Easter 2009

aster 2009 was Riley's first Easter

and she was looking gorgeous in her new Easter dress

and matching bow this was her Easter basket from Grammy & Pepere

a bathing suit

some snacks

a little bunny friend

and some other goodies

look at those cheeks!

playing with Grammy!

we tried, in vain, to get some nice family shots

riley's still in the 'making the weird face' phase

so i guess that will be theme of this year's Easter photos

and the scrapbook pages that will inevitably follow

this shot, however, i LOVE

what a sweet family

all so amused and adoring of eachother

riley with mom, dad, grammy and pepere

as bubba would say "better hope her face doesn't freeze like that"

"i love my auntie jen"

{can't you tell?!}

jeff, melissa and riley headed out soon after to go to the Circus

meanwhile the rest of us geared up for the annual Easter Egg Hunt

care of Aunt Milly

we've been doing this as long as I can remember and its a wonderful Natale famile tradition

Aunt Milly inserts 4 hershey kisses and a crisp new $5 bill in each plastic Easter egg

they are hidden in the backyard at Debbie's house

and all the "kids" are unleashed to find their eggs

{we each get 4}

no one is quite sure who gets to participate and why

what qualifies you as "too old" or "ineligible?"

is it marriage? is it age? a combo of the two?

no one knows

but my older cousin nicole and her husband eligible this year, as was i... so along with the "younger kids" we headed out for the hunt. this year it was a backyard and garage search.

we all crept around

searching for our four

lisa and chris

me

Pat & Erin

Colleen, Pat & Joe

what I don't have pictures of is the ridiculousness that occurred in MY search for the eggs

i found none of them on my own.

{yes, you read that right}

i needed help finding each of them

one in paper towel packaging

one in a basket on a high shelf in the garage

one under a bucket

one on the inside of a ladder

the last of which i don't feel too badly about

almost everyone was searching at that point

and still no one could find it

apparently 28 is too old to do well at at egg-hunting

but similarly 50 something is probably too old for egg-hiding...

because an hour later those who hid the eggs couldn't remember where they put them

next year i'm recruiting riley to help me

i need some young eyes

and that youthful eagerness to be the first to find the eggs,

which, let's face it, are easier to find when you're more aggressive because you find

the ones within view ;)

here's this year's crowd gathered around Aunt Milly

after the egg hunt we squeezed in a celebration for the April Birthdays

Jack, Kara and Susan

Happy Birthday!!!