The Richardsons: Easter 2014

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! It was really a welcome relief from the week too, since Paul had decided that was the time to break into the "Terrible Twos". I think new 2-year-olds must get a memo or something, telling them now is the time to strike! It was a rough week. I felt like I must be failing as a mom to suddenly have such a terrible kid! He was spilling, fighting every diaper/clothing change/car seat buckle in, terrorizing the cats, hitting and throwing and, yikes, I was getting stressed out. Eventually I figured out that reading books to him during his tantrums helped calm him down to his usual agreeable self. We still have moments where his strong will shows through, but he has seemingly moved past this need to fight everything, and we are all much happier for it! After talking to other moms of toddlers, I think this phase was just a normal developmental stage.

Anyways, the point is, Easter was a wonderful time for us! It was Paul's third Easter, and we were so excited for him to participate in Easter egg hunts and to get his basket from the Easter Bunny.

We kicked off the weekend with an indoor egg hunt at the Kroc Center. It was held in a huge room with lots of mats and exercise stuff set up as obstacles and hiding places. There were eggs EVERYWHERE. It was not much of a "hunt" but perfect for his age group.

Ready to hunt!

Eggs everywhere!

Look how full his basket is here.

Do you have your eggs in a row? Paul does.

Paul shared some eggs with this little girl, although she already had plenty.

Paul really wanted to take a picture with the Kroc's mascot, but was pretty scared when it came time for him to go up. He still talks about taking a picture with the "gator" when we walk by the courtyard.

After our successful morning at the Kroc, we decided to head over for the egg hunt and festival at Shelby Farms. This hunt had so many more people! It was chaotic. And there were parents everywhere. We just let him do his own thing and followed behind. He was a pro, even though a few times he was blocked by some parents hunting for their kids. (I guess I feel like the point is the hunting, probably since we don't let him eat the candy anyway, so why should it matter if he has one or 12?)

Paul charging into the fray.

He did pretty good out there.

Showing us his eggs.

After the hunt we walked over to another area for the Earth Day Festival.

Paul rode a pony for several laps! I'm not sure how long they would have let him go. He went from loving it to "all done" and trying to get off on his own. Good thing I walked next to him.

Paul chose this day to be pretty timid. I took him into the petting zoo, but he was nervous to be in there with all the animals and didn't actually pet anything. I did though!

This hog was pretty cool. I forgot he was behind me and bumped into him, but he didn't seem to notice.

Paul may have pet the bunny. Maybe.

This one is for Papa.

We stumbled upon a Native American dance group, which Paul loved! He was mesmerized by the dancing and the drums. We watched them for a while.

It was a pretty hot day, so we had to try some popsicles. I got one strawberry and one chocolate sea salt. The chocolate was amazing! Paul loved them both! And got them all over himself, naturally.

Classic chocolate beard.

After an amazing day, we still weren't done! That night we went to our second baseball game with our friends. But since I already posted those pics in a separate post, I won't do it again here. Needless to say it was a long day! But every minute was well spent!

The next morning was Easter Sunday! The Easter Bunny came to visit Paul!