An Early (Now Belated) Easter

As I mentioned last week, I was actually out of town for work on Easter--so I didn't get to spend the day with my little family. :(

Instead, we celebrated the week before (on April 1), which worked out for a variety of reasons. For one, my brother was home for a short leave from his deployment. Since he left in January, he's remained in the States for additional training, so they gave him the opportunity to go home for about a week prior to leaving for Afghanistan. It was nice to have the chance to see him--and celebrate a holiday, even if it wasn't the official day--before he left for the middle east.

Secondly, my dad was in town. This was to coincide with my brother's visit, but he stayed with us, so it was great to get to spend several days with him, too. And we almost never get to see him for holidays anymore, so to get to celebrate Easter with him was fun, too.

Obviously, since I was going to be traveling anyway, this all just seemed meant to be. And that is how Easter 2012 came to be celebrated on April 1.

Anyway, my life has been decidedly unbalanced lately--too much work, not enough living--so I am just now getting around to posting some photos!

We woke up to a crabby Nora (someone woke up on the wrong side of the crib that morning), but we were still able to convince her to check out her Easter basket before breakfast. Balloons are like the best.thing.ever. right now, so it's no surprise that she ran right over to get her hands on that.

The Easter Bunny went simple and low-key (and sugar-free)... just three Fisher-Price ZooTalkers animals to add to her zoo, and the balloon, which was sure to provide hours of joy.

She even ate breakfast with the string clutched inside her tiny little hand. Love.

After breakfast, I needed to start baking the cake to take to my mom's for our Easter dinner, and Nora was completely fascinated by what I was doing. It's a harder to bake with one hand, by the way.

Nora watched some "Up," and then we put her down for a nap a little earlier than normal because she was so crabby and clearly tired. After a long afternoon snooze, we got her up and ready for dinner.

Like Christmas, I see Easter as a perfect excuse to dress my baby in a ridiculously cute dress. We took advantage.

Getting photos of her in said dress was quite the challenge, but whatever.

Once at my mom's, the kids had an egg hunt and played, we all chatted, dyed eggs, and finished preparing dinner.

My mom got the kids a few little Easter gifts. For Nora, they were a couple of books, more ZooTalkers animals, and an Elmo phone!

Not a bad little holiday!