Easter Weekend

Given that we had done a pretty good job of traumatizing Kate with her first introduction to her new baby brother, I figured it was time for Kate and her dad to have some one-on-one time this weekend. That meant that on Saturday she got to help me in the yard, help me clean out the garage, accompany me on errands to two different hardware stores, a grocery store, WalMart and two garden nurseries. Lucky her! After all of that, I'm sure she was tired of "daddy time" and will probably be content to let Davis come along for the ride next time.

Late that afternoon we went to the home of some friends who had set up an impressive Easter Egg hunt in their yard and the orchard behind their home. I had planned on doing a little pre-game warmup with Kate at home, so that Kate could learn the concept of finding the eggs and getting them into her Easter basket. After all, there was family pride on the line here! But with all of the "quality time" we'd enjoyed that day, we'd run out of day and I had to let her learn on the go. Luckily the "under three" crowd had their own section and got a few minutes head start over the older kids. I wasn't sure she would even know what to do with the basket and eggs, but luckily another little boy had been throwing the plastic eggs up in the air earlier and enjoying the pleasant "thunk" they made when they struck the concrete and exploded, launching their candy contents in all directions. Once Kate realized that these things were full of candy she had all of the motivation she needed.

On Easter Sunday Kate put on her new Easter dress and we went to church. She actually seemed excited to wear her new dress. Church turned out to be one long wrestling match, as she was as wild as I've ever seen her. Jaime was at home with Davis, but luckily Jaime's dad and sister had come along with me to help wrangle Kate. Good thing -- their assistance was needed and appreciated.

After church, we had a nice dinner and then re-created the Easter Egg hunt in our backyard. This time Kate took off like a rocket and quickly had all of the eggs in her basket. My mom had sent an Easter package that included three "talking eggs" that said things like "Hey, I'm over here!" Kate had a great time finding all of the eggs, and I enjoyed stealing the already-found eggs from her basket when she wasn't looking and re-hiding them all over the yard.