Happy Easter!

Having young kids makes every holiday that much more fun as compared to when it was just P and I. Sometimes I think I may even be more excited than the girls are. This especially seems to hold true when we are trying to get out the door to do anything fun that is a little out of the ordinary. In this case, we were trying to go to the Easter Egg Hunt at the church yesterday morning. In my mind, I'd tell the girls to go get dressed so we can go find Easter eggs, and they would happily skip off to their rooms and emerge five minutes later in the clothes I laid out for them the day before. They'd be begging me to comb their hair, and then eat breakfast eagerly and without complaint. Next thing I'd know, they'd be standing impatiently at the door waiting for mom and dad to finish getting ready to go.

Yeah, that never happens. Although they express excitement at the thought of an Easter egg hunt (or any other fun activity), it doesn't actually translate itself into cooperating when it comes to getting there. The reality of the matter is that we beg, plead, cajole and then threaten in order to get them dressed, combed and fed. C is by far the most difficult in this department. We have whining and crying and "I can't do it by myself", basically a total meltdown on her part. Sometimes it makes me wonder why we even try. But being an optimist, we do keep trying and hoping it will eventually get easier. Yesterday, I finally sent P ahead with M so that she wouldn't miss the egg hunt on account of her sister. Although there were still tears, that seemed to do the trick as C pulled it together enough that we could leave shortly thereafter. Luckily for C, the egg hunt started late. Once we got there and she could see that it hadn't started without her, she was perfectly happy and had a great time.

One of my favorite aspects of this holiday is picking out the girls' Easter dresses. I actually buy several because the girls love to really dress up for church, so they just wear "fancy" dresses all summer long. I'd be perfectly happy with skirts and tops, but no, they want to feel like princesses. Since it's not difficult to pick up dresses for probably even less than what a more casual two piece outfit costs, I'm really pretty happy to indulge them in this area. This morning I tried to get the perfect picture of them all dressed up, but it is remarkably difficult to get a shot with both of them looking happily at the camera at the same time.

Tonight we had Easter dinner at P's sister's house next door. One of the great things about P's family living so close is that everyone brings something for dinner, and no one is burdened with having to cook a huge meal themselves. One of the best things about family functions in the cul-de-sac is that if one person wants to stay behind to socialize, everyone else doesn't have to wait on him. Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner and a fun time. I really do feel blessed to have as good in-laws as I do.