Dressing a little girl is super fun. We've already established that. But dressing a little girl around Easter time has gotten out. of. control.... or at least it has at my house. (Crossing my fingers the hubby doesn't read this post. Ha!) We've had a ridiculous amount of "trips to the park" in the past week or so because it's a great excuse to take the camera and snag a couple of adorable pictures of my kiddos (aka, Ell in her awesome clothes) looking serenely perfect while sitting in a beautiful field of blooming trees... or setting suns... or budding flowers... because that is REAL life! (I'm killing myself over here! hehehehe!) My Facebook friends are probably rolling their eyes at the amount of pictures I've posted lately. Believe me, I am too! But I can't stop. I'm blaming the warmer weather.
It's also Ridge's 5th birthday week! I'm so torn between being excited for him, reveling in the awesomeness that is my *almost* 5 year old... and crying in my pillow because, "Where have the past 5 years gone?!!!" And time with Ellington seems to be moving even faster! For real. I can't handle life at this speed! Ridge's favorite restaurant is Brixx (pizzeria), so I took him and his sister yesterday as a sort of "birthday week" kick-off. While sitting at Brixx and having ridiculously grown-up conversations as we waited for our food, Ridge decided he wanted to make a list of some fun things we could do throughout this upcoming week. (The kiddo is crazy lucky because his birthday seems to always fall in the middle of Spring Break- so he's out of school all next week... which leaves plenty of time for fun activities! I'm probably creating a monster...) Ridge's list made my heart smile. It includes:
- Meeting friends at a park (which we did today and will most likely do again)
- Baking a birthday cake
- Going to the movies
- Getting ice cream with mom
- A trip to Barns & Noble (totally his idea- NO prompting from me!)
I was proud of the items on his list. They're simple and sweet. And totally doable. But first... Easter!
We strive to raise our children to be as Christ-like as possible. We certainly fall short daily! But this is the first year that Ridge seems to "get" Easter. I know there are parts that are over his head, but the key components he gets. Even though we stress the Resurrection is the reason for Easter, we still do the fun things like hunt Easter Eggs. This year, we dyed eggs for the first time. Whoa. Stress! Dye + an *almost* 5 year old + crazy obsessive mom who has NO WHERE for messy egg dye = spreading out a towel in the middle of the kitchen floor to dye eggs. (FYI, teaching the concept of "dye" vs "die" was interesting... but he got it! Smart little bugger. It also helped that teaching vocabulary is a huge part of his mom's job!) But I totally stressed over nothing. Ridge was awesome with messy dye! The set up definitely helped. Had we sat at any table in our home, the rug underneath and the fabric chairs would have certainly suffered, but the towel on the floor was perfect. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, but gah... I'll remember it forever! I remember decorating Easter Eggs with my mom, so I know he'll remember dyeing Easter Eggs with his mom as well.
Something else I remember is shopping for Easter dresses. My husband thinks this is crazy. It never occurred to me that "Easter dresses" isn't a thing everywhere. Must be southern? Ivan said he always grew up getting dressed up for Easter, yes... but he thinks my need to coordinate all family members church attire is a little much. Well... yeah... "obsessive visual tendencies" will certainly go overboard on Easter Sunday. Ivan has graciously let me coordinate our outfits since the year we got engaged. (Back then I think he was scared to tell me no. Ha!) And then when Ridge came along, it wasn't even a conversation. The only issue for Ivan is my desire for pictures. We are always running late to church- it doesn't matter how early we start the process, something happens and we wind up slipping into our pew just a few minutes late. Add in Easter baskets, pictures, and special clothing and you can see the dilemma! This year we're trying something new. We're going to all get dressed on Saturday afternoon and take pictures then. After, we'll go out for a nice family dinner. That way, Sunday morning can just be Easter baskets and church. (And then an amazing brunch and egg hunt with my wonderful neighborhood family.)
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| Our 2016 Easter coordination |
I hope our Saturday Easter pictures and dinner will become a tradition... kind of like church on Sundays, dyeing Easter eggs, coordinating Easter clothes, making birthday celebration lists, taking too many pictures, and Brixx for birthdays. Wow! It's SUCH a busy time of year for our little family but it is the most amazing feeling to get to experience it with my crew. Until next time...
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