This proved to be a little harder than we thought it'd be, though. See, my middle sister, Christine, decided to surprise my family and flew in from Utah. We rolled into town from our long drive home from Cali just about 6 hours before Christine landed at PDX. Unfortunately, we had a heck of a time convincing my Mom and Lizzy to have Easter up here - even after my Dad was on board and knew the surprise!! He finally helped me convince them which meant running around making Easter preparations Saturday afternoon - including planning for, shopping for and preparing Easter dinner. A first for me and Sean... Yikes! But Christine went shopping with me and Sean and Ethan stayed home to pick-up around the house.
Of course, a surprise as awesome as an unexpected family member being around for a holiday requires an equally awesome reveal. Sean, Christine and I threw around a couple of ideas and finally decided on a glow-in-the dark egg hunt for Lizzy. {Side note: Night-time/glow-in-the-dark egg hunt will most likely become a new tradition. Very cool. We bought a 15-pack of glow bracelets for a $1 and put them in the eggs. With no porch light our backyard is very dark and made for great egg-hiding conditions. I highly recommend it - especially for older kids.}
Anyway.
Christine sat out in our yard in a black jacket and you couldn't even see her. I recorded the whole thing (after realizing the SD card wasn't in the camera!) and it was definitely a surprise!
Immediately after the reveal.
Toftdahl sisters and parents reunited!As you might guess, adding four extra people to our two-bedroom place made for interesting sleeping arrangements. Ethan slept on his old crib mattress in our room. My mom got Ethan's twin bed. My dad got the couch (which is very comfy) and my sisters shared a queen-size air mattress we borrowed from some friends.
Church was at 9am and Ethan wore a purple tie that my friend Jenn had made that matched the Easter skirts of Sarah and Maddy - two of Ethan's friends. We tried for a good Easter Sunday shot, but this was the best I got - a little goofy and shadows on his face.
The Easter bunny came by sometime in the early afternoon - he knew we had church so he could be a little late. Here's Ethan searching for his basket outside {in our jungle of a backyard - it was finally mowed this week thanks to our landlord} and toward the end he thinks he hears some hopping. So cute!
We try to keep Easter baskets pretty simple and go with the guidelines: something he wants (Cars movie cars), something he needs (special batteries for an early birthday toy from Nana and Papa), something to wear (new shirt and he especially needed new shorts), something to read (Max & Ruby book) and a treat (his favorite candy is licorice plus one Easter-themed candy). I think I spent about $25 for everything in the basket and $15 was for clothes that I would have given him anyway because he outgrow most of his shorts from last year.
Dinner was a group effort between my dad, Sean, Christine and I. Sean did the ham (complete with cola/grape juice/pineapple juice glaze), Christine made broccoli casserole, I made twice-baked potatoes and this yummy "festive" salad with fresh-made poppyseed dressing. We also had rolls, though we took the easy route with those and got the Rhodes frozen dinner rolls. My dad did the dishes, cleaned the counters and took out the trash.
After dinner Ethan got to open some early birthday presents from my parents, Toftdahl grandparents and Christine. And also a bag of goodies for Easter from Nana and Papa. Pictures to come.
We said goodbye to my family and then Ethan got to have an evening egg hunt by himself.
Church was at 9am and Ethan wore a purple tie that my friend Jenn had made that matched the Easter skirts of Sarah and Maddy - two of Ethan's friends. We tried for a good Easter Sunday shot, but this was the best I got - a little goofy and shadows on his face.
The Easter bunny came by sometime in the early afternoon - he knew we had church so he could be a little late. Here's Ethan searching for his basket outside {in our jungle of a backyard - it was finally mowed this week thanks to our landlord} and toward the end he thinks he hears some hopping. So cute!
We try to keep Easter baskets pretty simple and go with the guidelines: something he wants (Cars movie cars), something he needs (special batteries for an early birthday toy from Nana and Papa), something to wear (new shirt and he especially needed new shorts), something to read (Max & Ruby book) and a treat (his favorite candy is licorice plus one Easter-themed candy). I think I spent about $25 for everything in the basket and $15 was for clothes that I would have given him anyway because he outgrow most of his shorts from last year.Dinner was a group effort between my dad, Sean, Christine and I. Sean did the ham (complete with cola/grape juice/pineapple juice glaze), Christine made broccoli casserole, I made twice-baked potatoes and this yummy "festive" salad with fresh-made poppyseed dressing. We also had rolls, though we took the easy route with those and got the Rhodes frozen dinner rolls. My dad did the dishes, cleaned the counters and took out the trash.
After dinner Ethan got to open some early birthday presents from my parents, Toftdahl grandparents and Christine. And also a bag of goodies for Easter from Nana and Papa. Pictures to come.
We said goodbye to my family and then Ethan got to have an evening egg hunt by himself.
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