Easter Weekend

So I am a complete slacker and forgot my camera this weekend. Bogus I know, so we will have to visualize the Easter fun. Friday was Good Friday so Pete and Cadence had the day off, and it was unbelievably sunny - (unbelievable since it has been nothing but rain). So this day was spent mowing the lawn, planting fall bulbs and planting new pansies (to add a little color). Sadly being pregnant did not help any of those chores, and I ended the day bone tired and pretty frustrated.

Saturday morning we were off to Grandma Lucy's appt. building for her annual egg hunt. This hunt is hilarious, because it is all the families of the residents so tons and tons of kids line up (according to age) and exactly at 10 (to the minute) they blow the whistle and within 30 seconds there are no more eggs. Luckily my daughter is not shy and had a game plan (she didn't ever fully stand up, just swooped over the eggs) and was not one of the kids in tears. After donuts and hot chocolate and a nice long visit with Grandma Lucy, I took Cadence over to Grammy's to dye Easter eggs and decorate. This has become a yearly tradition of dying eggs with Grammy. This year there was a surprise waiting for her - two bunnies! Cadence was given the privilege to name one, and so the grey one ended up with the name Cadbury.

Sunday the Ford family was feeling a tad bit under the weather. The hubby had spent all of Saturday in bed, so I knew he was really sick, and I am well 30 weeks pregnant, not sure if there is ever a day I don't feel under the weather. So as a result of our not feeling well we stayed home from church, Cadence had a hunt inside the house (although the sun came out Sunday morning). Pete is known for his crazy hard egg hunts, Cadence had a time limit of two hours and she could not find all the eggs. We then drove down to Grandma and Grandpa Fords for Easter lunch and another crazy egg hunt. Pete hid the eggs for the cousins and they had to find 5 of a specific color, so the little babes were super easy and out in the open, but the older the kid, the harder the spot. To let you know how hard, you couldn't see any with the naked eye, there were no obvious ones, he duct taped eggs under cars and dug up holes under path pavers. All the cousins rushed outside and we instantly heard comments like " you didn't hide any of mine" and "I think you forgot to hide my color" because they were so certain they would rush right outside and start finding their eggs. Also with 13 cousins, Pete forgot where some of them were stashed and we had to call it quits with 3 eggs still hidden because we just couldn't find them. Uh huh- egg hunts are serious business for Pete.
After the Fords we moved on to the Dovers for another egg hunt and dinner. Here there were only 4 grandchildren and so the hunt was much tamer, and very adorable to see April (who is 2.5 years old) gently picking up eggs and declaring the ones touching the dirt as "bad eggs". There were also many cute poses of bunny holding for which I wished yet again that I had a camera. argh. Cadence talked April into naming the black and white bunny Oreo, although Tyler was pushing for Ariel.

Over all Easter was sort of a marathon, made more so by being pregnant, I was exhausted! Tiring, but great, I really do love having all those family events to fill up our calendar, but lets just say, I spent Monday in bed.

Disneyland!!!! (a little delayed)

So yes, let those memories begin! We planned this trip obviously before I was prego, well Grammy did, and I wanted to tag along, pretty soon, it was almost everyone tagging along, and we had a blast with family, exploring the park for four days in a row. Dad did not accompany ( he needs to save up those days off) and four days is not ideal in row, pregnant, but still overall it was very magical.

Here is the proof that Tyler was there, the older boys mostly took off on their own, getting into trouble.

Good times on the Autotopia, Christian was furious with Disneyland that they wouldn't let him drive with Duncan, little did he know that was Lana's rule not Disneyland's.

Good ole Mater!

And here I snapped a picture of Cadence (and Dave Grohl) coming off of Big Thunder Mt. I think I have a bit of work ethic ingrained in me when I would not let Cadence talk to him, or ask to pose with him, silly cuisine unlimited has taught me to leave those celebrities alone!

Tons of cousins, and tons of memories!

Grammy and Grandpa going into the 3D bugs life movie experience. hehe nice glasses.

Bear world adventure thing, really cool ropes course and swings, would love this set up in my backyard.

And this cute face, Duncan on the non spinning teacup ride (with prego auntie).

Carver's giant ice cream cone!

Reagan in her handmade ears.

Cadence and I packaged for sale. - nobody was buying.

Cadence and I drove down two days earlier to stay at Dee's house, I thought it would be a sweet way to say goodbye, have brunch with old friends, etc. Instead it rained (hard) nonstop and the house was a little creepy so empty and bare, I kept thinking I would see Dee shuffle down the hallway in her slippers and housecoat,turning off all the lights.

We did seize a rare 3 hour gap in the rain to go to the LA Zoo and botanical gardens and it was pretty awesome. There is so much growth there, and the flowers were all in bloom, it was pretty cool.

Over the top Cookies

Look at this deliciousness, it is a double chocolate cookie with Andes mints and mint white chocolate drizzle. Yes I am in love. I worked a business open house last night and some random donor gave about a hundred of these to the client, and she graciously asked if I would like one. Um cookies for a prego? yes please. I chose the toffee chocolate chip with toasted coconut - to die for. So clearly food takes up a lot of my thought process, but I wanted to give a particular shout out to there goodness. They are a local company located in the South Towne Mall - and yes they do gift baskets, ( i just need a worthy recipient). http://www.overthetopcookies.com/ Check them out here. hmmm.

Awesome Grandpa

I had to post this picture of my father, not sure if I should, if it disrespects him or my late grandmother, but I have never laughed harder at my father. My maternal grandmother passed away in January and she was a horrible pack rat. She kept everything, and she loved her glamour and glitz. So although it was a very sad touching weekend of her funeral, we did spend a night or two going through her things, trying on her fur coats and just laughing at all the memories we had of her. The best part is my father doing his "pimp" imitation, language and all. I cried from laughing so hard, my father is usually a little reserved, so I really needed to remember this photo.