I love Easter, really. I serve a risen savior and Easter is the biggest celebration of that amazing reality all year long. I love the spiritual celebration and I also love the less spiritual, candy-filled joy of spring. I love the get-togethers, the baskets, the egg hunts, the food, the family. It's great.
It's just that the reality of Easter as a mom, is that it's a lot of work. We didn't actually get a family photo of everyone dressed up and looking smart yesterday, even though at one point we actually were all in that particular state I promise. We all went to church yesterday morning clean, pressed and dressed. We worshiped and celebrated our Savior's victory and didn't take one picture to commemorate the event.
By the time we made it back to the house, Riley had to be changed because he had an accident and the rest of us altered our outfits for the remainder of the day. For me, that meant losing the dress in favor of capri pants, Scott and Tyler found shorts suitable for fishing at the lake and Scooter . . . Well, remember how every other little boy loses their sweater vest during the day? Scooter discarded his polo shirt and put the vest back on so that he was wearing a sleeveless shirt. OK, whatever.
We packed up the truck with fishing gear, candy, extra clothes (not that we ever actually touched those), the veggie salad I had prepared the day before and some cold drinks then headed to Cedar Creek Lake. It's Scott's year for the holiday so we were excited to spend the day at his Grandma's house with all the aunts, uncles & cousins. We started out on our hour and a half drive and 5 minutes down the road I realized I had forgotten the rolls, so I made Scott turn around. When we were on the way once again, I realized I forgot our camera too, but we weren't making another U-turn.
No camera, so I don't have lots of pretty pictures to show you of the three little boy baby cousins together for the first time in matching outfits or Scott fixing fishing poles over and over again for all the boys who wanted to try and catch something. Other people had cameras though, and I have already seen some wonderful shots of the day online. I spent most of the afternoon in a back bedroom stuffing eggs for the hunt with some of my favorite compadres. Scott wondered where I had disappeared to after we got there, leaving him in charge of all 3 boys. Cousin Theresa told him I had done all the work preparing the day before and it was his turn now. Thanks Theresa! The truth is though, now that the kids are older they want to be down by the lake with fishing poles so he has more to do than before. When they were younger, I spent most of the day caring for them while he got to visit with his cousins. It's just the way the world works, I guess.
It was a great day, and I would love to post some pictures here of my sweet kids in their sweet clothes with their sweet, scrubbed faces. That's not my world though. What I do have is pictures of the aftermath. Tyler changed as soon as we walked in the door. His shorts were soaked from playing in the lake and his shirt was covered in dirt. I would love to show you, but he cleaned up fast when we got home.
However, Riley found a new level of filth yesterday and he didn't care one little whit if he ever got cleaned up. At one point I was searching for his shoes with him down by the lake and I swear I could hear his thoughts 'hmmmm . . . I haven't played in that pile of dirt yet, it looks different so I guess I should squat down and stir it up and let it blow all over me' and that's what he did. That particular dirt pile was the remains of a burn pile last year so the sand was mixed with ash. Yes, ashes - all over him.
So, I give you Riley - covered in dirt and chocolate, and who knows what else.
Scooter wasn't quite as bad, since he doesn't like to actually PLAY in dirt. He even kept his shoes on all day. But, they were crocs and therefore full of lots of little holes. His feet were not much better:
And just so you know - I did try to commemorate their morning Easter basket fun, but by the time I grabbed the camera the enthusiasm had waned a bit, so this is what I got:
LOL! Seriously. I know I am not the only mother out there who didn't have the perfect, smooth, easy Easter she would like. Pictures don't always tell the true story. I think more people should post the REAL pictures, like me. It's more entertaining and definitely more realistic. I have 3 boys and perfect just NEVER happens!
Anyway, we gave the boys a much needed bath and waited for them to crash from their 6th or 7th sugar rush of the day so we could put them to bed. I am beat, exhausted. So happy there isn't anything written on my calendar for the day. I ran to the store last night to be sure we had plenty of fresh fruit on hand. I'll need it this week to counteract the demands of the candy in the baskets that are currently high up on top of the china cabinet so they cannot be plundered at will.
And don't worry - the Easter outfits that we began the day with were purchased two weeks ago and donned for family photos in the park on a less stressful weekend. Hopefully there is at least one decent shot of all 5 of us so that I can 'remember' Easter 2011 as a pretty picture.
When I'm a little old woman, which way will I remember it? Will it be the pretty picture or the dirty feet? I hope it's the dirty feet! It's so much more fun that way!
I hope your Easter was just as fun and just as messy as ours was! I also hope you were with loved ones and had a chance to worship our Savior.
Thanks and God Bless!
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