Easter 2014

Just like last year, celebrating Easter as a parent did not disappoint.  At. all.  I just love love love experiencing holidays through Ruby's eyes!

We kicked off Easter this year with a pre-Easter egg hunt.  The in-laws are members of a local Elks club, which hosts an annual hunt for kiddos.  They had an Easter bunny, of course, and in spite of her usual fear of strangers, Ruby was OBSESSED.  We had to pry her away, so that other kids could take their picture, too.

After a nutritious lunch of hotdogs and chips, it was time for the Easter egg hunt.  They had sections separated by age, which I was happy about.  Didn't want my little lady to get overrun!

It was safe to say, she had a good time!  The highlight of the egg hunt for me, was when she and another girl both went for the same egg.  Ruby got there first, then looked at the girl, and dropped the egg into the girl's basket.  So sweet!

Also of note, this place was crazy.  The older kids' eggs had some with hidden notes in them saying the kid won a bike.  A bike!  There were about 30 bikes there, of varying sizes, and I'm pretty sure that every kid that was old enough got to take one home (helmets, too).  Ruby was sad and confused that she wasn't old enough to "win" one.

The Elks egg hunt was the weekend before Easter, so we got to spend actual Easter at home.  The Saturday before, we did some good old fashioned egg-dying.  Of course, Ruby was most into the stickers. She told me, "Doin' stickers goin' pretty good!"

Then I got to play Easter bunny.  I love doing her basket!  Here's a shot of her loot this year:

Coloring things, an amazing tambourine (from @loveleemusic on instagram), a new Camelbak, bunny socks, new jammies, bunny toothbrush, a pack of hair clips (@minalovesbows on IG) and a bunny bracelet (@cagedbirdblog on IG), squeeze bubbles, new sunnies (good thing, because we lost her beloved yellow ones the week before), and Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes.  Not pictured was candy (yes, candy), and Annie's bunny crackers (of course!). 

She was pretty excited!

I did the best I could to be festive with breakfast.  She was satisfied with a bunny pancake!

Then it was time to get dressed in her Easter pretties and do an egg hunt.  We don't have a yard, so we just made do with the area in front of our townhouse - which turned out to be kind of perfect for an egg hunt!

Braidy tried to get in on the action, too.  AKA, eating the bunny crackers.

SO excited!!!

After the egg hunt, we just chilled at home.  Which was awesome!  I love having a low-key holiday.  After Ruby took her nap, I thought she might like to do one more egg hunt, since she really seemed to love them.  I emptied all her plastic eggs and just re-hid them empty.  Well, I put one jelly bean in one egg, to make it a special egg.  She was a little bit miffed that there was no candy in the eggs, but she got over it quick because the hunt was fun.

"Mommy, no candy inside!?!"

We ended the day with more relaxing, and eating too much candy.  Just the way Easter should be!

Saving the Best for Last

Somebody had her last first holiday yesterday.  Sob.

But you know what?  Easter was the best holiday with her yet.  She was SO excited!

Even though she'd seen her basket before when I was taking pictures of it for my last post, this was her reaction when we plopped her down in front of it Easter morning.  She couldn't get enough!

She was very interested in the eggs, and amused herself for quite some time taking them out and putting them back into her basket. 

Then, after a breakfast of sour cream doughnuts (and banana), and after an only 30min nap (ugh!), it was time to get her all dolled up in her Easter dress.

Can you believe this cuteness?  Oh, and the dress?  I found it at the consignment sale a couple of weekends ago.  How perfect is it with that Easter basket???

Our neighbor, Samantha, came out and chatted with us.  Ruby was sightly enamored with her.  That's who she's looking at in the picture below.

We chatted, blew some bubbles, and basked in the glorious PNW spring sunshine (we seriously could not have had a more beautiful Easter day!), and pretty soon, the grandparents arrived.  Bringing more Easter baskets, of course.  In fact, Grandma C even had some yellow sunglasses with white polka dots in hers!  But of course, Ruby wouldn't keep them on her face long enough to take a pic.

My mom also brought over a tasty Easter dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus.  Unfortunately, before we could eat it, Grandpa G got a massive bloody nose.  Because he needs to take blood thinners for his heart condition, he and Grandma C ended up having to leave to go get his nose cauterized.  =(

However, my mom stayed, we dyed eggs, had our tasty dinner, took a walk in that amazing sunshine, then came back for dessert (I baked a test "smash" cake for Ruby's birthday, which became our Easter cake), lowered the crib mattress (because somebody is getting bold with the climbing), gave the babe a bath, said goodbye to grandma, and put little miss to bed.  Phew!  Then topped off the day with the Walking Dead season finale (I seriously don't think I can wait 6 more months for season 4!).

Ruby was so excited all day, "talking", laughing, clapping and playing peekaboo, and kicking her feet with enthusiasm.  It was awesome.  It was like she totally got that it was a holiday and special and she just ate it up.  And in spite of a crappy morning nap, and no afternoon nap, she took it all like a champ.

Love that girl so much.  I can't wait for many, many more holidays spent with her.  Hope you all had as nice an Easter as we did!

Ruby's First Easter Basket

A couple of weeks ago a sad realization hit me.  Easter is Ruby's last "first" holiday!  While it's kind of sad that my baby girl is growing up, it also kind of got me excited about Easter.  Really excited!  I was determined to make her first Easter and last first holiday fantastic.

So, of course, I turned to Pinterest for some basket inspiration.  While there is a lot there, most of it is geared toward older kids.  So, what do you put in the Easter basket of an almost-one year old?  Let me show you!

Obviously, you've got to start with the basics.  A basket.  Easter grass.  And Easter eggs.  When I was growing up, we got a new basket every year.  While that was cool, I really wanted Ruby to have a personalized basket.  And personalized baskets aren't super cheap, so this will be her basket every year. I bought a plain white basket at Michael's, and ordered a personalized liner from Etsy seller LeeLynn Crafts. 

I love it!  There were about a billion fabric choices, and then I got to pick the ribbon and embroidery color and font.  The quality is fantastic, it shipped out fast, and the seller posts her finished work on her Facebook page, so if you're looking, you can catch a little sneak preview of your liner before it even gets to you!  Love.  I can't wait to pull this out every year when I go to play Easter bunny.

For my eggs and grass, I turned to my go-to: Target.  Since Ruby is a girl, I bought the "girly" packs (pinks, purple, yellow, and orange) of small and large eggs.  And I chose yellow grass to coordinate with her basket.

But what to fill the basket with?  I obviously wasn't going to give an 11-month old Easter candy.  Here's what I came up with:

1.) Ruby doesn't eat much in the way of "processed" food.  I make her baby food, or she eats what we eat.  But as a treat, I got her Annie's Cheddar Bunnies.  They don't have too many ingredients, and they're organic, and she'll get a kick out of the bunnies.  I'll put some of these in her plastic eggs.

Also?  Annie's has been around since I was a kid (I think they only had the mac cheese then), and I definitely named a pet rabbit "Bernie" after the Annie's bunny.

2.) HappyBaby Happy Creamies.  These are another "treat", and were kind of an impulse purchase at Whole Foods (they were on the shelf below the Nosefrida I was buying, but that's a whole other story...).  I was interested in these little melts because they contain probiotics.  I actually wanted the yogurt ones, but they all contained strawberry - which I am allergic to, so we're holding off on introducing to Ruby.  So she gets this carrot, mango, and orange one, which should be great because she loves mango and carrot.  These will also go inside her little Easter eggs.

3.) Bubbles!  Ok, so she won't really be able to blow them herself.  But she LOVES bubbles when they have them at library story time, so I'd be happy to sit outside with her on a nice day and blow bubbles for her to point at.

4.) A beach ball.  Ruby really loves to bat around balloons, but they can be a choking hazard if they pop.  To me, a beach ball is just a rounder, safer balloon!  

5.) Sidewalk chalk with holder.  I had visions of us sitting on the driveway, drawing with big fat sidewalk chalk this summer.  It is messy, so I'm hoping the cute bunny holder will help tone down the mess, and also keep her mouth off the chalk. ;)  This adorable little set came from the Target dollar bin.

6.) Sparkly hair clippies.  Ruby actually picked these out herself, but thankfully, she doesn't remember. Really, she grabbed them off the hook when we were out shopping one day.  These sparkly stars have alligator clips on the back, so they'll be perfect for hooking to her headbands until her hair is thick enough to hold them in.

7.) A fancy Etsy headband.  I make a lot of Ruby's hair accessories, but every once in a while I love a good excuse to splurge on something handcrafted by someone else!  Thanks to my love of all things neon, I sought out this beauty!  It came from Etsy shop Small Wonders Boutique, and it is fantastic!  Well made, and she even shipped it out in a hot pink mailing envelope.  It has been really hard for me to wait until Sunday to let her wear it!

8.) Bunny sippy.  I couldn't resist this bunny sippy from Target, even though it is a straw sippy.  Ruby hasn't quite figured out the straw yet, but I'm hopeful she will soon (she will suck things from a straw if I take it out and hold the end and put it in her mouth).

9.) Wooden iPhone teether.  This is probably the one item that excites me the most in her basket!  Ruby, like any other baby, is obsessed with my phone.  And of course, that means she wants to put it in her mouth.  My brother is an Apple Genius, and he freaks when he sees babies with phones in their mouths.  Apparently baby spit is a common culprit for broken phones!  So, I got her one that she can put in her mouth.

I just love the little carved apps, and the home button, and it even has the "camera" on the back.  And it is personalized with her name on the back, too!  I caught it on sale for only $12, but they still have them for $15 at Etsy shop 3PrincessesStore.  It shipped to me super quick, even coming from Canada.  I have a feeling that Ruby will be starting a trend with her phone, as we don't know a single baby that doesn't like to chew on their parents'. 

10.) Ball.  Big enough to not be a choking hazard, small enough for little hands.  Ruby only has an O-ball right now, so I often find her playing with our wool dryer balls.  I don't really mind, but now she has a pretty pink faceted one of her own.

11.) Guess How Much I Love You.  No, really, guess.  Haha, just kidding.  What is Easter without a book about bunnies?  Can you believe we don't have this in our library yet?  I can't either.  Which meant that I knew it HAD to go in her basket.  Other great bunny books to include would be the Runaway Bunny, or A Home for a Bunny (which we have already, and Ruby is obsessed with!).

12.) Goodnight Moon.  I know!  We didn't have this one either!  Insane.  But guess what?  There are bunnies in this too!  So it loosely fits the Easter theme, and it definitely fits the "we need this in our book collection" theme.  

Not pictured:  Cheerios.  I'll grab a handful from our box and put some into one of her plastic eggs.  The second she sees that yellow box, she starts pointing vigorously.  She'll be pleasantly surprised to find them in an egg!

So there you have it.  An Easter basket fit for a one year old.  I also intended to include some Fisher Price Little People, as we have one that Ruby plays with every single day.  However, when I went to go buy them, I could only find Disney Princesses and licensed super heros.  Not really my thing.  However, if I find just regular Little People people before Sunday, they may get hidden in some large eggs in her basket!

Need more ideas?  Other items I considered, but didn't buy because I ran out of space, we already had it, or I knew grandma had already bought it for her:

*Rubber ducks (Ruby love love LOVES these)

*Small stuffed animals or loveys

*Bath toys

*Socks

*Teething toys

*Sunglasses or sun hat

*Sandals for the upcoming warm weather

*Pinwheels

*Freeze-dried fruit (Trader Joe's has a great selection)

*Toy tethers for the stroller, like this

*Munchkin Snack Catchers

*Bibs

*Toddler utensils

*"Springy" onesies (because there are never enough onesies in size 12mo and up)

*Beach/sand or garden toys 

Hopefully that list helps!  With Ruby having a spring birthday I tried not to go too crazy, and I also tried to stick to my unofficial New Year's resolution to shop more on Etsy.  I can't wait to see my little girl paw through her (completely adorable) basket on Sunday!