maura stopped to smell the flowers...well, blow the flowers. She tried to let Tristan blow the flowers too--but all he got was a mouthful of fluff! Too cute. These moments of sibling cooperation and interaction are few and far between right now, so I'll take what I can get!

After an awesome Easter dinner, I think we were all ready to curl up for some naps. Uncle Micah and Maura cuddled up to watch Tinkerbell together. Because of our conflicting schedules for Easter, we forgot to get any grandparent photos until it was bedtime! My parents don't always look this nuts--Tristan was ramming his head into Pappap's chest because he liked the sound it made! My poor dad!! We really had a very pleasant Easter. We missed spending the afternoon with Brent and we're really going to miss him while we're on baby watch, but we'll talk to him often and we'll look forward to seeing him as soon as the baby makes her arrival. I'll keep you posted!