Holy weekend

Oh man - this title "holy weekend" has dual meanings as I look back on all the fun we had.  And let me tell you - driving home on Sunday night from the Carter fun...I looked to Jimmy and told him I was actually excited to go back to work today...mainly because I would have a chance to actually sit down.  Because after all the fun we had this weekend and the lack of sitting I did, this pregnant mama was ready to SIT!  I give props to those pregnant mom's with toddlers to chase around 24/7 because man - it's not only exhausting but it hurts!  My body needed a break!

So enough of that - onto the weekend in pictures!

Well - Charlie and I started our weekend early and both had Friday off.  Charlie for "spring break" and me because the markets were closed on Good Friday.  So we were up early and ran a bunch of errands in the morning - car registration, Hy-Vee, Price Chopper, then the Great Mall for some indoor fun on a somewhat chilly morning and some Easter/family picture clothes shopping.

This kid did not want to leave the play area at the mall (pretty much the only cool thing there besides Carter's) at all.  He was quite content on this structure (evidenced by the fact that we had a complete meltdown in Carter's and got no shopping accomplished).

After nap, Charlie went to hang with Nana while I ran some solo errands shopping for baby girl's nursery and getting a few last minute things for this guy's 30th birthday party.  Really Abby, Dave's girlfriend that I was co-hosting the party with, did most of the work with the awesome balloons and reserving the space.  But it was a GREAT night celebrating 30 years of Jimmy and Dave.  Do you like his "vintage 1984" shirt I got him (and Dave)?  

PS this was the only picture I took of the night - I'm not sure why, but I realized I had ZERO pictures of all the awesome friends and family that came by at about 10:30PM.  By that point I had finally stuck my pregnant butt to a bar stool and table and was being the sober judgy person in the bar (I'll admit it, but it's hard not to when you've pretty much been that permanent sober person for 2.5 years...).  At 11:30 when Dave was taken out by his parents (he had a GOOD time) and Jimmy said it was his last beer - I couldn't be more excited to get in the car and go home.  And stop at Taco Bell on the way.  Duh.

And this is what we did in the morning (sans child) to help cure his hangover.  Which was even worse because he gave up alcohol for lent and had not had a single drink in 38 days.  For once, I was a little sympathetic to his hangover!  Just this once though - you only turn 30 once!

After we all took a nap (yeah!), we headed to our church for some Easter fun.  They had tons of activities and while some were geared towards a little older kids, Charlie sure did enjoy the ones that he could do.  He didn't quite get the Easter egg hunt at first or like the Easter bunny.  But then we couldn't pull him away from the guy later on.  He LOVED the bubble machine so much and liked the baby chicks (they were so cute!).  However, we need to work on our family photo booth skills.  Well - Charlie needs to perfect his poses!!

After a wonderful Easter service and sermon to remind us Christians of what this holiday is really about and how Jesus died and rose again, we headed home and straight to bed.  But the day couldn't have been more fun and beautiful weather!

Then the next day came and it might have been even better if that is possible!  Since we went to church on Saturday night, we didn't have to rush around that morning.  However, Charlie was NOT in the best mood and seriously just cried for 15 minutes straight for no reason.  So eventually, the Easter bunny debuted his small basket he brought Charlie.

And Charlie loved it!  He immediately loved the Elmo snack container - but 

thought the golf ball was to shoot in the basket.  Eventually he just started swinging the clubs all over to hit things - sometimes the golf balls.  Watch out little sister.

 

Then I made my contribution to the Stephens' family Easter lunch - which was this cheese ball shaped like a carrot.  I made one for the Carter family too and it was a hit!

After a seriously delicious lunch with my mom's side of the family (oh my gosh, turkey, smoked ham, cheesey potatoes, green bean casserole, pea salad, apricot jello and pie...heaven), Charlie took a nap and I sat and chatted with my grandmother and mom and the boys all napped on the couch.  Typical!

Then it was off to Easter number two at the Carter family house!  And it was a full house!!  Minus a couple of cute girls that weren't able to make it and Bobby and Hillary that were out of town - everyone else was there plus Jimmy's cousin, wife and two kids I had never met.  

As usual, it was an afternoon full of family fun enjoying the beautiful weather and stuffing ourselves. An Easter egg hunt, coloring with chalk, playing baseball and dancing outside.  Yep, all in a day's work as a Carter cousin!

Here was Charlie eating away with two of his older boy cousins.

And the Easter egg hunt chaos - Charlie didn't quite understand at first and wanted to pick up everyone else's eggs!

Then just went for the basketball.

After cousin Kenlie volunteered to help, it was a little easier!

Everyone emptying their eggs to find the candy!

Then we ended the egg hunt with tons of dessert and Charlie finally got to use one of the big kid water bottles that he was crying out earlier (he stole Norah's since she wasn't there!).  Cousin Will, Kenlie and Uncle Mike also enjoyed the dessert!

And then weekend ended with confetti in our hair, a sweaty little boy and quite the sugar high swagger going on.  Yep, he had a great weekend celebrating this joyous occasion with his family!

As exhausting as it was and the fact that Jimmy and I hopped into bed after we put Charlie down, we wouldn't have changed one thing.  We were happy to finally have our normal kid back and see signs of his week long sickness and week long recovery go away!!  What a fun holiday and a beautiful weekend in Kansas City.

April is a good month for the Carter family and next weekend will kick off with even more fun when we get to see baby girl up close and personal in 3D!!  Can't wait!

Hope you and yours had a very happy Easter as well!