We attended our church's Easter Egg hunt this year. And of course, Holly and Greta loved it. What a thrill to find eggs with treasures inside! I didn't think I was letting my girls eat a lot of candy, but when it all came up out of Greta's tummy that afternoon, I realized that what a lot of candy means to them has changed. Granted, she got herself all worked up... but still. I kind of feel like an irresponsible parent. And I was glad we had limited the chocolate giving the next day to a small amount.

As for having no Easter Bunny, the girls didn't seem to notice and Conor and I were the recipients of gratitude. I just can't get on board with the Easter bunny. Santa Claus, yes absolutely, he's a symbol of giving. But not the big old bunny. It was a little tough when other children asked what the EB brought. I put it simply, the Easter bunny doesn't visit our house, Mom and Dad give gifts instead. I don't want to compromise anyone else's choice to have the EB tradition, but I also don't want to feel pressured to make up the EB just because everyone else does.

Anyways, here's some cute Easter Egg hunt photos to lighten this post up! I've been snapping some fun sister pictures lately and that makes me happy!

All dressed up for church! I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. I had a bit of homesickness, which surprised me since we haven't been in Canada for Easter for years. Like before we had kids. I think I mostly missed being with everyone as they got together.

On a funnier note, I love the photos we get when the girls get a turn with the remote.

Today we dyed Easter eggs with our neighbors - we have a really great community. The girls and I took some photos of the eggs during our lunch hour. Gotta document a little bit of this with the big camera. At one point, Holly stuck her egg under her dress and pretended to sit on it. And then she encouraged Greta to do the same, but Greta took her quite literally and got herself into a deep sumo squat to sit on her egg. We were all laughing!

This reminded me of a funny little story from my Mother's childhood. My mom's sisters are quite a bit older than she is. When she was little they put an egg in between the cushions on the couch and then they convinced my Mom that she had laid an egg! I love this story - what memories!

At lunch my daughters ate their hard boiled eggs like it was their job. I guess the trick is to let them dye their own!

I'm sure I'll have more Easter photos to share at the end of the weekend. Or hopefully. We don't do the Easter bunny in our home. Instead the girls will go on a little scavenger hunt and find a treat from Momma and Papa at the end of it (why should we give mystical creatures all the credit!?). I've tried to keep Easter small, but you know... it's hard. I love to give to my children.

Hoppy Easter!

On Christmas Eve day, some of my family members went tobogganing. Holly was continually going down the hill with whomever was on the way down, and then freeloading rides on the way up. Greta spent most of the time watching and laughing from the top of the hill. Alanna coaxed her down with a ride on her back, such a sweet thing for her to do. I wanted her to have a full ride or two, so I took her down without permission and she laughed the whole way! It was a gorgeous sledding day! And an absolute dream to spend it with my three siblings.

We're back from our 2 week trip to Canada. It was a completely wonderful trip with so many highlights. Is it too bold to say that this was our best trip north ever? Seriously, it was so great! I think I can speak on behalf of my little family when I say we really felt loved by everyone. The cousins swept my daughters up and Holly and Greta were immediately one of their own, no warm-up time required. I'm so grateful my nieces and nephews have such big hearts and open arms for their California cousins. Made my heart happy.

Now I'm sifting through hundreds of photos, organizing toys, cleaning up my diet, cleaning our home, laundry, and trying to catch-up on sleep. It's all so worth it for two amazing weeks with our dear families. I'll have LOTS of blog posts in the next couple weeks to show off the fun we had. In the mean time, I'll leave you with one photo of the four of us. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!