Easter Wrap-Up

Remember when I said that last week and weekend was non-stop? I wasn't kidding! Cate kicked it off Wednesday morning with her class egg hunt and party. There are only 3 other little ones in her class, so to say they are beyond spoiled would be an understatement! They are so used to everyone doing everything for them, and when it was time to turn them loose and let them hunt eggs they sort of looked at us like this...

That's the "shouldn't y'all be picking these up?" look, which was hysterical.
They finally realized they were on their own and got busy hunting...

Group shot...

Party time! Cate didn't want anything to do with food and sweets other than the strawberries. I think she could eat her weight in them for every meal! I'm not complaining, though. I don't know many kids who would pass up sugar cookies coated with icing and sprinkles and go for fruit instead. But then again, Cate's not really like anyone else I know! :)


Do you ever have things happen and you think "I'm so not ready for this"? Well, that's pretty much the way I felt a few weeks ago at Target when Bethany and I were browsing the Easter section and we spotted the perfect Easter basket for a baseball player. A baseball player who happens to be her boyfriend. It's been a month now and I still can't really wrap my head around it! She said that she needed to get it and fill it with his favorite candy for Easter, and I agreed that it would be pretty perfect for him.
She picked out several things to stick in it and voila...

She went to his double header last Thursday with it in hand before we realized that she should probably leave it in the car and give it to him afterwards. She's loving going to his games and finally reaching the stage where she's doing normal teenager things. She tells us approximately ten times a day how much she loves being a teenager!
And here she is on her way to the game last week...

We picked out the perfect "cute but doesn't look like you're trying too hard to be cute" outfit and she was ready to go! And, well, she was pretty cute! :)

Something else I wasn't so ready for was Towns' Easter party with her class last Friday. I tried not to think about it too much before hand because I knew I'd be in tears. All these thoughts kept flooding my mind about how it was officially the last class party she'd have at her school. The Thanksgiving Feast was hard and the Christmas party was really rough, but I was hanging on to the fact that we still had the Easter festivities. I didn't want it to come in such a hurry because that meant the end of the school year was near. But it did. And here we are. After 4 whole years of having her in the most comfortable place you could ever ask for with the sweetest friends she could ever make, it's almost time for it to come to an end. I have a constant lump in my throat like I could burst into tears at any moment. And I do. A lot. I'm really not handling the fact that she's turning 5 in a few weeks too well. And I'm really not ready for her to go to Kindergarten. I want to forget about every single shirt I have to make, every single email I need to answer, every single dancing class I have to teach....just to spend every single minute of the day with her because in just 4 short months I won't have the opportunity to do it because she'll be at school all day. Tuesday we met J for lunch, and the whole way there all I could think about was how this time next year I won't be able to take her with me to do things like that. For almost 5 years it's been just us all day, every day. She's like my right arm...I'm going to be lost without her! I'm well aware that I sound like she's moving away to college. I know, I know. But I'm not ready for this!! Excuse me while I get a tissue.
That said, I know I need to suck it up and make the most of it.
Which is exactly what I've been doing (even though I'm dying on the inside)!
Here she is, getting ready to take all her party stuff into class on Friday...

And of course she couldn't be more excited! It's me who's a wreck!!
We ran into her friend Josie on the way in...

These boys and girls are pros by now at getting ready for pictures...

Maybe because this is what they've known all their lives...

I couldn't resist! They might all kill me for that! :)
You definitely don't have to worry about this crew when it comes to hunting eggs. They know how to do it and they're quick. It's every man for himself, and you probably don't want to get caught in the middle of it because you might lose a limb. There were almost 200 eggs that were gone in about 90 seconds flat!



After the big hunt, we all went back to the classroom for the party. Towns asked J to come. And even though he knew he'd be the only man in a group of umpteen women, he told her he wouldn't miss it.
She wanted him to stand right beside her spot at the table, and she was so proud she got to show him off to her friends. I snapped this one right before they all said the blessing...

That one makes me smile.
Somehow after they finished eating, J ended up here...

Maybe because he's just as much of a kid as they are!
A few more from the party...




How cute are they?! They've been together since before they could walk and talk. Now do you see why I just don't want it to end? I guess I should look forward to starting a new chapter with her, but still!

After school, the girls and I headed home. It was a gorgeous afternoon so it was definitely going to be spent outside. I'd told Towns earlier in the week about Cate's egg hunt at school and we both agreed that she needed some coaching in that department. So that's exactly what we did!
Towns hid the eggs for her and we let her go for it...

Cate (being Cate) had a personal Easter basket holder because she felt it was a necessity. Here she's trying her hardest to reach an egg inside a planter without getting her feet in the ivy. She's such a priss...

After she passed the egg hunting test, we let her graduate to hiding the eggs...

There's still work to be done in this area. She likes to hide them all in one spot...

And then tell you where they are before you have a chance to find them...

Towns and I decided we'd work on that next year. Baby steps!
We jumped on the trampoline until it was time for Bebs to get out of school, and you better believe she got a warm welcome when she got home...

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Towns loves her just a little bit...

The two of them together is nothing but sweetness!

Saturday morning was supposed to be Towns' big 5th birthday party. She requested an Easter egg hunt and we were all counting down the days. But the weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate, so we had to cancel it. She was devastated! Last year the same thing happened, and we moved it to Chuck E. Cheese at the last minute. Her Daddy made it clear that under no circumstances was that happening this year because it was a big birthday and she deserved a real party. After looking at the calendar to see that Spring Break, a business trip for J to Orlando, and Mother's Day meant that she wouldn't have a party until she was almost 6 years old, we decided that this weekend was what we had to work with. And praise the Lord, the weather looks like it's going to be beautiful! Perfect for a Sunday afternoon in the park with friends and family! (As well as a certain baseball-playing boyfriend who had a game and wouldn't have been able to come to the original party. He can come on Sunday and I'm not sure who is more excited about that...Bethany or Towns!)

Grandmommy and Pop must have known that Towns was a little down about her party being canceled, so they surprised her Saturday morning when they showed up at her gymnastics class! They spent the day with us, and that always makes for a good time...


Saturday was also our 6th anniversary! And thanks to this sweet thing...

...and a little bribery, we actually got to go to dinner alone! Just the two of us! That doesn't happen very often...you can probably tell the excitement from the number of exclamation points I just used!! HA!

Bless you if you're still with me...

Sunday after church and lunch, all 3 girls were quick to get their new bathing suits on and head outside to soak up the sun. Actually, Cate chose to stay in her dress a little longer than everyone else. But what else is new!


She finally got with the program and shed her Easter clothes. Bethany was all about laying out, and Towns really tried hard to hang with her. But she doesn't quite have the patience for it yet and kept finding excuses to go in and out of the house. Usually she took her sidekick with her...

But one time she told her she couldn't go. And this is the face that came as a result...

When I told her I could ride to town on her bottom lip she looked at me like I was crazy. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's heard that before?! I love being from south Alabama. One reason is because of the slang and expressions. Jonathan, Bethany and I sit around all the time and analyze all these words...and it always ends up with them saying there are no such words and me insisting that there are. And we love to look them up on the online urban dictionary to see who's right. The one they make the most fun of is "soogen" which is what you wear on your head when it's cold. Also known as a toboggan. They had me thinking they'd won that one, but we found it online. The other night the 3 of us were talking, and in conversation (can't even remember who or what I was talking about) I said that so-and-so was "as ill as a wet settin' hen" and that really got them going! They both looked at me like I had 3 heads and said "whaaaatttt???" at the same time. Back to the urban dictionary it was. (And BTW, it was there as plain as day.) And we don't agree on the word "hobo"...for me, it's what you put your trash bags in when you take the trash out. For them, it's a homeless person. Funny!

Back to Easter...
After playing and taking a hundred trips inside with Towns, Cate ended up needing a nap in the worst kind of way. So I got out the neon food coloring for Bebby and Towns so they could dye the last few dozen eggs we had...

Outside, of course! I originally thought Cate was the reason we needed to do it outside. But after the first round of egg dying last week, I realized those other two are just as messy!
And clumsy, too! :)
Prime example...right before we dyed eggs, B was playing around and trying to throw her bottle of water up in the air without the top on it to see if she could do it without spilling it. I know B, and because I know B I probably should have warned Towns not to be standing right up under her...

She ended up soaked! And as ill as a wet settin' hen. So B and I rode to town on her bottom lip...and that pretty much wraps up our most wonderful Easter ever!