Weekend Wrap-Up | Version 04.14.20 | A Quarantine Easter

You know what’s funny (in a sad-sort-of-way)? The last time I blogged an “Easter Wrap-Up”, was 2 years ago – in 2018. In that post, I wrote: “I can’t wait until next year when Alethea & Braelynn can hunt eggs together!” Little did I know – that Easter 2019 would be shrouded in sickness, and even though we would have an Easter egg hunt with everyone – it wouldn’t take place until weeks after Easter had “officially” passed.

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to a “normal” Easter in 2020. And then, COVID-19 rocked our world & spun everything into chaos. So, now I’m sitting here, looking forward to a “normal” Easter in 2021.

We celebrated Easter Sunday just 2 days ago (and yet somehow it feels like ages ago already – what is it about quarantine life that makes every day so incredibly long). It was a quiet day centered completely around home. With the current “stay-at-home” orders in place, there was no church service to attend, no family dinner to go to, and no Easter egg hunts to put on for the kids. It was just the 4 of us.

We really wanted the day to be special though.
Braelynn is old enough to know what Easter is & we didn’t want us, having to stay home, to dampen her excitement. Thankfully, I already had all of the items for both Braelynn & Leander’s Easter baskets put away & we made the day as special & “normal” as we could – complete with hiding the kids’ Easter baskets, watching church via YouTube, hunting for Easter eggs in the backyard, and a big special Easter dinner.

On Sunday night as we were putting the kids to bed, Braelynn declared it the “best Easter ever”, so I think we succeeded at making the day special – even if deep down, we were missing all the pieces of “normal” Easter.

If there are any good things to come out of this quarantine-time, one of those things is that we’ve been FaceTiming with Nana & Papa a lot more! They mailed the kids a few little Easter presents, so we FaceTimed them so they could watch Braelynn & Leander open their gifts.

Thankfully, yesterday was a beautiful, warm spring day. It actually caught us completely by surprise with just how warm it was! I am so thankful for it though – we spent a good chunk of the day outside and I’m so glad we did because both yesterday & today have been rainy & cold – and the rest of the week looks to bring more of the same.

We hid 50 Easter eggs filled with candy, stickers, mini-toy animals, and coins for Braelynn & Leander to find. Braelynn of course ran out of the house & jumped straight into finding eggs like it was her job. It took Leander a little coaching, but eventually he figured it out too – he mostly just like shaking the eggs & then throwing them on the ground so they would crack open.

After some quiet time inside, we all headed back outside – Braelynn was desperate to play with this chalk-paint that was in her Easter basket & it was quite messy (to say the least).

Of course, what Easter wrap-up would be complete without “official” Easter portraits? Earlier in the week, when we looked at the weather, it was predicted that we would have rain on Easter Sunday. So, on Tuesday evening, we dressed the kids up in their Easter finery & took them outside for some official photos.

Braelynn is actually wearing a very special dress – it’s one of the flower girl dresses from my parent’s wedding! I’m so thankful that it fit her so perfectly in this season!

And yes, both kids are barefoot! I haven’t bought Braelynn spring/summer shoes yet (and with everything shut down, there was no running to the store before we took these photos). And Leander’s shoes, that I bought him to wear when we went to American Dream just a few weeks ago, are now officially too small. Kids grow way too fast!

Oh & just in case you thought Braelynn & Leander were perfect little angels when it comes to having their photos taken – here’s a little dose of “reality” for you. There’s nothing a good bribe & some spinning in circles can’t take care of.