Easter & 31 on the 31st

Every so often my birthday happens to fall on Easter.  And this happened to happen this year {I wonder if anyone happens to be tired of me typing happen yet?} And I digress.

  I have been longing for this day for years. My golden birthday where my age and date line up.  Like since I was a kid longing.  Crazy right?  Well, by the time it came, I was much less muted with excitement and instead just looked forward to spending some good quality TLC with the family.  I had already gotten what I really really wanted: a fun girls weekend to NYC that included shopping, dining, entertainment, and lots of laughs.  Oh and my brand new pair of Toms were ordered off Amazon and being shipped to my house!

After another fun girls evening the night before my birthday, I really didn't expect anything on the actual date.  It was a great feeling to not have these impossible expectations that most likely would never be met.  It took the pressure off and I just had a fun day. 

The kids put out Easter baskets the night before that ended up being quite the patch job.  Apparently 99 cent buckets do NOT last more than a year, and so stretching to two years was a little much.  I seriously pulled out the packing tape and reattached half of the plastic on Eli and Robby's buckets.  Yikes.  Needless to say, they will all be ending up in the trash can this week.  No use saving them for a third appearance. 

Easter morning Maddie was the first to awake.  She ran in our room so excited to find out if the Easter bunny came.  We made her wait until 7am and then down she bounded to search for her basket.  Robby followed suit about thirty minutes later.  I have to admit, we were so tired that we didn't even bother climbing out of bed and taking the usual Easter morning pictures.  We were so lazy that finally we got up around 8am and then had to scramble to get ready for church.  Eli was plucked out of bed about 8:15am and barely found his basket before we left for church.  Maddie and Robby searched in vain for the parent Easter basket, but were unable to locate it.  The Easter bunny was really tricky this year and hid our basket in the ceiling of the kitchen (see pic below). Luckily Mom has really good eyes and found it after we got home.

Once again, I meant to take Sunday best Easter pictures.  Somehow we never really got around to it.  The best I got was a quick picture of Eli and Maddie at home right after church.  I think we may try to do a belated photo in a few weeks before church.  Maybe, maybe........

Doesn't he look handsome?  I sure think so.  Every time I look at this picture, I have to pinch myself in disbelief at how old he looks.  Since when did I let him grow up?  I am pretty sure he was instructed to never grow up.

Miss M in her Easter dress.  I am not really loving this picture, it seriously doesn't do this cute dress justice.  Maddie was upset that I didn't get her any frilly socks or new shoes for Easter.  Perhaps in the next few weeks this will happen.

After a fairly relaxing afternoon, we prepped ourselves and our food for a fun Easter dinner with our New Hampshire friend family. We had tons of yummy food that included funeral potatoes, Ham, Strawberry Avocado Salad, veggies, fruit, rolls and of course dessert.  Oh, the desserts we had.  My friend Steph made the most delicious homemade Cheesecake.  I NEED to get that recipe from her.  And my other sweet friend, Candace, made me my very own ice cream cake.  She knows that I'm not really a cake lover and so she specialized it just for me.  It was delicious as well.  I had a plate full of dessert that night and now need to go on a diet for a week straight to make up for it.

Later on that evening we did family presents and Skype sessions with each set of parents/family.  Robby and I had a little self photo session together as well.  I love that kid so much!

Maddie was super excited to show off her new gymnastics skills to the family and spent some time practicing before the skype sessions.  I am truly amazed how much she has improved over the past six months.  She is starting to really devote herself to this sport.  She practices constantly and talks about her goal of making the competitive team this fall. 

Oh the ice cream cake.  It was so amazing that it deserves a picture all by it's lonesome.  I will have to make one like this in the future!