Easter 2012

Well here is Easter 2012!  A little late to post so I will try my best to remember all the fun details.  Here is Addison in her Easter bonnet hat waiting for the Easter Parade to start at school!  More on that later........

We celebrated Easter in Ruston on Saturday instead of Sunday.  We were excited about that so that the girls could wake up to their Easter baskets at our house on Easter morning.  Anyway, we went for lunch and a fun egg hunt.  The girls also dyed some eggs.  We had full intentions to dye eggs at our house but since my Mom had it all layed out, we decided to let her handle that area! 

Melody was fascinated with the Egg hunt and would immediately open every one to get to the skittles.  This little lady doesn't chew things one at a time.  She likes to see how many she can stuff in her mouth at once!  Makes this Mama a tad bit nervous.  We did skittles since they are peanut free!

Addison was so into it this year.  Last year was very different for obvious reasons.  We were at Baylor in Dallas for her rehab.  We tried to make the most of it though.  I remember putting the girls in their dresses and bringing in these awesome Easter baskets full of all kinds of toys.  Then, we hid eggs all over her hospital room.  She wasn't walking at that stage but that didn't stop her!  She would crawl, use the walker or hold our hands to find every last egg.  Wow, look at you Addison!  Do you see how far you've come!??!!  AMAZING.

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The girls woke up the next morning to 2 Easter baskets each!  One from the Easter bunny and one from Totsie and Papa.  They were so very excited about this!  Let me just say, the Easter bunny has really helped us in the discipline department this year.  Anytime Addison would act up we would always tell her that the Easter bunny is watching her and won't bring her a chocolate bunny.  So, everytime she would do something good we would call the Easter bunny on the phone and tell him she deserved the chocolate bunny.  And if she wasn't listening we'd call him and tell him.  Her response to this was amazing!  If we ever needed her to do anything we would just tell her we would call the Easter bunny and she would respond immediately.  Addison reacts much better to praise and rewards than she does to punishment.  We started having a hard time with her listening to the teacher and acting up the last few months of school.  Sooo, we decided to pull out the suckers.  She LOVES suckers.  We told her that if her teacher or therapists tells us that she did good and listened all day, then she will get a sucker as soon as she gets in the car.  So, she got to hear the positive reports from her teacher and therapist and was quickly rewarded with one of her favorite treats!  We have not had a problem since!  They are amazed at the difference it made!

So, Addison was super excited to see that chocolate bunny waiting for her in her basket.  She certainly deserved it!

After we did Easter baskets, we looked outside and saw that the Easter bunny had hid some eggs in our backyard!  We quickly got dressed to start the hunt.

Addison felt she needed her bunny glasses during the hunt.  There were times when she was rockin' the glasses AND the ears at the same time.  I love it!

We had a REALLY fun and relaxing day out there.  We just took it easy and played, played, played.  The girls also did a little painting on the side.

This pool was such a tease.  We had it out but told them it wasn't Summer yet and not hot enough to swim.  So they just had a good ole' time lounging in it.

Melody was loving Addison's mattress bed at Totsie and Papa's.  She so wants to be in a big girl bed.  She will get in Addison's bed and cover up and lay her head perfectly on the pillow.  Sweet little girl. See that scrape under your eye?  Well, we were at Totsie and Papa's and I was loading y'all up in the car on our way to have Easter pictures made and you started running in the driveway and took a nose dive.  Seriously?!  Mom was freaking out but I was all calm and saying she could just edit it out.  And she did!  Pictures turned out great!

Addison's school does an Easter parade every year and asks the parents to be creative and make an Easter bonnet/hat for the kids.  Who has time for this??  My Mom and I brainstormed while we were in Dallas for my bday and we just picked up little things to throw on a hat.  Well, we didn't end up making it.  Mom got some lady to do it for us and it turned out precious!  I was prepared to use my hot glue gun though.  I love a hot glue gun.  It was so fun seeing all of the bonnets and how different they all turned out.  So cute!

So the parade was outside and they just marched around the garden.  The music teacher played the piano the whole time and the parents were just going crazy with the cameras.  Each kid had to bring a fresh flower to flower the cross during the parade. 

Then they had a program where they sang a few songs.  Melody was really getting into it!  I'm pretty sure she will know all these songs by the time she goes here.  She has enjoyed all these programs so much and is just fascinated by the older kids.

So proud of my little girl!  I was just praising away and telling her how great she did:)

After the parade, all the kids went back to the classroom for pics.  Another thing where the parents go crazy!  It is like parent paparazzi up in there!  Poor kids- they will appreciate the pics when they're older!

You seemed pretty over it by this point.  See Henry with the sucker?  I couldn't give you one and I hated that!  I have to be able to read the fine print on labels of everything you eat, and the bag had already been thrown away.  I get really aggravated when people don't remember these things.  Thankfully you are really aware of the allergy and I just went ahead and told you that it had peanuts in it and that I would give you one of ours when we got in the car.  Problem solved.  I definitely dodged a bullet.

Here you are with Graham.  You have so enjoyed playing super heroes, robots and super man/ spider man with him this year.  I'm really shocked at how much you love that!  He also has a twin sister Mary Hadley and they live in our neighborhood! 

The Easter bunny came to visit while we were at Totsie and Papa's!  Melody was freaked out just like she was with Santa (to be expected).  Addison was totally fine with it.  I think you are ok with Santa and the Easter bunny cause we never exposed you to them as a baby.  We waited till you were 3. 

That poor bunny.  He must have been really hot!

I took these of y'all right before I dropped you off at school for the Easter parade.  I find them so hilarious.  I'm not sure how old y'all will be until I can get a good, smiling pic of both of you!  But for now, these will do:)  I remember being all rushed and saying, "Come on y'all smile, just smile real quick, ok not like that....just make a normal smile."  Oh well, sometimes action pictures are better.  They tell the REAL story!  Years from now when I look back on these pics, I will totally appreciate the funny faces and not so perfect poses.  They will show your true personalities and bring me back to that very second!

I think y'all must have spotted a bird.  Check out Melody's face- just totally consumed by it!

I sure do adore these next pics of Melody.  She was all about the flowers that we had to bring to school so we just gave her one.  I think they are so gorgeous of you!

So, NO our kids did not get 4 baskets from the Easter bunny.  They each got one from the Easter bunny and Totsie and Papa.  Just a tad overwhelming.

Waking up to see what the bunny left them!  Notice the Christmas PJ's!  I love it!  I've said it before and I'll say it again....We wear our pj's until they no longer fit.  I'm secretly hoping they still fit by Christmas so we won't have to buy new ones.  They were expensive!

Notice Addison holding up socks?  She loves Hello Kitty and we had gotten her some Hello Kitty ankle socks awhile back.  Well she loved them and wanted some more.  So, I told her if she was good the Easter bunny might bring her some more.  She was sooo excited to find them in her basket!

Melody digging through hers and showing it off.

Ahhh- the chocolate bunny.  AT LAST!  Well deserved, babe!

Melody woofed hers down.

Honey and Pop got you these matching outfits and they were precious!  I tried my hardest to have a photo session.  I think it lasted about 2 minutes:)

AND the yelling begins........

You LOVE your little sister SOOO much!  Even though she bosses you around and you let her!  She is your very best friend.  She is the first person you want to see when you wake up and when you get home from therapy.  I love that you have your own games that you play with eachother even though we can't figure them out.  You are my second set of eyes with her.  You are always watching out for her and know what's right and wrong.  You will immediately tell me if she is about to do something that could hurt her.  You are my "Little Mama!"