Happy Easter!

We had a pretty awesome Easter this year.   

Xander's Loot

Ainsley's Loot

The Easter Bunny brought lots of fun things for the kiddos.  Since this was Xander's first Easter, he got a BIG bunny (it's as long as he is!).  He also got some board books and Little People to play with.  Ms. A got a pig (which I think will end up being named Piggy), Peeps (yellow chicks and purple bunnies: "I eat EYES first!"), Strawberry Shortcake coloring book and Easter book, a Slinky, a Mrs. Potato Head, and Playdough. EB got pretty sneaky with his hiding places.  The boot was my favorite.

PlayDough Bunny!

Ainsley and Xander slept in pretty late today. (Sean has been playing Fallout 3 into the wee hours of the morn lately, so he wasn't going to be up any time soon.)  When she finally did wake up, she was excited to see her Easter basket. She immediately knew which basket was hers, and she was digging into it with careful purpose. She initially grabbed the little people things that had Playdough in them.

Slinky!

The Slinky became an element of particular interest.  She probably played with that for about 5 minutes.  I tried to show her how it works on stairs, but she was having none of that. She just wanted to hear it make its Slinky noise.

We grow nerds. Proudly.

She lined up her Peeps so they could watch her. Then she then broke into her books.  This was for sure my favorite part of basket discovery. She got three books (a Curious George Easter on top of the Shortcake booty).  She wouldn't do anything until she looked through each of the three books. 

I love you most of all
Piggy.

Next Piggy was found and given an obscene amount of lovins. She then demanded that Mrs. Potato Head be opened so she could play.  She didn't really get the idea behind Mrs. Potato Head, but she was obsessively playing with her—to the extent that she took Mrs. Potato Head to bed with her at nap time.

Can I haz Little People?

All of Ainsley's shenanigans finally woke up Xander.  He was particularly interested in grabbing his Little People egg. I wondered why the EB didn't unwrap the Little People from the packaging (and Mrs. Potato Head too for that matter).  I'll have to send him a note for next year.  I was ultimately proud of EB's thriftiness; I'm pretty sure I saw some of these toys on clearance last year at Target.  So, I suppose I'll forgive EB this transgression.

His first shiner

I gave Mr. X his bunny.  He was very happy with it.

*side note* Yes, that's a shiner on Mr. X's face. Last night, in a post-egg-coloring fit of energy, A and X decided to start wrestling.  This, of course, could only end in sorrow.  This time, the sorrow manifested in Ainsley somehow clocking X in the face with her Disney Princess chair.  I am looking into professional wrestling association training camps for Ainsley.

Big boys smile for Mommas

Once I freed all the Little People, Xander was very happy.  He's also entered into that awesome phase of babyhood where he's realized that he's supposed to smile for the camera, but doesn't yet recognize that his smile is power and hold it against us (I'm looking at you Ainsley!).

Xander also got some board books—one of them is a touch and feel book.  Ainsley the Book Destroyer decimates all of her books (this is a huge issue for me, by the way), so this was his first experience with a touch and feel book.  He digs it. A LOT.  He spent at least 5 minutes touching and feeling the lamb, duck, and bunny.

Touch and feel

I let the kids play with their Easter loot for a while...and then Ainsley discovered one of the hidden eggs.

Ainsley: "I found egg!"
Me: "That's right! Remember that the Easter Bunny hides eggs inside when it's wet outside.  I think I saw some in the dining room and living room."
Ainsley: "Let's find them!"

Discovering the egg

We left Xander to his Little People as she started gathering eggs. One of the eggs was structurally unsound and when she touched it, the candy popped out. 

I don't know if I can properly express to you with words how Ainsley reacted when she discovered that the eggs were packed with candy.  The closest I can come is this: it's similar to that scene in Scarface when Pacino does the HUGE PILE of coke combined with that scene in Over the Hedge when the squirrel drinks coffee.

Basket OCD

At first, Ainsley was putting the candy in the basket in order—the bunnies went with the bunnies, the Twix with the Twix.  However, as she realized exactly how much candy she was amassing, she went kinda crazy.

Mostly it involved her running around "I find eggs!", finding an egg, smashing it open "CANDIES!", and throwing the candy and egg husk into her basket.

Action shot...candy falling
into the basket

Xander, for the most part, hung around playing with toys on the floor; he just didn't really care.  When he did make a move for an egg, I thought Ainsley was going to scratch his face off.  I convinced her to share the empty eggs with her brother.  She did but with hesitation.

I can only imagine what this is going to be like next year, when I believe that Xander will be larger than his sister and will accept no such shenanigans.  At this point, she should be thanking her chosen deity that Xander doesn't know what candy is because I swear that boy will KILL you for food.  KILL YOU DEAD.

Xander: Not Really Caring

After a while, X found some joy in chasing Ainsley.  She became more and more Golum-esque with "MY BASKET!"  She would run with the candy and basket and try to keep it from him.

This sharing thing is a bitch and I want it to end. Thank you very much.





For your enjoyment (and because Sean was sleeping), I took A LOT of video of the egg hunt. Honestly, it was cracking me up.  In this video, she tries to be lazy and get me to an egg for her, discovers the boot egg, and shows the world that she has been cursed with my hair. So, here you go, enjoy!

MESS!

After egg hunting, there was PlayDough and breakfast (at noon), then Momma/Babies bath, then precious, precious nap for babies.  I snapped this picture right before I went downstairs to have a beer and some candy.  The only real work I did to clean up was put the PlayDough in zip lock bags so it'd stay soft.

One final note: