Easter

Look out – I took about a million pictures on Sunday, and thoroughly annoyed my family in the process.  :)  

We started out at church early for the annual pancake breakfast.  Sophia had a ton of fun dancing in the sanctuary while we waited for “Mama” and “Bapa” (a.k.a. Grandma and Grandpa) to arrive. 

 

 

It was a nice service and we even got to sing a variation on my favorite hymn - Up From The Grave He Arose.  Well, everyone else sang it – I have a problem with worship songs when I’m pregnant.  If I try to sing them, I just end up crying, so I listen to everyone else instead!

We were able to get a family picture of the seven of us.  We might have one somewhere, from when Sophia was about three weeks old, but it’s been lost.  Good thing we finally got everyone in…since we’ll have to do a whole new one come September.  :)

   

This one is definitely my FAVORITE picture from the day!  I can’t look at it enough – they’re so adorable.  This one will absolutely be in a frame, and we’ll have to send one to Grandpa for his office!


When we got home from church, we finally let Sophia check out the goods in her Easter basket.  Not an issue for us this year, but who does your Easter basket come from?  For some reason I’m okay with lying about Santa for a few years, but not the Easter bunny.  maybe because a giant costumed bunny is downright creepy and I don’t want to participate in that tradition. :)  I think our kids’ Easter baskets will just be from Mom and Dad.

 
Once she emptied the basket of her toys, Grandma showed her how to have some fun with the paper at the bottom.
  

I would absolutely host Easter dinner every year.  It’s SO much easier and more relaxed than Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Especially since ham is traditional and comes pre-cooked and pre-sliced.  Dan was a HUGE help and we got most of the food ready the night before, so the day of was easy and fun.

We’re not big into place cards, but I couldn’t resist monogramming everyone’s eggs.  :)


We also do an egg cracking contest every year.  Do I know anyone else who does this??  You crack the ends of your egg on other people’s eggs and whoever ends up with one end still in tact wins.  You don’t win anything, but it’s a fun tradition.  My mom saw this done on My Big Fat Greek Wedding so we’re thinking it’s an orthodox tradition.  
I wasn’t sure how well Sophia would catch on to an Easter egg hunt, but she dove right in and found them all.  Daddy did a great job of placing them in pretty obvious places for her, so that helped.  She also made sure to shake them before dumping them in the basket, just to be sure they were worth taking.

This Easter was my favorite holiday in a long time.  It was all fun, no stress and a nice long day of spending time with family.  I hope yours was just as wonderful!