Our flight from Nebraska arrived into Minneapolis just a few hours ago and now Tory's snuggled into her bed for a nice afternoon nap while I take advantage of a little downtime myself. We had a whirlwind weekend celebrating Easter with my family.
Whew!
On Friday afternoon, Andi, Tory and I arrived at my parent's house around 5pm. Tory was a little gem on the plane ride there - thank goodness for the iPad! Once at my parents, we spent the early part of the evening catching up over pizza before heading to the Good Friday service at church. I twisted Andi's arm to stay at home with Tory since the service started at 8pm and Tory was beyond exhausted from an afternoon of travel and no nap. It felt like a vacation to be at church and not wrestling a squirmy toddler the entire time!
On Saturday, we hurried around town to accomplish all the things on my "must-do" list. That's the problem with being home for such a short time frame - there's always so many people to see and things to do before our visit is over. Due to some family circumstances, my sister and brother-in-law were caring for my brother-in-law's niece and nephews over the weekend so I made a mad dash to Wal-Mart to purchase Easter gifts for the new little kids. We also visited my great-grandma who's recently moved into a nursing home. The nursing home had an indoor Easter egg hunt for kids and a visit from the Easter Bunny so it was perfect timing. Unfortunately, as soon as Tory caught sight of the Easter Bunny, she cried inconsolably for the first fifteen minutes of our visit. She finally calmed down enough to hunt a few eggs after the Easter Bunny was out of sight.
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| Hunting eggs with dad at the nursing home |
Afterwards, we went back to my parent's house and played Easter egg hunt in their backyard. The weather was 70 and warm - it felt so good to be outside without coats and boots. My body definitely missed the sunshine. Tory wasn't quite sure what to think about being outside at first. She was a little apprehensive to walk in the crunchy grass (I guess it has been six months since she's seen any)! Every time she'd fall down in the grass, she'd say "uh oh! uh oh!" in a panic until someone helped her to her feet. There was no way she was going to put her bare hands down on the pokey grass.
Later, my sister Ashley brought her family over for dinner. My dad grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and catching up. Tory had a fun time playing with her cousins, as usual. Neeley (three days shy of 8 months) is nearly the size of Tory these days. The girls are going to be great friends as they grow up together. They kept planting kisses on one another. Tory just can't get enough of her.
After Tory went to sleep, Andi and I went to my best friend Ashley's parent's house to visit her and Ashley and her husband for a bit. It's been a few months since we've seen them and it was wonderful to snuggle their baby boy Easton.
Unfortunately later in the evening, Tory became quite the little pistol at 11:00pm. She woke up screaming and refused to go back to sleep. I spent the next three hours standing over her pack-n-play rubbing her back, laying with her in our bed and walking around with her in the living room with no success in calming her down. Finally at 2:30am, Andi and I put her in the car and drove around for a half hour until she finally stopped crying. We kept the entire house up until 3:00am which made getting up for the 6:30am sunrise Easter service at church a bit miserable. I was determined not to let Tory's bad night ruin our Easter, so we dragged ourselves out of bed and made it to church on time. I have no idea what was wrong with her during the night other than maybe she was scared? She definitely wasn't sick or teething. Who knows.
The Easter Bunny delivered his basket for Tory while we were at church on Sunday morning. Andi and I were too sleep-deprived to even think about the Easter Bunny before church after only getting two hours of sleep the night before.
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| Opening her Easter basket |
The Easter Bunny brought Tory a coloring book and crayon pouch, a potty time book and training pants, flip flops, a new summertime bunny outfit, a sippy cup, hair bows and a new Easter basket with her name on it. Nana and Papa also spoiled Tory with an Easter bag full of goodies.
My mom bought all her grand-daughters matching Easter outfits so we had to capture a photo of them all together.
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| Brooke (5 1/2 years), Neeley (7 months) and Tory (19 months) |
Looks like a fun exhausting weekend! Everyone looks adorable and I especially love your Easter dress and purple jeans!
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