From NC to PA...: Easter Day 2014

Finally finishing my Easter posts! I guess it was an eventful holiday this year. Poor Nolan was a bit under the weather on Fri/Sat before Easter with a fever, so we had to miss out on Seder dinner at my friend Faryn's dad's house on Saturday evening. We were definitely considering not making the trip to NJ this year for Easter, but Nolan's fever was gone on Sunday and he seemed to be feeling much better so we gave him the morning to rest at home before deciding last minute that we'd still drive to make the family get-together at my parent's house Saturday afternoon.

Nolan slept in again (I love that he often times sleeps until 10am on the weekends - I know I am a spoiled mommy, but he's got my genes :) so I waited patiently for him to wake up so we could show him his Easter basket! Most of the items were from Target's Easter section - bouncy balls/bubble whistle, stickers, goldfish, thomas "eggs" that i stuffed with fruit snacks, and goldfish. Aunt Mary Beth gave us some great Thomas coloring books for his birthday "on the side" (so Nolan hadn't seen them yet) so we stuffed those in there too for good measure.

Nolan's Easter basket!

Predictably, he was most excited about the bouncy balls! His favorite activity now is to stand at the bottom of the stairs and throw them up the stairs and watch them bounce down. Cheap and easy way to entertain!

Recently, Nolan has developed a dislike for being photographed by my DSLR camera and has started yelling "no pictures!" when I get it out (ahhh - he is way too young for this!) so I unfortunately didn't get any photos of him going through his Easter basket this year... but, you can take my word for it, he (mildly) enjoyed his basket. I think he prefers unwrapping presents more!

Nolan complaining about the camera on Easter morning! And yes, sometimes he randomly likes to wear hats :)

Since we were unsure of how Nolan felt, we had a pretty relaxed morning at home watching some cartoons and lounging around. I even snuck in one more photo of Nolan before he noticed I had my camera out again :)

Nolan watching Caillou and eating his "butter beegle" (peanut butter bagel)

I'm so glad Nolan felt better and that we could go to NJ for Easter. Nolan absolutely loved spending such a gorgeous day outside in my parent's big yard. Give him his soccer ball and he was in toddler heaven. Makes me yearn for a large yard for our next house... someday! It was really surreal watching my child run around the same grounds I did when I was a little one.

The backyard I grew up in. Lots of memories here.

So cozy.

Nolan quite literally jumping for joy!

Pure Happiness.

My parents host Easter every year for our extended family. We usually have anywhere from 40-60 people over - this year was on the "smaller" side. Luckily Nolan's cousin Logan, who is 1 year older, was there! There aren't too many kids in the family yet since I'm on the older side of my generation of cousins - I keep pressuring them all to have kids soon so we can fill up this yard with little ones :)

Nolan with his Nonna and a soccer ball - what else do you need?!

I love these two

One happy kid

Even though there were only 2 little kids, my parents still set up a little Easter egg hunt. Nolan knew just what to do from his previous experience, but his favorite part was definitely dumping the eggs out of his bucket (over and over again...)

A bucket full of eggs

There they go!

So much fun!

There were also the "classic" confetti eggs in attendance. I can see Nolan having a lot of fun with these in the next year or two...

Nonna getting "Egged"

I was taking advantage of the fact that Nolan was allowing me to take photos of him for once (he was too engrossed in being outdoors/everything going on), and got to take lots of photos of him playing with the eggs.

There's another one on the ground!

Showing off his found eggs

What's in here?

Sometimes he'd rather play soccer with the eggs :)

Wonderment.

Fun with Aunt Peggy. Maybe next year she'll dust off the old Easter Bunny costume if Nolan is up for it :)

Gosh, I love this kid.

Peekaboo with Pop Pop <3

Pop Pop is one of his favorite people. He always wants to be near him.

"Follow me!"

Found you!

This kid was worn out from all the outdoor play! By the time I wanted to get some group shots, it was too late. Poor guy was exhausted! You can take my word for it that there were other people at the party ;)