Easter Egg Hunt

Spring is my favorite time of year.  Not only do I love the weather and added daylight, but the blossoms and colors are everywhere.  We have an apple tree in bloom, a flowering pear tree, bushes with pink flowers and bushes with big white flowers.  I smile everytime I walk outside.

And then there is the meaning behind Easter.  The significance of the life of our Savior who completed his mission so we can have the opportunity to be together forever as families.  The meaning is more profound to me this year as Eliza is ours eternally.

And then there is the chocolate!  Nicholas came home the other day with a HUGE bag of peanut butter eggs for me.  He knows how to get my heart!  I won't tell you how long before the entire bag was gone.

And then there are Easter Egg Hunts.  A friend in our Ward planned an Egg Hunt for playgroup the other day.  This is Eliza's first Egg Hunt.  She was excited to have her little basket.

Here we are about to head out with some sunglasses from Grandma Empey.

Silly little Z!

 While we waited for the event to start there was sidewalk chalk and bubbles to keep the kids entertained.

 Then it was time to go in.  I love how Eliza watches what is going on before she goes in.  Very much like her Dad, she has to make sure she knows what to do before she participates!  But once she knows, there is no stopping her.

I showed her an egg and she looked at it for a bit, then you could see that she realized what was going on:  "I have a basket, there is an egg.  I can put that egg in my basket."

 This is my favorite, she has her hand on one egg while she is eyeing where to get the next one!

 Go get 'em Z!

 She couldn't figure out how to climb up the ladder at first, so she problem solved and showed once again how smart she is.

 That will work!  Soon after she figured out how to climb up without the chair, but I thought she was so smart looking around for what she could use to get to her goal.  And she hardly let any other kids up before she got all the eggs up there!

She took it so seriously, like it was a job to get done!

Okay, so there was a bit of play too!  But how else should you get down?

 "My eggs!"

 "No problem."

When Dad came home she found her basket (which was stored up high enough I thought she couldn't get it, I was wrong!) and made sure she shared everything.  We have discovered she definately does not like jelly beans.  I think for our Easter Egg hunt we will fill them with fruit gummies and m&m's.  Those are her favorites.

She got enough sugar in her before dinner that she got silly.

 And had to do a sommersault.

 Then she came into the kitchen with this on her nose!  I laughed so hard and grabbed the camera. 

Later that night as Nicholas and I were sitting down with her she wanted to watch videos of herself (a favorite past time).  One of the videos was of her dancing to music.  She jumped up and asked (demanded) music for dancing.  So we turned on some music and followed Eliza's around the floor as she danced her little heart out.  It's moments like that I want to hold in my heart forever.  It felt so much like everything I always thought life would be like as a wife and mother.  I love my little family.