Day 14 : Happy Easter!

Today was Easter and I had a great day. It was one of those days that got off to a rocky start and to be totally honest, has had sort of a rocky end with kids being exhausted, Gabe being worn out and me wanting everything to be perfect. I always get stuck on that word - perfect. It makes me think of the fact that no one places these ideals on me; they are self-imposed. We started the morning with an egg hunt that was a failure. My kids were not interested in the slightest. So after Gabe has dutifully hidden the eggs, he and I also manned the clean up effort. Then it was a mad dash to get ready for church. We made it in time but only after some serious coercing Maddie to get her to wear her pretty dress without pants underneath. She didn't feel comfortable and she was really in the mood to stand her ground. Unfortunately for her, so was her dad and as we've read in numerous parenting books "if you're going to pick a fight, make sure you win." So, we won. She went to church in her dress sans pants. Church was a highlight of my day. It was all about Heaven and it blew my mind. It gave me a whole new perspective that had seriously never crossed my mind before and that made me love my church even more. If you live locally, you should really join us one Sunday :) Then we headed off to Katie and Jay's house to eat lunch and hunt for eggs. The food was amazing and the kids did a serious search for eggs this time. Maddie and Katie's son, Julian, have a bit of a competition thing going so that sweetened the deal on who could find the most eggs. We headed home just before the melt downs began and napped for a long time in the afternoon. Well, everyone but Maddie. She hung out and harassed her exhausted father. (Should put a side note here that all Gabe has wanted to days is to relax and have peace and quiet. It's a treasured gift around here and one that he is receiving right now. All he hears is the hum of the dishwasher and my fingers on these keys...girls are already in bed :) We woke them from naps and headed to Gabe's parents house for another meal and egg hunt. This egg hunt went extremely well! They really had the hang of it now :) The food, conversation and desserts were great. We definitely pushed the limits on how many things we usually do in a day. Maddie had the uber-meltdown right before we left Grammy & Poppi's house and while they do love us, I'm sure no one was sad to see our screaming 3.5 year old leave. Now that blogging is complete, I'm ready for tea, tv and then books. Happy Easter!!
*These pictures are mostly from our time at Katie and Jay's house. My camera's battery died this afternoon ;( The pictures are Maddie, Gracie, Julian and Avery.