Henry's 1st Holiday.... Easter!

I grew up with a mom that worked at Hallmark for the majority of my childhood. That means that she had access to lots of party gear, decorations and discounts for things from the Hallmark store like Christmas ornaments. This only helped fuel her fire for holidays. She LOVES them and she goes all out. Traditions are the name of her game and every single holiday was filled with them. She had decorations at our house for holidays like Valentines day, Birthdays, Halloween etc. It made our childhood magical to have fun decorations around and do fun things to celebrate each one. Easter was filled with traditions most people celebrate such as dying eggs, eating candy, the Easter bunny, Sunday morning church in fancy dresses and plastic white Easter hats and shiny white mary jane shoes with white tights, Easter baskets filled with treats and plastic colorful eggs and Easter grass. One year she got us 2 ducklings to raise and another year she got us a bunny. All out I tell you! All out. She wanted to make sure our childhood was memorable and fun for us and holidays are the perfect outlet.

With a newborn baby at home you can imagine that we are very tired and just working on getting the hang of this new parent thing. As Easter approached I started seeing my friend's kids on facebook with the Easter Bunny. Oh shit! I forgot I have a baby now and just because he is little doesn't mean that we get to skip a holiday. The traditions start now. I have pictures of me at my first Easter and first Christmas and it is so fun to see how I changed each year and to remember the fun my mom made for me. So I had to find an Easter Bunny, an outfit and things to fill a basket. This is Henry's Easter outfit, he hated his bowtie the poor little guy but it was hilarious and so cute on him.

We took him to see the bunny at Bass Pro because you get a free picture (cheap I know but I am not paying $21 minimum to take him to Oak Park Mall, that is ridiculous). This is the picture Taylor got with his phone until I take the time to scan the real one in.

Henry's first trip to Target was to get him some things for his Easter basket. I got some plastic colorful eggs, candy (that happens to be mommy and daddy's favorite). A few Easter books (The story of Easter and Peter Rabbit), a toy car, a ball, a duckling rattle that says "My first Easter", a baby stuffed bunny, some bunny ears and some teething keys. How much stuff does a newborn need for Easter? I'm not sure but I wanted it to be fun for us to look back at later.

Here is Henry's Basket

And him in his Easter outfit next to his basket that is bigger than he is. 

We spent the weekend mostly with my family. My sister was in town from college and Taylor's parents don't do much for Easter typically.

Erika brought home her friend from school that is a foreign exchange student from Korea. Her name is Jerry (like Tom and Jerry she said) and Erika invited her home with her because she obviously has no family in the U.S. and everyone else went home from school for the weekend and she didn't want Jerry to be alone. Plus she thought it would be fun to celebrate Easter with her.

Here are the girls with Henry and Kasey. 

Erika holding Kasey. and below Taylor holding Cora. 

 Taylor holds Cora like this on a nightly basis. They usually fall asleep together like that.

We dyed eggs like we usually do. We had 12 colors this year which was fun to make so many different shades. We taught Jerry (and sleeping Henry) about Easter and the bunny and why we dye eggs.

Jerry made prettier eggs than Erika and myself and this was her first time....emmmbarassing. This is the Korean flag and Erika's name in Korean.

I made the zebra and Henry eggs

Henry slept the whole time on Papa's lap.

This is Henry's KSU polo that grandma Smith got him. So cute!! Even with his little old man jeans with the elastic waist. I think he looks like a grandpa here with his receding hairline, his polo and his jeans. I could just eat him up.

 Sunday morning we got up and got donuts and went to church as a family for the first time.

Henry slept through the entire service, I was shocked because our worship band and the organ that played were really really loud, plus people clapped and we listened to the sermon. He could care less.

 Our first family holiday.

My mom got Henry an easter basket too. It had a different version of The story of Easter, mommy and daddy's favorite candy, new shoes, new baby sunglasses, a window shade, some diaper baggies for stinky diapers and a stuffed ducky that says "Baby's 1st Easter".

Henry wasn't the only one who got a basket, my mom got them for me, Taylor, Jerry, Erika and Henry. All out.

Henry sportin his new shades.

Checkin out his pretty AuntE.

Giving the peace sign for his picture like Jerry taught him. He did this on his own.

YUM!

G.G. (great grandma) snuggling her new baby!

Overall his first Easter was so much fun! We had a blast and I hope Henry can have these pictures and memories forever and that we can only continue to celebrate in fun ways to make his childhood special. Happy Easter Henry!