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?