I was looking more forward to this Easter, because I knew Annabelle would be able to get into waking up and finding a basket full of goodies next to her bed. I know she would love that! I was out of college and still living at home, and the Easter bunny was still leaving an Easter basket for me! It's pretty exciting. I had fun putting this one together this year.
I also incorporated a fun little toy or two to go with it. I thought this would be a good start to potty training, by buying her a potty set for her doll. Eh. Hasn't worked yet...but there's time, yet.
Her eyes absolutely lit up when she saw the fun surprise next to her bed. She marveled at it for a couple of seconds before digging in.
I started a new tradition this year - the Easter bunny leaving her a card. I always struggle with the true meaning of the holiday (s) vs. the fun meaning of the holiday. So, I thought it would be fitting for the Easter bunny to explain it. So, that's what he did. The Easter bunny left Annabelle a card wishing her a very Happy Easter, but to remember that Jesus is the one to whom all glory should go. He explained that the holiday was about Him and how He died on the cross for all of us. The Easter bunny was just a bonus...but not the true meaning. Of course, she's too young to really grasp any of this right now, but years down the road...she will understand and appreciate it.
After we read the card from the Easter Bunny, we let her explore her goodies. She was quite please, I think.
Unfortunately, Easter morning wasn't all fun. Annabelle came down with a fever and a very runny nose. Just the 15-20 minutes of Easter basket fun took all of her energy. She was soon up in her Daddy's lap, all worn out.
Some little bug got to her. We couldn't go to church. *Sigh* The very first Easter morning that I didn't go to church. I'm not gonna lie, I cried. I don't know why, I guess it was sadness and guilt. Of all mornings, Easter should be the one where we make the most effort...sickness or not. I guess that counts when the adult is sick, but when the baby is sick - you just shouldn't chance it. So we stayed home.
We actually turned it on the Bible channel, as I like to call it, and found a cartoon about Jesus' resurrection. AB wasn't that into it, but it made me feel better to have it on. So, we watched that for a while.
Despite her fever and {extremely} runny nose. She was in a pretty good mood. She did a lot of smiling and laughing...in between short little rests. Even though we didn't make it to church that morning, we made sweet memories as a family. I have to share this one, even though it's a little silly. After the bible cartoon, and an episode of The Donut Man, the movie
Nanny McPhee came on one of the channels. I'm not sure how or why we stopped on that channel, but we did. I absolutely adore Collin Firth, and he was the dad in the movie. This is probably the reason I kept the channel there...hee hee. Anyway, AB only watched about 15-20 minutes of it, and then it was time for her nap, but Austin and I laid on the couch together and watched the whole movie. We were a little glued to it. Now, I can't remember a time, during the day that Austin and I have just sat still long enough to watch such a sweet little movie. I don't know why it made such an impression on me, but it did. Now I want to buy it!
After the movie, AB woke up and we got dressed. We headed over to Mememama's house for Easter lunch. It sort of made me sick that AB didn't get to wear her Easter dress to church...but it was ok, she wore it for family.
Everyone was there. We ate and then Daddy went outside to hide the Easter eggs so AB could hunt them. There was zero competition this year because all of her cousins had other places to be, so AB was lucky enough to get to find all the eggs herself...and keep what was inside!
I loved once the hunt was over and she was ready to dig into those eggs. I even gave her some candy that was inside one of the eggs. I love the picture with her little mouth open like a bird just anticipating eating that candy. (Can you tell she doesn't get candy very often?!?)
A fun time was had by all. It almost made up for missing church. Happy Easter!
