The boys spent Good Friday with MiMi and PaPa since school was out. They got to take the boat out and went fishing - Nolan even caught a fish right off the bat! That afternoon they went shopping for an Easter prize and spent the rest of the afternoon playing until Scott got there to pick them up after work about 6. It was Scott’s weekend so he had them Friday night like normal. Scott took them to our church’s egg hunt on Saturday afternoon and then we met up so that I could get them. He asked if I could get them early because he had plans at 4. That worked out great for me because I had a lot of “Easter fun” planned and was worried about how we were going to squeeze it all in before bedtime! One good thing about having to split my time with them now, is that at least I was able to go ahead and prep all the plastic eggs and stuff baskets on Saturday morning and I wasn’t up all night doing that like we have been in years past. I even went ahead and emptied a dozen raw eggs to make confetti eggs and boiled a couple dozen so we could decorate and color eggs too. All of the prep work really helped make the evening with them go smoothly. I think this was the first year that they both had a long enough attention span to really stick with it and get all the eggs colored. (Usually it’s about 10 mins and they are over it!) There were plenty of “StarWars” eggs and “cute” eggs with tie-die, stickers and markers when we were all done! I stuffed the confetti in the empty ones after they colored them and we taped them shut and agreed to save them for Grandma’s house. After we finished eggs, we ate dinner, got baths and then snuggled in to read for a little while before bedtime. Once the boys were asleep, Nana helped me hide all the stuffed plastic Easter eggs. Her yard is massive and super dark at night so we had to use flashlights to see what we were doing. It was funny – I think we kinda felt like super spies out there sneaking around and trying to be quiet while getting it all done.
I had invited Scott to come out in the morning to watch the egg hunt but he said he couldn’t and that he planned to do his own thing for the boys. I know that the boys came home telling me all about their note from the Easter Bunny and the golden egg that they each had to hunt so I know they had fun and got to do a little of the magic with Scott which was great! It was still a little hard for Nolan Easter morning; I think he really thought his dad would end up coming. It was our first holiday to celebrate separately. We talked about it and I explained that it was just the way it was and that I know it’s weird but that we will all get used to it as time goes on. Nolan said things like – “What other plans could he have on Easter morning?” and “I just don’t understand why Dad isn't here.” It’s hard to have to answer for comments like that. I really wished that Scott had joined us and been able to watch them hunt eggs; I know it would have made things a lot easier for Nolan. The rest of the day he kept asking if Daddy had called yet which he hadn’t and didn’t until it was time to swap them at 3; so I know he was still thinking about it. Once we were up and going he was okay – I just hate that he is going through something I can’t “fix” for him. I just tried to keep it light and upbeat and make the very best of it. I know he had a really fun morning but you could feel that something was missing. I felt it too but we all just sucked it up and had a really good day together.
The boys woke me up and know the rules that we can't go in the livingroom until we wake everyone up. They both busted into Nana's room and told her it was time for the Easter Bunny!! (It was still dark so I felt a little sorry for Nana to have to get up and at 'em but I know she had a lot of fun participating in all the hoopla!) She told them it's been a long time since the Easter Bunny was at her house! There were a TON of eggs – some with candy, toys and money and I did about 40 that had “coupons” in them. This was the first year for something like that and I was a little worried about Hudson getting them since he can’t read. It actually was a really big hit! They were so excited everytime they opened another egg with a coupon. They were for random little things like a trip to the park, or your choice of dinner, 10 extra minutes of playtime, an extra story at bedtime – you know just a bunch of fun stuff. Some were for actual things like snow cones or a prize from dollar tree but most of them were just fun things to do. I am not sure who was more excited about them! Nolan’s favorite was the one that said “Redeem this coupon for a Dr. Pepper” haha! It’s something we never let him have and so he was super excited to get that one. Hudson’s favorite was “A visit to the pet store to look at all the animals”. It took over an hour to hunt all the eggs and probably another hour to get them all opened! We put change in a bunch of the eggs and one of their gifts from the Easter Bunny was a bank that keeps count of your change as you add it to the jar. They LOVED that and spent a ton of time counting up their money and adding it to the jar. I think Nolan ended up with like $11 dollars and Hudson had $5.55 in change. (Nolan found the “golden” egg that had a five dollar bill in it so that’s why he ended up with more.) The Easter Bunny also made a stop at Dad’s house where they each got a golden egg with $10! They were pretty happy with their little chunk of money.
We ended up missing church because I WAY under estimated how long it would take to hunt all those eggs. I was okay with it though because we have definitely been talking about the true meaning of Easter for the past few weeks. We had read about the events leading up to the resurrection all week and finished up the story of Easter on Saturday night. I know these sweet boys have a good understanding about why we celebrate this special day. It was nice to not be in a mad rush for the first time in a long time on Easter morning. We ate Krispy Kreme donuts that the boys picked out the night before at the grocery store and they played with all their new stuff. Usually it’s hunt, open and go – so we just took our time and that felt right. Nana had some new little army men and vehicles for them so they spent time setting them up and playing with those and of course they had to have a silly string war! Granny and Papa dropped by to bring the boys a basket of goodies and visit for a little while. These kids got WAY too much candy and stuff for one holiday!! They are so lucky to have such a large, amazingly involved family!
We went to Grandma’s house for a picnic about 12:30 and luckily they hunted eggs first thing because it started to pour down rain about 1:30! Grandma has a big covered porch so we all fit just fine for lunch and dessert – just talking and watch the rain. It was actually pretty relaxing. The kids continued to hide eggs with Dylan for a while in the house for fun until it was time to go. They went back to Scott’s at 3 but didn’t have concrete plans for Easter on his side. PaPa Harkrider has been very sick for the past two weeks and in the hospital with Pneumonia. There was a good chance that he might be released on Easter so I think they planned to go see him if that happened. He was released but since it was so late by the time he got home and Scott said he was exhausted they just decided to stay home. Which was probably a good idea since I am sure that by that point Nolan and Hudson were worn out too! All in all I think it was a good holiday just the first of many in this new life!
These next two are funny because Hudson would get so upset if Nolan got to an egg first. he would start to throw a fit and then realize that Nolan was still going so he would have to stop and start hunting again!
Here is a picture of Roxy watching over the goats at the back of Nana's property. She is somewhat obsessed with them.
