Hippity-Hoppity

Hippity Hoppity down to the mall we went on Good Friday.  Mom was hesitant from the start as she knew the Easter Bunny might understandably scare little children.  She decided to give it a whirl anyhow, so we stuck out the 20 minute wait until it was our turn.  Mommy said to the bunny "Hold on tight!!!" Luckily, the photographer captured a true classic photo, one that probably every family chuckles about.

Me on the other hand, LOVED the bunny!  I have never cried on Santa's lap or in the presence of other hugely stuffed characters.  Cooper is making up for that this year with Santa and now the Easter Bunny.  I exclaimed to Mommy afterwards that the Easter Bunny sure had one fancy tie on!

We hold onto traditions in our house, so it is a must to dye eggs.  I was curious to how these eggs changed colors and took them out every .03 seconds to check on the transformation.  Cooper chose to skip the spoons and wire whisks this year while checking on his eggs.  He reached his hands into the dye, looked at the egg, and fast-pitched them back into the dye.  This lasted only a few minutes before his hands were stained and the countertops were needing heavy duty cleaner.

Grandma Carla...Mommy says you have a picture of her doing this with her Easter egg as a child and wants you to dig it out to compare our cute little faces :) 

That night, we anxiously prepared the house for the Easter bunny.  We put out our bunny treats and checked the yard a zillion times in hopes that bunny would hop into our house that night.

He must have liked our mini-carrots!  The Easter bunny left us some awesome treats- candy, sunglasses, hats, bath fun products, a bike helmet (Cooper), and spin brushes to get all of those Easter sugar bugs off our teeth!

Thanks Great Grandma Woody (GG) for giving us the mini-garbage cans full of candy and toys.  My favorite was the garbage can as it proudly sits in my room and I find garbage whenever possible to place inside.

Spin brushes make brushing so much fun!  My parents asked me to STOP brushing my teeth with this noisy tool.  They might need to have a little talk with the Easter Bunny next year about noisy toys.

Maybe Cooper will like the Easter Bunny afterall?

After a beautiful church service, we came home to find Easter eggs in our yard!  A "mystery" neighbor enjoys having children around, so he must have hopped on over to leave us money and candy in some eggs!  Thanks Don (I mean whoever you are!)

Of course Cooper is double fisted, stinker... 

Mommy had to get this "ammunition" photo of Daddy wearing her chef's apron while carving the ham.  We hosted Easter lunch at our house for the Klay side (Grammy, Matt and Jill but not Ben/Erin and family because they are still in Georgia...house hasn't sold yet, but hopefully soon!)  On the menu for Easter.... glazed/baked 10 pound ham, glazed carrots with pistachios, asparagus/pepper/Havarti ham roll-ups, cheesy hashbrown casserole, Thanksgiving Pear Salad (Auntie Erin, we gave your secret recipe to Auntie Jill :)), and Grammy's delicious carrot cake for dessert.  We are now struggling with the idea that we will be in swimsuits later this week.  Too late for diets!

Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill had time to reminisce with our scrapbooks. Mommy is ALMOST all caught up with scrapbooking.  She is feeling uber-excited about this feat! Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill are Cooper's godparents, so they finally saw the pages Mommy created from his baptism.

Since Grammy drove her hot-rod (mid-life crisis splurge), I insisted on a very short ride in it.  Since it is a two-seater, we had to go REALLY slow as I actually was allowed to sit in the front seat.  Please do not compare my Mom to Brittany Spears.

See my spiky hair?!?!?  I could barely see, so Mommy came closer to get a Grammy/Caden "HOT ROD" photo.

Since we were so hungry after our enormous dinner, we decided to punish ourselves a bit more and go for it.  Grammy brought Cooper and I our own bunny cakes from Great-Auntie Lynn's bakery.  It was our 1st birthday photo op all over again.  It was no wonder that Cooper needed a nap after this and I fell apart while I insisted that I didn't need one.  Gotta love holidays and out-of-whack schedules.

Finally, my parents had 2 seconds to kick their feet up and relax on the couch after a fun yet exhausting day of cooking, eating, and visiting.  Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill do not have children (YET), so they just relaxed all day long- well, kind of as Cooper and I used Uncle Matt's tall stature for a jungle gym most of the day.

Randomness:  Here are some totally random pictures from the week.... the above photo is Cooper riding the John Deere tractor backwards.  Don't worry, the tractor was NOT running as he has to push the pedal to make it go.  The little monkey was laughing hysterically while climbing all over the tractor.

Auntie Karri and Uncle Jimmy are expecting baby Lindell in 3 weeks!  We cannot wait (OK, we can, so please wait until after Captiva!)  Auntie Karri texted Mommy this photo of her holding Uncle Jimmy at his baptism.  Karri commented on how much Mommy and I look alike.  Since Mommy has always thought I look like Papa, this makes sense to her.  Mommy and Papa have similar attributes, so Mommy and I must too, right?  What do you think?  See above photo of Mommy at age 4 and the picture below of me at "almost" 4.

Daddy decided to play paparazzi this past week while Mommy had a soccer game at the Sports Center.  She started playing soccer at age 3 and has continued ever since- she only took a break from playing while pregnant, so I guess you can call this her lifelong sport :)  While Mommy played, Cooper and I watched off and on and had a chance to play with some of the other kids who were there too.

Mommy is the person in the front, left of the photo... just kicked the ball at the goalie (had 3 goals this game, this not being one of them).  And photo below of Daddy's attempt to get her as she ran by...good try Daddy!

For added comic relief, scroll down to the post below (click on the play button) to see Cooper's reaction regarding the mall Easter bunny!  We made the video clip it's own post earlier today.  We just figured out how to add a video clip (thanks Heather!) so we hope it will work for you!  We will post in a few weeks post our Captiva trip...wish us good luck on the airplane, sunny skies and warm weather ahead :)  We hope you had a blessed Easter!  Jesus loves you!