Easter 2011

Chalk Easter up as one of those holidays that is infinitely more fun to celebrate when you have a kid. I don't think we did anything special last year, Lauren was probably too young to be into it, but this year was different. She had an Easter egg hunt at school and then it was on. All she could talk about was "I find eggs!" So on Easter Sunday we gave her a small Easter basket, then while she and Aunt Arie took a nap (take note: Aunt Arie is the nap whisperer) Sean and I filled eggs and hid them, and as soon as she woke up we had an Easter egg hunt. Also on the agenda: dyeing Easter eggs.

The Easter Bunny brought Lauren an Elmo DVD. He's very hip like that.

Things started out well: look at her wield that egg retriever!

But let's be honest, even Aunt Arie doesn't know how to use that thing and she's 30. So Lauren went straight to retrieving eggs from dye with her hands.

And then panicked because she hates to have messy hands. I, much like my mom and Aunt Jane, cared more about the shot than helping my poor helpless daughter.

Some of the finished product.

Don't let her tentative face fool you, she knew exactly what she was doing.

We had great weather, and a great Easter egg hunter. She announced to everyone she saw for several days "I find eggs!" I'm already excited for Easter next year.

Trip to St. Louis

I've been a little slow on the posting lately. Many apologies. Sean and I have both been swamped at work, and since the weather has been nicer we are now spending our weekends outdoors, when possible. And several weekends ago we headed over to St. Louis to see Grandma and Grandpa Power for Easter. It was a long drive over, as we stopped in Jefferson City to pick up Sean's new bike from his favorite mechanic, and then at H&M outside St. Louis, which ended up being a bust, but hey, when you're in the "big city" (why don't you have an H&M Kansas City? Why?) you stop to shop. Lauren wasn't too happy about the trip. And by "not too happy" I mean that she screamed, at the top of her lungs, for over two hours. Miserable. Finally, 30 minutes from Grandma and Grandpa's, she fell asleep. Of course.

When in St. Louis, there are some things we must do. The first: get a "South Loop" pizza at Pi in the Loop. It's President Obama's favorite pizza place in the US, and he's from Chicago. It's that good.

If it's good enough for the President, it's good enough for Lauren.

As usual, it's not about the food for Lauren, but her surroundings.

The weekend we were in St. Louis, it was GORGEOUS. The weather was perfect. What to do on a perfect weekend in St. Louis? The St. Louis Zoo, people. It was packed. And amazing. I don't understand how this zoo is free.

Lauren was pretty into the bird cage, pictured above (with Sean and Grandma Power). She liked to point at the birds in the trees.

The day at the zoo ended as it should: with a nap. Looking at animals is exhausting.

We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Power's house for Easter. They watched her for us a couple of times so we could zip out to do, what else, more shopping, and she loved the great expanse of carpet in their house. Lauren isn't quite to the Easter egg hunting age yet, but we're looking forward to it for next year.