- Alleluia, He is RISEN! -

Despite our current state of chaotic living, the 5-years-and-going-strong-tradition of visiting the [free] Easter Bunny at Wal-Mart did NOT make its way off the agenda:

Scarlett was not scared even a tiny bit, and Harper was puzzled as to "why the Easter Bunny doesn't get sweaty inside those hot clothes?" ...'Tis just another mystery of Easter weekend, my friend.  Both kids grabbed a goodie out of the candy basket and Emma had her turn on E.B.'s sweaty lap before we made a dash for it.

Next!  Whoever thinks 'dat Easter Bunny has a hand up on this mama needs to reevaluate! ...Thank goodness for #theofficelife and #legitlunchbreaks because egg-stuffing at home would've been immmmm-possible.

Then! The girls enjoyed an amazing kids + moms + grandmas egg hunt at Suzanne's house:

...and woke up to another house full of surprises on Easter morning!  Harper was up at 12:28am on Easter morning dashing around the house and marveling at all the goodies.  Brian conned her back to her bed "because we have to wait for Sissy to wake up [in like.............7 more hours]" and soooo very luckily, she fell back asleep with two handfuls of candy and the LOL Surprise that the E.B. left in her basket.  Phew.

But! 7:35am had us like: 

Everyone was thrilled with the Bunny's generosity! Scarlett's world is forever colored after she downed her first fun-sized pack of M&Ms, and there have already been many-a-fits thrown when she spots a piece of chocolate from afar and is then denied the goods.

All sugared up, we headed off to Mass...

...where Harper colored quietly and behaved perfectly, and Scarlett stayed successfully in the pew until the homily [progress!] and then retreated to the hallway screaming and flailing.  A+ for Harper, D for Scarlett.

Home to pack up the fruit tray...

...and off to Grammy and Papa's for another egg hunt and Easter celebration!

Happy Easter, all!

HE IS RISEN!

- Hippity-hopping back to Easter... -

Cinco de MAYOOOOO!!!

...The perfect day to hop! hop! hippity-hop! all the way back to Easter! 

*womp womp* ...But #letnothinggoundocumented!

[I'll make it quick!]

Brian is alwayssss very eager to break my tradition of visiting the [free] Wal-Mart Easter Bunny; but no no nope, he did not get his goal accomplished this year! 2018 makes it four years and counting, so why turn back now?! ...Harper's like, "Hurry and snap your pic, Mom...this rabbit is sketch!" and Scarlett's like, "I think I'll just nap here for a while...wanna come back and grab me after you finish getting groceries?" #momsmemories

^^ PS -- Thanks to Aunt Emma for the matching "sister outfits," as Harper calls them! 

We also did a little Easter egg dying session with Grammy...

...along with some festivities on Easter Eve that included Cricut coloring pages and dinner with Kate [complete with caveman-ish chicken leg gnawing] annnnnnd laying out some carrots for the Easter Bunny...

...which seemed to be the perfect bait, because he showed face and left all these goodies for the girls!

Harper reported to us in the morning that the E.B. woke her up while he was hiding goodies around the house, but she told him, "Shhhhhh! Be QUIET!" so she could go back to sleep. Scarlett watched wide-eyed while Harper hunted all the eggs and then ate about 1/4 of their sugary contents before we scooted off to Mass...

...which was a borderline DISaster, but I won't let it dent my pride this time because surely it was a result of the sugar crash... A+ for Scarlett who slept all the way through Mass [and even through our family-of-five photo afterwards!], and a big fat F for Harper who had already thrown a screaming fit to leave for a bathroom break + flailed her body all across the kneelers like a dying fish + eaten her large collection of snacks alllllllll before Fr. Jeff even initiated the entrance procession. Of course she did shape up to the little angel she usually is by the time the homily was finished, so with that she redeemed herself from earning an F--.

Next! Off to family Easter #1...

annnnnnnd #2!

I know I take this for granted more than I'd like to admit, but we are so very blessed to be able to spend the holidays [and non-holidays, too!] with so much family close by!!! I love watching my girls grow up with their grammys and papas and aunts and uncles and cousins! :-*

Happy Easter, all!  He is risen, just as He said!  *party emoji*

- Easter isn't always roses and tulips :( -

What what?! 

Whoa! What a difference a year makes! :) More pics of Harper and E.B. right on ova' here...

Easter weekend 2016 threw us a curveball!  The Wednesday [4 days] before, Harper got sent home from daycare "vomiting"... Though she only vomited that once, she did have fevers and lethargy and general not-well-ness for the rest of the day Wednesday and all day Thursday. She luckily bounced back to normal on Friday; and just when I thought all was well in the world, I started feeling achey and sleepy and efffffffword. Oh please Lawd, don't do this to our family AGAIN!  But! We pushed on through Saturday and doped up on Tylenol to make it through Easter Vigil Mass [barely, though; Harper was not interested in sitting down and facing forward for more than a few seconds at a time and this was a 2-hour Mass so! You can just imagine how much fun fun funnnn we had trying to restrain a wild and vocal one-year-old during our [[previously declared]] very FAVORITE Mass of the entire liturgical year.  Within the first few readings, she ate ALL the Cheerios and yogurt melts that I packed and also spotted her sippy cup of milk in the diaper bag and chugged that down as well. She was finished perusing her stack of books and cuddling her baby doll before the lights even flicked on in the church. She missed all the baptisms because, after three kicking/screaming squabbles and two thrown and lost-to-the-abyss-of-the-church-floor pacifiers -- damn things can bounceeee -- Brian and Harper retreated to the couches of the basement where the animal was free to roam and roar. Though all unusual circumstances considered -- 7-9pm time slot, recovering from virus, doesn't enjoy being forced to sit in one place for any length of time, made to wear a silky dress, the list of excuses is getting absurd so I will leave it at that -- I upgraded her report card from a C+ to a B- and considered it only a minimal parenting failure that we even exerted the effort to attend Easter Vigil.]. LONGEST PARENTHESIS/SIDE-NOTE EVER. I digress with a photo:

[^^The darkest, most depressing Easter outfits ever. Clearly I focused all my attention on planning the baby's holiday wardrobe and didn't realize until it was too late that Brian and I would have to either wear something ridiculous or go naked. We chose to wear something ridiculous. But watch out: pink fluffy dress and purple tie is already on the radar for next year.]

Meanwhile, while 4:00 in the A to the M of Easter morning is traditionally coined as resurrection time for our sweet Lord, 4am in the Fleming house also brought on some vomiting with a vengeance for this momma right hurrrr. Instead of rising with my Jesus I definitely felt a little more like a hint of death warmed over on Good Friday. Curse you, flu plague.  I will shout loud expletives in your name until the day I die.  But anyway......... While I was on my death bed all day, Brian took Harper to Easter at his uncle's where she supposedly got a new crockpot from Grandpa and Grandma and begged a variety of foods from the table [girl has an appetite if I've ever seen one!]. Not sure what all else went on at the family festivities, but Brian did send one [only ONE!!!] picture update of the entire day: 

And that successfully concludes the documentation of our Easter 2016. #worstpostever #whydoesanyoneevenreadthisblog #ihavenoidea

Harper's Easter egg hunt and basket opening still pending..... Maybe we'll get on that next weekend. 

In surely more exciting news, check out Easter 2015... If I recall correctly, it was much less dramatic.  ;)