Easter 2013

We spent Easter this year close to home and I'm happy to report that the Easter Bunny was very good to our little one this year.  Virginia had a blast searching for the eggs in the front room of our house, and we followed up our morning egg hunt with another egg hunt at St. Clement's Church after Easter morning services.  We also made a cameo appearance at Claremont Country Club for their Easter activities, where Virginia enjoyed a visit with the Easter Bunny and a few kid-friendly activities.  We were then treated to a wonderful brunch at the Harvey household, where Uncle Biggie and Miss V got into some typical trouble.  Happy Easter to all!

Easter loot.  The giant orange egg was a big hit.

Easter Bunny got a little tricky and hid some eggs in someone's dollhouse.

In her Easter best with Daddy at church.

Egg hunt glee!

Happy Easter family.

Looking spiffy with GayGay and PopPop.

Another family shot (and a close-up of the purple hand-smocked dress that I used to wear as a child!)

Snuggles for the Easter Bunny at Claremont Country Club.

Fairy princess making balloon animals?  Score!

Balloon animal pink & orange butterfly.  Double score!

Silliness with Uncle Biggs.

Biggie & Thomas raided the coat closet at the Harvey household in an effort to come up with the wackiest and most outdated outfits.  Time for a trip to Goodwill, we think!

Some Bunny Loves Easter

Easter Day proved to be just as eventful and exciting as the Alameda Saturday Spring Scramble.  Virginia awoke to find that the Easter Bunny had been very generous to her this year.  She set off almost instantaneously through the family room finding the eggs he had hidden and dove into her Easter basket with gusto.

After a quick breakfast, Virginia donned her Easter best and we got in the car to go to church.  We went to St. Clement's Church in Berkeley (the church Thomas grew up attending) to meet GayGay and PopPop for the service.  Last year visit to St. Clement's had been a bit of a bust, with Virginia crying the whole hour she spent in the nursery.  For weeks after that event, she had repeated to us: "Mommy and Daddy at the church, I crying!"  So we were understandably apprehensive about dropping her off again.  

She's clearly grown up a lot in a year's time, because she handled the drop off like a pro!  We came back an hour later to find a happy kiddo showing off the Easter egg she had colored during class.  And she even took a potty break with the teacher while she was there.

After the church service, we headed out on the lawn for an Easter egg hunt.  Virginia found quite a few eggs, and quickly discovered she was a big fan of Reece's peanut butter cups.  We then headed over to a bakery across the street  Virginia chose a large sugar cookie with sprinkles all over it and proceeded to lick the sprinkles off and hand the cookie back to me.  Classic.

Reece's peanut butter cup in mouth:

Licking sprinkles off:

After church, we were off to GayGay and PopPop's house, where Virginia discovered that the Easter Bunny had dropped off another Easter basket.  Lucky girl!  We had a nice brunch and more candy and admired GayGay's tulip garden.

The Harveys then set out for the Claremont Country Club for pony rides, a petting zoo, and yet another egg hunt.  Talk about a full day!  Virginia had a blast with the animals, but her favorite activity was sitting in the dirt in her gorgeous hand smocked dress and scooping sand with a fellow toddler.

We finished the day with a nap and dinner at GayGay and PopPop's house.  We had all the Easter fixings and a visit from Uncle Biggie too.  I think this Easter is going to be hard to top!

Eggs and Scrambles

Virginia was REALLY excited about Easter this year.  Mimi sent a batch of Disney candy eggs in the mail a few weeks before the holiday, and we spent many hours "practicing" egg hunts with these.  When the big Easter weekend finally arrived, Virginia was ready!

We started the weekend's festivities on Saturday with the Alameda Parks & Recreation Spring Egg Scramble at Crab Cove.  This event is a complete free-for-all... with so many kids, they just rope off areas of grass for each age group, throw treats all over the grassy area, and send the kids in to grab them.  The whole thing is over in about 60 seconds.  And the treat selection is quite eclectic: the usual chocolate treats are there, but they've also been known to include 100 calorie pretzel packs, Capri Suns, and oyster crackers.  But the kids seem to enjoy it, so that is all that matters.

This year, we met up with a bunch of Virginia's playgroup buddies.  We played some games and toured the Crab Cove discovery center.  We tried to see the Easter Bunny, but the line was too long this year.  We'll get there earlier next time.

Virginia was decked out in her Easter best - a hand-smocked dress made by her Great Granny that Lizzie and wore as children.  She got so many compliments and was definitely the best dressed kiddo there.

Checking out Crab Cove Marine Life exhibit with buddy Abby:

Playing the ring toss:

 The playgroup kids James, Kylie, Isabel, and Virginia clearly up to no good:

Even though she was a few days shy of her third birthday, Virginia got to hunt with the big kids:

Enjoying a well-deserved lollipop with Abby, post-hunt:

 With mom!

The event was clearly a great success, but imagine our surprise when the local paper came out a few days later, featuring Virginia and her buddies on the front page!  Of course, Virginia was being her usual silly self and had her Easter basket on her head.  Never a dull moment being a mom to this one!

Easter

Virginia awoke Easter morn to a basket full of goodies and her very first Easter Egg hunt at our house - apparently the Easter Bunny had paid us a visit in Alameda. She loved the egg hunt - the was the first time she's really understood all of the rituals of a major holiday, and it was so fun to watch. She ran around the living room asking us each time she found a new egg "Anybody seen one more egg?"

Later, we got Virginia all dolled up in her Easter best (a smocked pink dress from Mimi!) and headed with both sets of grandparents to St. Clement's Church in Berkeley. St. Clement's is the church Thomas grew up attending. This was Virginia's first time being dropped in the church nursery and she apparently held up quite well until the last 15 minutes, when she completely lost it after awaking from a little nap.

Virginia happily playing at the nursery, pre-meltdown:

Luckily, there was an amazing Easter egg hunt in the churchyard afterwards, which saved things somewhat. Virginia far exceeded her five egg limit, but no one seemed to mind.

Unfortunately, I'm a little worried we scarred her for life since she - many weeks later - still talks about how "Mommy and Daddy at the church... crying.... miss Mommy and Daddy." Next time we take her to church it is going to have to be called something else just to avoid the painful memories!

Spring Adventures

Virginia has been quite the social butterfly this spring and has been out and about at all sorts of fun activities!

Visiting the Easter Bunny at the Alameda Crab Cove Spring Egg Scramble (the blue dress Virginia is wearing was hand-smocked by her Great Granny and was worn by me when I was a baby! We got lots of compliments on it):

Another visit to Children's Fairyland in Oakland:

Celebrating her actual 2nd birthday at Super Frank's Adventure in Pleasanton:

Loving on her GayGay: