Easter Weekend

What a busy Easter weekend we had this year and luckily I have been recovering so well from Nate's birth that I did not have to miss any of the festivities at all. It's crazy to think that I actually was not due until tomorrow so I could have still been pregnant for Easter this year if I hadn't given birth two weeks early but instead we are blessed to already have Nate here with our family for the holiday.

Nana and Pop came back to visit us again this weekend even though they had just left on Monday. We had all assumed they would still be here for Easter after Nate's birth but since I had him so early they stayed to help us out for a week and then went home for a few days before coming back. They arrived on Good Friday and Mike and Chang also came to visit for the day. It was the first time that Mike and Chang had met Nate and Chang was instantly in love! :) Nate slept in her arms for much of the day!!

A few more photo opportunities of everyone with our little fuzzy-haired man... and of course big brother Ben as well!

Of course a get-together in March would not be complete without yet another birthday celebration for Ben and since we still had about half of Aunt Cinty's cake left we did the whole cake/candle thing one last time for our two year old. Everyone enjoyed the cake and Ben enjoyed being sung to AGAIN (ha ha)...

Here he is giggling while we sing to him. He's such a big cheese and loves the attention. I think this has defintiely helped to transition Nate into our family so smoothly since Ben has not felt left out this month at all.

Ben was entranced by the lit candle...

Here, Daddy is telling him that the candle is hot and helping him blow it out.

On Saturday morning our church hosted the largest Easter celebration in the entire area. It even made in onto ABC news last night, it was so well-attended. We all went for a few hours and a few of our friends met us there as well. There was an egg hunt and lots of other festivities. Of course it was absolutely freezing out yesterday, and even snowing in the morning, but at least it was not windy so we just bundled up and were fine for the little while we were outside.

Here's Pop taking Ben through the Easter egg hunt. Last year he was not walking yet so he was not too excited about the hunt but this year he enjoyed picking up the eggs and throwing them into his basket. Of course he enjoyed it even more when we told him that the eggs were all filled with treats to eat!!

After the hunt, Nana and I took Ben through he petting zoo and he really enjoyed it. He liked seeing the bunnies and goats the most.

Here we all are inside to warm up and empty out the kids' eggs into their baskets. All of the kids kept grabbing candy after candy from their baskets and filling up on sweets. At least they had fun, though!

Here's Ben trying to look angelic after I told him that he has had enough candy for the day, hoping that I'd give in and change my mind if he gives me the sad puppy-dog eyes.

That night we all dyed Easter eggs with Ben and what a good time he had. It's funny looking back on last year's photos and seeing how he really didn't know what was going on when we dyed eggs with him and therefore didn't show much interest. What a difference from this year! All he wanted to do was take over the entire activity and do everything himself. Good thing for hard-boiled eggs!

Here are Ben and Daddy dyeing eggs together. This is a very serious activity in our house, as you can tell by their serious faces. Must...concentrate!

"I'll take that wire egg dipper, please. I can do it myself!"

Ben also got a big kick out of the stickers that come with the egg-dyeing kit...but none of them ever made it onto the eggs!

Here's a random picture of Nate sleeping in a little ball on Andrew's chest last night as we watched TV. He's exhausted after a busy day! And yes, that bump just below his elbows are actually his knees so he is literally curled up like a ball. It's funny because when he lays on my stomach he is the same shape as my stomach a week and a half ago when I was still pregnant with him!

The festivities continued this morning for Easter Sunday. We had to be at church for the early service since we had brunch reservations for the late morning so Ben got dressed when he first got up and then came downstairs for breakfast and to see what the Easter Bunny (and his grandparents) brought him.

'What's that?" he says as he eyes up the various goodies on the table surrounding his seat. He got some puzzles and a singing/dancing bunny from Grandpa G and CC, a bag of goodies from Nana and Pop and a basket of fun things from the Easter Bunny. Nate was not left out and now has a few new fluffy stuffed animals to decorate his bedroom.

Finally, some family photos that we took:

Nana and Pop and their two favorite boys.

Nate sports his first Polo shirt, in the tradition of his Dad's "uniform" (minus the jeans and sneakers) and his big brother who loves wearing polos.

And here he is all bundled up in a hand-knit sweater that my parents' neighbor made for Ben when he was an infant, but by the time he got it it was too small for him so he was never able to wear it. Luckily Nate can! It's beautiful and I call it the elf sweater because of the cute hat :).

My two handsome little men!

Our first family of four portrait!

Finally, as an end to a very, very busy weekend, Ben and I decorated some delicious shortbread cookies with edible markers after his nap this afternoon. What a big HIT! Ben absolutely loved drawing on his cookies and then eating them as well.