Easter 2020

This Easter was one we'll never forget. Celebrating a major holiday during a pandemic was unusual, to say the least, but it was really special at the same time. Growing up, my family didn't live near either side of our extended family, so birthdays and holidays were most often celebrated by ourselves. It's the opposite for our little family, and while we love being with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins many times a year, it was kind of nice to slow the frenetic pace of a holiday and have no where to go and no one to see. While I look forward to next year, when we will celebrate at church and then once again divide our time among family gatherings, I will always remember this year, when we felt the joy of the Resurrection as keenly at home as on any other Easter Sunday.

Grandparents came by on Saturday to drop off Easter goodies for the kids. Tracy and Derek brought candy and stuffed rabbits for the kids (Claire melted us all by giving her bunny big hugs and cuddles!)...

 

...and my parents brought gift cards and an umbrella. Henry said later how much he loved the umbrella and he said "Mimi was right to get me this umbrella." Haha! Congrats on being right, mom. 😜

We did an Easter egg hunt in the backyard when the kids woke up from their naps. We hid 14 eggs for Henry (13 with candy and 1 with $0.50) and then scattered a few around in the grass for Claire to pick up. Henry had the best time and kept saying "You know, I love doing Easter egg hunts!" And then when he opened the one with money...you would have thought he won the lottery! He kept talking about how "one egg had MONEY!"

 

 

This was Henry's face every single time he opened an egg. 😂 

After the egg hunt, we got in the car and drove to our church for a drive-thru Easter story they had set up in the parking lot. It wasn't great (I mean, they put it together pretty quickly!), but it was a nice little excursion out of the house.

On Sunday morning, the kids opened their baskets. Claire's basket had a book, a new pair of summer pajamas, a stuffed cat, sunglasses, a hairbrush set, egg shaped crayons for babies, a carrot shaped teether, and bubbles. Henry's had a book, summer pajamas, a stuffed fox, sunglasses, an I Spy game for preschoolers, a Water Wow book, window markers, and then a couple little random  things I picked up a the Target dollar spot a couple months ago. Oh, and a chocolate bunny. :) They both also had applesauce pouches that they ate right away. 

 

 

 

 

We ate breakfast, put Claire down for a nap, and sat down to watch church online. 

 

Henry was such a good boy and sat quietly on the couch doing his new Water Wow book for over 20 minutes! 

We got Bojangles for lunch, which is pretty much our Sunday lunch tradition, and then after naps, it was time to dye Easter eggs! Henry had so much fun and Claire just wanted to destroy everything. :) 

 

 

Henry dipped the eggs in so many different colors that they were all turning various shades of green or orange. 😂 But they were still pretty! I was laughing so hard because Henry is going through that awkward phase when he CANNOT smile for the camera. It's hard to take a cute picture of him right now, because this is what it usually looks like....

...but I finally found that the secret to getting a real smile is to make tooting noises with my mouth. Haha! Potty humor is definitely the way to a little boy's giggle box!

 

We cooked steak and chicken, potatoes, and green beans at home for dinner and it was so yummy! We had strong storms roll through in the evening with some much needed rain, and we ended the night by watching "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" together on the couch. It was a fantastic, restful day and I'm really thankful that we got to experience Easter in a different way this year.