Easter Egg Hunts & Our Easter Sunday

We filled our Easter to-do list with a few Easter Egg Hunts the two weekends before Easter Sunday.  The first was held at Tivoli Village, and was a huge Spring festival put on by 98.5, with games, music, the Easter Bunny, a petting zoo of bunnies, ducks, and chickens, a mini photoshoot setup, and of course the huge Easter Egg Hunt in the square.  There were separate designated times for different age groups, and you had to register in person a few hours prior.  I knew it would most likely be pretty busy, so we got down there decently early to get our spot in line.  Luckily, we showed up when we did, because we barely made the first heat (which was the earliest and the only one that would work with Nolan's nap time), and the line after we got in it turned craaaazy long, so we hit the timing just right.  Since our egg hunt wasn't until 12, we had at least an hour and a half to spare, so we checked out some of the games and watched the bounce houses (Nolan is not a fan of actually going inside of them yet).  Nolan wanted his pictures taken with the Disney characters and could care less that they were Princesses, he was just excited to see people dressed up as something!  There was a kids musical band playing familiar songs to Nolan, so he plopped himself down on the curb and got a front row seat to all the jams.  He was super serious about it, and ever so slightly would pull a dance move off, but made sure no one was watching when he did so.  Hilarious.  

After spending some time watching the performers, we visited with the Easter Bunny when no one was around.  Nolan had been telling me all week before that the Easter Bunny was "scary"... but he also has labeled lots of things "scary" lately, so I figured we would see how he does when he sees the real deal.  He was all talk and absolutely adored running up to the Easter Bunny and giving him a big hug and high five (even though this particular Easter Bunny was extra creepy looking)!  We stopped for a quick snack, coffee and chocolate milk treat while we continued to wait for our Egg Hunt time, and then we made our way over to the petting zoo and photo area.  The line was pretty long, and we knew we probably wouldn't make it in time for our egg hunt if we stayed, so we abandoned our spot in line and head over to the hunting area a little early.  Good thing, because it was already packed!  We waited for a bit in line, and then it was time to grab the goodies!  They let everyone inside the square and had all the kids line up and wait on the border before diving in.  They counted down and then it was time to grab those eggs!  

Nolan was all business when it came to picking these eggs up and totally got the concept.  Once he felt he had enough, he sat himself down and went through his stash, only to find they were all empty! No worries, though... because we were about to trade them in for a nice stash of candy!  This was complete and utter excitement for Nolan and he couldn't believe all those eggs turned into candy just like that!  Of course he wanted to dig in, so we let him have a couple pieces while we made our way back into line to get our photos done and meet some of the animals.

The line wasn't too long, but just took forrrrevvvveerrrr to get through.  Luckily Nolan was distracted by visiting with the ducks, ducklings, baby chicks and bunnies, which were adorable.  The photoshoot was set up with different options, either getting photos professionally done or choosing to use the set provided and taking your own photos.  We chose to do our own, and I'm pretty pleased with how they came out!  Nolan absolutely adored the bunny and wanted to snuggle the heck out of him.  With lots of "gentle hands" warnings, he was super sweet to him and gave him lots of nice pets, hugs and kisses, even!

It was a super eventful morning and we actually had a really great time enjoying good weather and having an Easter themed day!  

The next Easter Egg Hunt was the day before Easter, and was just a low-key City of Henderson Egg Hunt that we also participated in last year.  This year, they held the egg hunt outside, with games and blow-ups in the gymnasium.  More games and food were outside, so it was more like a carnival.  When we arrived, we headed right up to the egg hunt and waited for it to begin.  Nolan knew exactly what to do and was ready to go, until we realized they didn't place enough eggs out in the beginning for all of the kids!  After about ten minutes of walking around, they finally put out new eggs and we got to hunting!  Periodically, they would walk by and throw more eggs out, so Nolan would mad dash to grab more, of which I limited him only one at a time since there were other kids looking for more, too.  We spent a good 30+ minutes gathering eggs, and then decided to call it a day and check out the games.  Nolan was excited to get to play different games, but was more excited when he got to win a prize every time!  We spent a little bit more time playing, but didn't get many pictures since I was solo and had to help him with most of the activities.  

It was another nice way to spend a morning outside enjoying the weather, and of course Nolan loved hunting for eggs and getting treats (sugar, sugar sugar!) inside!

On Easter Sunday, we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had arrived at our house, leaving his footprints behind as proof!  He also left two baskets on the table... one for Harley with a new food dish, and one with a bunch of goodies for Nolan!  We also noticed there were eggs scattered throughout the living and family rooms, so Nolan got right to it and hunted them out.  Once he found all of the hidden eggs, we sat down to see what the Easter Bunny left inside!  

Nolan was really interested in finding out what was inside his basket, so we moved on to that and found that the Easter Bunny had brought him a fun new Fingerprint Book for our Tot School adventures, more paints and painting supplies, some awesome Cookie Monster shoes, a new pair of sunglasses, some bath paint pens, a few more pieces of chocolate, and a couple other random small things!  He also brought Nolan one of his first games: Don't Spill the Beans!  We were super excited to open it up and play it as a family... but as we were setting it up, we realized they gave us a defective box with two of the same pieces to make the bucket.  Looks like the Easter Bunny should have checked into that before leaving it! Oops! :)

The rest of the morning, we hung out and took a quick trip to the park to get our energy out before lunch and nap time.  For dessert for lunch, Nolan got to go nuts on his chocolate bunny that the Easter Bunny left him... but instead of digging right in, he decided it needed hugs and kisses, first!  So sweet.  After about ten minutes of loving on the bunny, he decided it was time to enjoy.  Yum!

After nap time, we headed over to Grandma's house to enjoy Easter dinner with her and our good family friend, Brenda, who had been in town for the week visiting.  Nolan was spoiled with another Easter Basket from Grandma, and was super excited to see his fun treats and toys inside!  

We took some pictures of Nolan and his Easter swag as well as the family and the bump before enjoying a yummy dinner of ham, potatoes, pineapple jello salad green bean casserole, and awesome maple dumpling cake for dessert.  Our traditional Easter meal never fails and tasted extra yummy to this prego Mama, this year!  

We had a great Easter with lots of fun events and family time, and I'm so thankful we're able to make such great memories for Nolan!  I can only hope he loves it as much as we do!