easter sunday

jack's first easter was a rousing success. the easter bunny visited, bringing a basket full of treats that mom will help him eat -- though i'll admit, after today's candy binge i'm feeling a little OD'ed on sugar and that hardly ever happens. so maybe we'll hold off on the chocolate bunnies for a few days.

as expected, jack's favorite part of the basket were the eggs because they make noise when you shake them. also the fake grass is fun.

after church, we had a yummy brunch with brandon's parents and then came home for naps. tonight, we joined all my cousins and grandparents and my mom & dad for a big easter dinner. i really love huge family gatherings and will miss them once we move.

here's jack with baby chloe, the cousin closest in age to him born just six weeks ago. obviously he found her fascinating:

he also met his cousin presley, from brandon's side, this morning at my in-laws. jack loves the ladies...or he's freaked by them. either way, it's funny:

pop pop, me & jackal. can i just take a moment to point out my HORRENDOUS post-partum second-bangs growing in?? ugh. no lie, i have two layers of bangs and one of them is exactly one inch long.

dinner was delish. but the highlight of the night came when, right in the middle of a delicious bite of funeral potatoes, i saw a falcon slam right into the window of the clubhouse where we were eating. it made an incredibly loud banging noise and scared us to death. the poor birdie broke it's neck and died right on the doorstep. [no photos, sadly, but my 5-year-old cousin took a fantastic documentary-style video of it and i'm sure you can ask him for footage.]

kind of a bummer intermission to our meal, but we tried to come up with a connection between christ's resurrection and the bird's untimely death and easter....yeah, didn't really work out.

[also, randomly, my friend paige's bird also died today -- sorry again, paige -- but does anyone else ever suspect a major natural disaster is on its way when animals start acting weird and committing suicide and stuff? no? just me? okay, time to lay off the disaster flicks i guess.]

anyway, after the bird incident, we launched into the annual easter egg hunt. my cousin kaylene and i were in charge this year and we filled some pretty kick-a eggs. hiding spots ranged from easy (right in the middle of the grass) to difficult (on top of walls, far beyond a four-year-old's line of vision) to SUPER difficult (when i tried to stick one in a bush but it fell through the branches and landed waaaay back in the back of the planter. yeah, no one's finding that one. enjoy the jelly bellies, squirrels!).

jack pretty much loved just sitting in the grass, throwing his egg from hand to hand. the very picture of easter bliss:

and that is what we call a successful easter sunday. hope yours was fun as well!