Life with Meredith and Jillian: March 2013

Easter with the Geurin Family

Our final Easter Celebration was at my parent's house and was extra-special this year because of our newest addition - Carter!

The Cousin 4-some!

Gigi and Papa with their kids

Meredith helped us to make one of our traditions for dinner - "bunny salad" - which is just a pear half made to look like a bunny. She had fun making it even if she refused to eat it!

After dinner, the kids and I made resurrection rolls. Always fun and symbolic and equally tasty!

Gigi's house always has a fun basket hunt - with baskets full of goodies, but of course there is always time to hunt more eggs!

The kids were not really excited about waiting for the dads to get downstairs to join us!

The tricky Easter Bunny made some of the eggs a challenge!

Luckily, we found them all!

With such a beautiful day, we couldn't hold the kids back from playing on the swingset!

A break in playtime to snuggle my girls

The kids were anxious to test out how cold the water is - they are ready for swimming season!

After we headed back in, the kids decorated the Bunny's tie on Grandma's traditional bunny cake.

And to finish off such a fun day, we got to have a confetti egg fight with Neil, Katie and Landon! So fun!

Celebrating at Bubbie's

After Easter Service, we headed to Bubbie's for lunch and, you guessed it, another egg hunt!

The girls showing off their dresses to Bubbie

Silly Jillian getting ready for all the posing she knows is coming her way!

Love my family!

The girls and their Bubbie

We had a yummy lunch and the girls got some great goodies in baskets - then we headed out to hunt! After the hunt, they took the eggs in and hid them to hunt again!

We had one of the nicest Easter mornings I can remember. The girls were old enough to have fun with all the fun stuff but also get why we celebrate Easter. Meredith, especially, was always turning it back to Jesus. So thankful that we can have a little fun with a bunny, all while making sure our girls know that Jesus is why we celebrate Easter.

Meredith wrote out a note to the Easter Bunny and asked him to sign his name!

The Easter Bunny delivered and even left some treats for the newest Hanks-to-be - our puppy, Piper (who will join our family, in April!)

Sweet, silly girls

Sleepyhead Jillian and her hippo book

Meredith got a Magic Treehouse Book (or a "Jack and Annie" book as she calls them)

Just in case the girls hadn't hunted enough eggs, the Easter Bunny hid some in the playroom for the girls. He had heard news of rain so didn't want to hide them outside. Turns out, he could have, but....

After the egg hunt, we had Chocolate Chip Bunny Pancakes (yum!) and then got ready for church! And of course, then there were the obligatory pre-church Easter clothes pics!

Then we walked into church with friends who requested a pic, and offered one in return. Love that we got this sweet picture of us all together!

As we left church, I snapped a picture of the craft Meredith made in class today. I love how she sounded out Matthew! :)

Easter Pantego-style

Another of our favorite Easter traditions is taking part in the Pantego Easter Celebration. This year, it was a beautiful day, so we walked down to the park and got a great surprise! We actually met up with the Easter Bunny being driven to the park in a red convertible! The girls thought this was awesome, of course! So, we quickly followed him and got ready to hunt some more eggs!

Jillian's group got to go first. She was in a 0-4 group, so she had an easy time scooping up her maximum egg limit. She even had time to pick and choose colors!

The 5-6 year olds were next....obviously, this is the age when you need to start working on strategy. She came up with only 3, to which Jillian lectured her "But Meredith, you were supposed to get 8!" Luckily, the Easter Bunny had extras for any of the kiddos that didn't get enough.

So, we of course, had to visit him next! I am not sure when we visited the Easter Bunny last - but it seems like whenever it was, one or both of the girls hated it. This year, they were both really excited to go see him - especially after getting to wave to him on the road!

At the Easter Eggsperience earlier in the day, both girls really wanted their faces painted, but we were supposed to go to a Dance picnic that afternoon. I knew we would just have to wash it off, so I convinced them to move past the long line. The picnic got cancelled (even though it turned out to be a beautiful day, it stormed the night before and the site of the picnic was too muddy for us!), so when we saw a face painter at the park, I let the girls go for it. The face painter was awesome. But there was only one of her and like 100 kids wanting cute faces. So we waited and waited and waited. But they were more than happy to be patient. Jillian was insistent she get a cat. As she started painting, I got a little worried that she might be a little surprised to see that SHE was the cat!

I wanted to catch the reaction just in case it turned to tears or fear! She looks a little unsure, but then....

She thought it was awesome! She loved her kitty face! "Don't worry daddy, I'm just wetend (pretend)!"

Meredith requested a bunny in flowers - and luckily she seemed pleased with this and wasn't disappointed that she did not become a bunny herself!

On the walk home, Daddy and the girls did a little dancing!

Easter Eggsperience

We continued a several-year long tradition of joining Aunt Katie, Uncle Neil, Landon, and now Carter at their church for a super fun day! The girls always love the balloon animals, bounce houses, petting zoo, and games - and of course, you can never turn down any egg hunt that comes your way!