Hoppy Easter!

***I'm mega-behind on posts, so get ready for lots of birthday photos coming up!***

Before we get to that, let's talk about Easter. This was actually Nolan's second Easter (even though he wasn't 1 yet) since Easter was early this year! Nolan was tiny - less than a week old last Easter. Talk about a what a difference a year makes...

Nolan - Easter 2012

Nolan - Easter 2013

It was quite the adventure to get a photo with the Easter bunny this year. Joe had Good Friday off, and I took off so the plan was to get a photo that day. We first stopped to visit my friend Faryn and her daughter Bella who were visiting from NC - it was our first time meeting Bella, who was almost 3 months old. Faryn and I were hockey teammates at Penn State, then Faryn moved down to NC while we lived there, and now I live 5 minutes away from her mom!

Faryn and Bella and Nolan and I.

Playing or picking her nose?

Interacting. Hoping Nolan doesn't punch her in the face!

What a difference 9 months make!

After our visit, we headed over to the mall for Easter bunny photo attempt #1. Nolan was due for a nap, so I waited in the car with him while Joe scoped out the set-up. He came back with 2 bit of information - #1 The Easter bunny was brown and not traditional looking, #2 There was a massive line. Since Nolan was still sleeping, we decided to drive over to our local farm (featured in this post back in the fall) where they had hay rides to the bunny's house. When we got there, we saw yet another massive line, and the windy day made it a bit chilly for a hay ride, so we explored the farms instead, showed Nolan the animals and headed back home to prepare for our trip to NJ. 

We were determined to get that Easter bunny photo though so we got up early on Saturday morning to get to the mall right when it opened and only had a short wait to get our photo. I'm glad we went - Nolan again was super calm when other babies were completely losing it around the bunny, and our bunny looked pretty comedic with his "scholarly" look :)

On Easter morning, Nolan woke up to 2 baskets (one from us and one from my parents).

Happy Easter little guy!

Are you ready for your Easter baskets?

The Easter bunny came to visit!

The destruction begins!

Easter hat from Nonna and Grandpa

It lasted 2 seconds

The chunky Melissa and Doug puzzle was a hit! 

Nolan liked using the puzzle pieces as cymbols

One happy kid!

Even though it is sad to be done with all of Nolan's "first" holidays, as he gets older the holidays are getting more fun! He is so much more interactive now and you can see the joy and emotion in his face as he experiences these fun events. Looking forward to his year of "seconds!"