Happy Easter 2012

We had such a great Easter this year.  We were privileged to have my Grandparent's staying with us this year.  My Grandparents hold a very special place in my heart, and have been a second set of parents for me.  I got to live with them for a couple of years when I lived in Pennsylvania.  I was traveling a lot for Deloitte Consulting at the time, and would see them on weekends here and there, but we developed such an amazing relationship.  They celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary while they were visiting, and I aspire to have such a long and loving relationship as theirs.

Our Easter was very busy.  It started with a visit from the Easter Bunny, which was pretty thrilling for Tildy.  The Easter Bunny had left a trail of jelly beans and had hid them throughout the house.

Tildy followed them straight to her Easter basket, where she found that Mr. Bunny had left her an Elmo.  She was pretty excited about it.

And Elmo apparently likes "beans" as much as Tildy did, so she was nice enough to share.

After Tildy and Elmo gorged themselves on candy, we all got gussied up in our Easter clothes and headed over to The Grand America for brunch.  The food there is fantastic, it's beautiful, and the Easter Bunny was there.  It was heaven for Tildy.

They also have big long hallways, that she can stand at one end of, gear up, yell, "Go!" and run as fast as she can.  Seriously, I bet they didn't know that they were creating paradise for 23 month olds when they built that place.

We tried to get a picture of her and Daddy, but who can pose for a picture, when there's something to jump off of?

After brunch, we headed home for a short nap, where Tildy somehow managed to sneak some M&M's into her bed for a short nap.  The M&M's didn't make it into her mouth, but she did hold onto them for the whole nap, only releasing them when she woke up, rubbed her face, and wiped her hands on her dress.  Grrr.  We weren't even half way through our day.  No worries.  A little washcloth and gratitude that her dress wasn't cotton, and we were on our way.  Steve's parents joined us for Church, which was lovely.

Afterwards, we headed up to my Mom's house for a quick dinner with some extended family.  My cousin Scott got married that weekend, so we had the entire Hopkins clan in town at my Mom's.  It was so great to see everyone.  After dinner, we headed over to my Mom's church, where she sang in an Easter Cantata, that was beautiful.  Tildy and Steve spent the majority of the Cantata running (and I mean that literally) around the building.  Fortunately I had planned ahead and as soon as it was over, we put her in her jammies, and headed home.

We had such an amazing day.  It was busy, but full of family and remembrance.  Tildy had a great time, and all of her candy fueled her until the end of the day.  Next year we may ask the Easter Bunny to reign that in a little... well, we'll see :).