Birthday party & Easter

Yesterday we had our family Easter celebration and combined it with a birthday party for Sam.  We had a mini egg hunt on Saturday morning with Uncle Mike, Aunt Elaine, Tori and Mary Faith.  Elaine put several of the kids' snack items inside the eggs and each kid got one chocolate bunny in an egg.  Previously we have always had the kids hunt empty eggs.  We even took them to a city hunt and I emptied the candy when they weren't looking so they still had no idea there could be something in the eggs.

So we had the kids run around and hunt eggs and then we brought them inside and sat them down.  I had the kids open the eggs and Sam's reaction was priceless.  His eyes got wide and he said "snacks!" and then poured them into his mouth.  He was so excited he just kept opening eggs and gobbling up whatever he found.

When I got him up from nap he asked me if Toria was still here.  I told him that she was and then I named all of the other people who had showed up and I told him that they were here for him.  That everyone was here because it was time for his birthday party.  The boy was beside himself.  I told him that he would get presents and he said yay and I said a birthday cup-a-cake (cupcake) and he was so excited.  He said "lots of presents?" and I said yes and he said "lots of cupacakes?" and I said no way buddy - just one.

He was so happy to see everyone and he was running around saying hi.  He saw his table of presents and was so happy.  I had him sit in his little Mickey Mouse chair and he would go to the table get a gift, take it back to his chair and then open it.  He did so great and did it by himself, handing me the trash each time.  He got so many great gifts that he has been playing with non-stop since.  We gave him part of his gifts so that we could give him some on his actual birthday.  He is now sleeping with his new Buzz Lightyear stuffed toy and his Tonka truck blanket that we gave him and he loves the helicopter Megan gave him.  He is even repeatedly looking at the greeting cards people gave him.

After his party we had the big egg hunt and it was a little rough going for a while.  Every time he picked up an egg he would open it before putting it in his bucket and he was so disappointed that they were all empty.  We didn't put any snacks in them and the boy was feeling ripped off.  He did get over it and hunted like a champ.