Easter

Easter Day is here at last!  Not without drama, of course.  It all started last night, when Julia, much too excited to sleep, wound up coming out of her bedroom at least ten times to lament, "But what if I *never* fall asleep?"  Madeleine conked right out, but not before shedding her own tears over the band-aid that had fallen off of her finger for the umpteenth time. 

Auntie Shannon tried to give Madeleine some advice on preventive health care, but Madeleine wasn't buying it.

AUNTIE SHANNON: Madeleine, you really need to stop picking your nails.  The reason why your finger keeps bleeding is because you're picking at your hangnails.
MADELEINE: Well, Auntie Shannon, I wasn't picking at my nails.  It's just that somehow, MYSTERIOUSLY, my hangnail started BLEEDING.

She's a big fat liar.  She picks at her nails constantly.  There's no "mysteriously" about how her fingers keep bleeding.


At any rate, when the girls awoke this morning, they were BEYOND ready to start searching for their Easter baskets.  Julia found hers easily, while Madeleine, even with heavy guidance from me, wound up turning around in circles looking up towards the sky instead of in the direction of her hidden basket.  Thankfully, Julia was willing to find Madeleine's basket for her, and the girls got ready to pore over their loot:

They were absolutely delighted with the contents of their baskets.  Madeleine received what she referred to as "my FAVORITE little pink DOLPHIN!", aka the dolphin she spotted at CVS about a month ago and had an on-the-floor sobbing melt-down about when I refused to buy it for her.  The girls got Elsa and Anna dolls so that they can continue acting out their "Frozen" obsession, and both girls got a slew of new books, as well as LOADS of candy.  They were SO excited over their goodies that when I snuck upstairs to try and take a nap before church, the sounds of their overly loud, ecstatic and rambunctious voices carried all the way from downstairs and prevented me from dozing off.

Yiayia, the aunties, the kids and I headed to our 11am church service, which was followed by an Easter egg hunt for all the kids.  Last year, Madeleine graced the formal post-hunt photo of the children with her trembling lip and crumpling face, distraught over not having found the Golden Egg.  This year, Madeleine had high hopes for that egg, announcing exuberantly on the car ride to church, "And THIS TIME, *I'm* gonna find the golden egg!"

Except that, once again, it was another kid who found the Golden egg.  Madeleine handled it really well:

Yep.  In fact, this year, Madeleine wasn't even IN the formal group picture.  She was way too hysterical over the egg to even consider standing quietly with the other kids for a moment.

But on the ride home from church, Madeleine had a GREAT solution to the Golden egg problem.

MADELEINE: Hey Mama.  When we get home, I'll lay out ALL my eggs on the table, and you can take my TWO sparkly eggs that have LifeSavers in them, and go out to the driveway and HIDE them, and then I can go and FIND them and say "I found the Golden egg!"

GREAT plan.  Good thing she spent all that time wailing over the lost opportunity to find the Golden egg when the remedy to the problem was so simple after all.

The girls are now deeply invested in a dance party in the living room while Ethan and I prepare an Easter dinner, which will hopefully ensure that they're both able to easily fall asleep by the time bedtime rolls around tonight.  Happy Easter to all who are celebrating!