Easter 2013

This weekend marked the first weekend that we’ve spent in New York City as a family in nearly two months. We’ve been traveling so much lately that I was desperately craving a normal family weekend at home. Although it was a holiday weekend, it was laid back and low key, which was exactly the way that I wanted it.

Saturday morning was spent relaxing, doing laundry, and getting a fresh delivery of groceries. The girls always love grocery delivery days because of the boxes that come with it. In nearly four years of being a parent, I’ve realized that kids really don’t need very many toys. Give them a cardboard box and they will have fun for hours.

And that’s just what the girls did. They played together and went to far off places in their boxes. It was such a fun way to start the weekend.

Spring is making a slow start and it’s still been rather cool in the city, but it was absolutely gorgeous outside this weekend. We went to the park for some fun outdoor play and with enough running around you really started to get a little warm. Warm enough to take off the big coats and just go out in a shirt. A definite sign that the warm weather was on it’s way.

After the park we came back to decorate Easter eggs. Originally it was just going to be an activity that Harlan and I were going to do together. But as soon as Avery saw us sitting at the table together, she clearly let us know that she wanted to be involved in the fun.

I sat her in her highchair next to Harlan and gave her an egg to decorate. She immediately dropped it on the ground and it shattered into pieces. She cried and I tried to get her interested in another activity more age appropriate. She cried even more after that.

That’s when MacKay came up with the genius idea to give her a plastic egg and a cup so that she could “dip” it just like Harlan. She had no idea it was any different and had so much fun participating in an activity that her big sister was doing.

Easter morning felt a lot like Christmas morning. Harlan woke us up super early begging to go out and see her Easter basket. After an hour of some good family cuddles in bed, all four of us went into the living room to check out what the Easter Bunny left for the girls and to have our annual “Jimeson Easter Egg Hunt” in the apartment.

The Easter Egg finding activities continued at church. Easter egg hunts are definitely different here in the city. Rather than a big field of grass for us to hunt for eggs, we climbed the stairs up to the roof of our church to search.

Despite the huge crowd of big kids running around everywhere, both girls did a great job finding the eggs. Avery was having so much fun with picking them up and putting them in the basket. She had no idea they were filled with goodies, she just liked to pick them up and put them away.

The roof was also a huge playground, so Harlan had to get her play time in before we went back down for church. I love that she is at the age where she enjoys making new friends. She will go up to anyone and start talking to them or playing with them. It’s a quality in her that I wish I had.

No holiday would be complete without the obligatory family photos. I desperately tried to get the girls to take a great shot in their Easter dresses, but you can see how that turned out.

Avery wanted to be held and Harlan just wanted to be Harlan. 🙂

NYC welcomed us back with gorgeous weather and a perfect weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend and a Happy Easter!

For some of my favorite photos of Avery this Easter, check out my post on Babble!

{Because people have been asking: My pants: JCrew, My shirt: JCrew, Girls Dresses: Ralph Lauren, it’s not on the site anymore, but it was called the Floral Sundress.}