Easter 2011

Wow! What a wonderful Easter weekend! We had some very meaningful services at church, plus my family came in town!
Friday night, Elizabeth and I helped AC decorated her eggs for the contest on Saturday morning at church. There were four categories and AC wanted to enter them all. It was cute to see her imagination come to life when I would list the categories and she would call out what came to mind. The whole process was a bit involved, so I only have pictures of the final products. AC was pleased as punch to win two of the four categories!
Prettiest Egg (she won this category): A sparkly butterfly

Ugliest Egg: A skunk - He's a cute skunk, though :)

 Most Original - Thank you, Family Fun Magazine, for this easy but oh so adorable little guy.

 And funniest (AC won this category): Mike from Monster's Inc. -We made the egg and then remembered we had this hat - it was the just what we needed!

At the church Easter egg hunt, there were bounce houses, hot dogs, etc. -AC enjoyed herself!

 Elizabeth modeling one of the winning eggs:

 And in true AC form - monkey see, monkey do.

After the church event, my dad and Brad headed to the WWII museum, Elizabeth and I ran some errands, and Mom, Ma-Maw, and AC headed back to the hotel to rest. Once we finished our errands, AC convinced her Aunt Sissy to take her swimming in the hotel pool.

 She was beyond thrilled with the realization that she could stand and touch the bottom of the pool! It's the simple things, I tell ya!

 And then Saturday night, we ate out for our "Easter meal". The family was going to have to leave right after church on Sunday morning, so we opted for a nice dinner out on Saturday night. Oddly enough, these are the only two pictures I have from dinner. Elizabeth's meal came with a side of broccoli. Look at this small forest of broccoli she received. It was hardly cooked, so there was no using the basic knife to cut it. Clearly, Elizabeth improvised.

When we got home, some crazy things happened in the McKenzie house.....

First, AC planted "magical" jelly beans. I envisioned her dropping a few in the flower pot and covering them up with soil; however, when you hand a large bag of jelly beans to a 4 yr old....she will dump the entire bag in! It's all good.

 Then, Brad had found these HUGE campfire marshmallows at Wal-Mart. He bought them for my mom b/c she is the chubby bunny champ! Have you ever played this game? I have a strange feeling my family plays this game more than most. Anyway, on Saturday night, only my mom and sister took the challenge.

 This is Elizabeth with ONE of these abnormally large marshmallows in her mouth.

Based on Elizabeth's hand gesture, I'm guessing this is when they both had 2 in their mouths.

 And then they went for 3......at this point, my sister won! So, she is now the reigning chubby bunny champion.

 Papa Bear found this 'bug exploring kit' for Anna Claire, so Friday night and Saturday night, she and her Papa Bear went on an exploration. They caught 2 moths. AC said if they caught a gecko, she would put it under my pillow. Feel the love.

Crazy Bug Lady:

 The result of the magic jelly beans - lollipops grew on Easter morning!! AC was beyond thrilled!

 I took AC outside to get a few pictures of her in her Easter dress. First, she requested that I take a picture of wearing only one shoe. Odd, but I obliged.

 Then with no shoes.

 And finally with both shoes.

 While adding pictures to the blog, I came across this gem. I don't know who took it or when it was taken, but it's a keeper.

 And then there's Rapunzel - the Easter bunny brought AC the princess dress from Tangled. She already had the wig thanks to her great aunt and uncle from Christmas.

Here are few pictures from my phone over the past few days.

 I somehow managed to only get one picture of AC's Easter basket set up.

 The Easter Bunny also brought matching pj's for AC and Carly.

 And yesterday, AC looked so much older - where is my baby?

Spring Time Fun

Saturday morning, AC had a 9am soccer game. It.was.sooo.cold. Brrr. AC waited until the ref blew the whistle to start the game to take her arms out of her shirt.

 

AC has been asking to play in the sprinklers in the back yard. Simple enough. So after school yesterday, we set up the sprinkler and she thought she had hit the jackpot! At one point, she decided just the hose would be fun, so we took off the sprinkler and the fun continued!

 And then she woke up this morning looking like this:

Brad took her to the doctor who said it was an allergic reaction to a bug bit - lovely. It hasn't slowed her down any, that's for sure! 

AC Meets EB

Taking a walk down memory lane....
2008 - we wait in line for a hour and a half at the mall for AC to have her picture made with the Easter Bunny. She was all smiles while we waited, blowing kisses at the Easter Bunny...until, it was our turn. We sat her in his lap and she fell apart. Screaming, crying mess. No picture.
2009 - we didn't want a repeat, so we steared clear of the Easter Bunny at the mall.
2010 - when AC realized the Easter Bunny was at the mall, she refused to go on the first floor of the mall. She would wave to him from the second floor, but that was it.
 2011 - This year, AC announced, "I want to get my picture with the Easter Bunny at the mall!" Trying to go with the flow and not make a big deal about it, Brad and I thought we'd call her bluff and go for it. I wish y'all could have seen her. We walked in the mall and she went right up to the Easter Bunny, sat up in his lap, talked to him, and had a huge smile the whole time!

Dad + Camera = This Post.....Enjoy!

Go back to April 2nd....AC had her first soccer game! Brad had a prior commitment that could not be rescheduled, so I had to videotape the game for him; therefore, pictures were sparse. I took 2.
1. AC proudly sporting her new orange team shirt. Orange? Really? The Aggie in me and the Sooner in Brad cringes to think of our child wearing orange...but we'll survive. She is so proud of this shirt!

2. The post game team pass by - I've never played team sports - what do you call this?

And look at her on Sunday. The baby is growing up....

This concludes my photo contributions to this blog post.
Last Monday, Anna Claire's class took a field trip to the zoo. Brad and our camera joined them on this field trip.
When they got home, I heard all about the exciting trip. AC like to retell every stinkin' detail. She doesn't miss a beat. Brad was a little quiet after the experience- I think that many little ones running around zapped him. Bless his heart. He did tell me that the kids were most excited about the playground at the zoo! Go figure.
Then, I sat down to look at the pictures he took. As I scrolled through them on my camera, in my mind I could just picture Brad walking through the zoo, stopping every so often and saying, "Oh, Emily told me to take pictures!"...and click.

Then this past weekend, I had to be out of town for a church event, so I left the camera with Brad b/c AC had another soccer game. Here is what I saw on the camera:

 The picture below made me laugh - I think there are more parents on the field than kids!

And this one - AC apparently changed hair accessories at some point in the game.

 Anna Claire must have bolted after the end of game huddle b/c she's not in the picture below.