Life, Experience Needed: Tuesday 10: Easter

10 Easter Memories (in no particular order)

Easter on the Island.
I remember being about 10 and spending Easter with my mom and sister at a lifelong family friend's on the Island. I remember we set up a trap to catch the Easter Bunny, which didn't work; we only found chocolate bunnies. I also remember going outside in their front yard that was covered in Easter goodies, it was the second biggest Easter haul!
The year of chocolate.
Oh.my.gosh! This has been told many times over and it still flabbergasts us. My mother went chocolate crazy one year and it was insanity! I have a major sweet tooth and at Halloween I still had stuff left over, no word of a lie! We took it to school and tried to pawn as much of it off as we could and still had mountains left. It was nuts!
Our cousin
I have tons of cousins, but 99% of them are a numbered cousin so many times removed (I don't really understand how to figure it all out, so everyone is a cousin). Growing up it was my sister, our one and only full cousin (on my mom's side), and I. We only saw our cousin a few times a year but Easter was usually one of our regular visits.
Colouring eggs
Every year we coloured eggs at my grandparent's place. I can still picture the newspapers or sheets (depending on what year it was since they discovered newspaper print got everywhere when soaked in egg dyes) covering the table and floor. It was always a competition as to who could make the best looking egg, which usually ended up with them all different shades of brown from the mixing Every colour of dye. (It's kinda sad to think today's kids won't have those eggs with the new dye systems. There's rollers, which we used this year, bags, sponges, along with other ways to keep the mess contained).

colouring eggs

Lynden's 1st egg colouring
Last year was the first year Lynden coloured eggs and it was a lot of fun (and a mess, but that's half the fun). He didn't really understand what was going on but he had a good time making them, and they turned out beautifully

colouring eggs

final product
Easter 2011
Yes, it was Alyssa's first Easter but being 3 months old she couldn't tell up from down. Last Easter was memorable because I held a Fraken tarantula! (I'll give bonus points to anyone who laughed at my use of Fraken)

I'm doing it

they make you open your eyes
Feeding the homeless
One year my mom decided we would skip Easter and go to a church and help them serve dinner to the homeless. It was a great experience; if I remember correctly we asked to go back on a few different holidays. I remember being shocked as to how many people came in to eat. As a child you know there are those who are in need but to actually see it was something else. It's something I hope to do with our kids when they get to be older and can appreciate the experience.
This Easter
Lynden's finally at an age where he understands things happen. Like Santa comes down the chimney and leaves him presents and the Easter Bunny hides chocolates. He was excited for weeks.
His excitement was beyond awesome!! He was ecstatic about every egg, every chocolate, and every hidden surprise.

first set of treats found

the look on his face is the Best!
Lynden 1st "real" egg hunt
Last year was the first year Lynden actually found eggs and the lucky kid got 2.5 egg hunts, I say 2.5 because we rehid the stuff he found earlier in the day (from the 1st hunt) when daddy got home so he could watch Lynden do it.
Easter 2009
We surprised my family by coming down. It was one of the better surprises. We told my sister but she ended up having to tell my grandma so we told her we couldn't come, even though we were. We managed to pull it off, no one but my grandma knew we were coming.
The day after Easter we took Lynden to the aquarium for the first time. He was 9 months but we had a lot of fun!

family picture with the Easter Bunny

Lynden in the frog bubble

Such a happy face

one of my favourite pictures from the weekend

Linking up with Tuesday 10 over at Mom2MemphisandRuby