Hippity Hoppity

In late January, it seemed as though our return to U.S. seemed ages away.  Yet here we are, just a little over a week from our homecoming, busily preparing for our move.  Once we made it through January, February and March seemed to pass quickly for us; undoubtedly an unusually mild winter helped.  It was no wonder that April flew by in the blink of an eye; we were busy entertaining our visitors until April 18th...and then there was Easter! 

 

In fact, there were two Easters!  Here in Holland, people celebrate "First Easter" on Easter Sunday, and "Second Easter" on Monday.  For us, "Second Easter" wasn't much different from any other Monday.  Jim did have the day off to spend with us, and our preferred grocery store was closed for the second day in a row, but it was otherwise a Monday like any other. 

 

We celebrated Easter (First Easter) with a delicious homemade brunch and the twins' first egg hunt, Easter baskets and bubbles, and some watercolor painting!  Although we would have preferred to celebrate the day with family and we definitely missed all of favorite Easter foods, we made the most of our Easter in Holland.

 

 

"A chocolate bunny for breakfast?  Don't mind if I do!"

Maddie got a kick out of seeing herself in bunny ears and bunny glasses.

The twins received baskets of goodies from the Easter Bunny as well as a few toys and treats from their Mimi and Papa and their Gigi. 

After their nap, the twins headed into the backyard for their very first egg hunt!  They both insisted on wearing their ears, and Maddie also wore her glasses for most of the hunt!

Our little deranged Easter Bunny!

They seemed a bit hesitant at the start, but once they found their first eggs, they were off and running to the rest!

Will was so proud to have found these eggs hiding above the door to the shed!

It really didn't seem to matter what was inside of the eggs; the twins just seemed to enjoy finding and collecting them!

After the "official" hunt, we hid and found the eggs again!

When they had tired of looking for eggs, the twins busted out the sidewalk chalk and the bubbles!

I love this picture of Maddie watching her Daddy blow bubbles!

Since we aren't big fans of eggs around here, we chose to paint paper eggs in lieu of coloring hard boiled eggs.  Perhaps we will color hard boiled eggs next year, when the twins will be able to participate more in the experience than they would have this year. 

The twins didn't seem to grasp the concept of watercolor painting; Maddie used so much water that very little paint was applied to her egg, and Will spent most of his time swirling his paintbrush around in the water and shouting, "I paint! I paint!" 

Nonetheless, they stayed occupied for at least 20 minutes. 

Maddie, hard at work

"I paint!  I paint!"