Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter recap.

Easter 2011 will surely go into the history books. Yes it was Olive's first Easter but that's not necessarily the interesting part.

We decided not to travel home for Easter this year mostly because we didn't want to travel far with tiny Olive. To keep with the style of Thanksgiving 2010 (affectionately known as "Friendsgiving") we celebrated with our friends Brooke & Scott who also did not go home. The week prior to Easter our plans seemed somewhat up in the air.

Easter morning Tyler & I picked Brooke & Scott up at their house, a few blocks away. We drove downtown to Bethlehem Baptist for the 11:00 service. Tyler & I used go to Bethlehem pretty regularly but stopped sometime last year. Since then we haven't been able to find a church that we really want to go to but I suppose we haven't been trying too hard. When thinking of where to go I thought Bethlehem would be a nice choice since I'm familiar with it and it would be our first service with a baby. I like that you can sit outside the sanctuary in case of fussy babe - so that's where we sat. Olive had to go to the bathroom mid service and used the big person potty in the basement. Yay Olive! There were so many tiny babies around Olive's age. I had the thought to hang out there regularly so Olive could get some friends. Including this adorable kiddo sitting in front of us named Oliver. Unfortunately for most of the time Oliver sat near us Olive was outside with Tyler. I was hoping they'd become friends. :(

After church we stood outside while Scott networked. Scott likes to network. We debated where to go for food. Easter at IKEA? Would there be enough time? Is there somewhere closer? We drove the slow way looking for other spots to eat but, of course, everything was closed. We did stumble upon Fat Lorenzo's but we're all too slow at decision making and were soon on the highway headed to IKEA.

When we arrived we checked out the menu - it sounded wonderful so we stayed to eat! Easter at IKEA! An employee told us that if we bought or meals together and then spent at least $100 in the store our meals would be free! We accepted the challenge and proceeded to eat an amazing Easter meal. We, of course, had Swedish meatballs, gravy, and potatoes. We had a few deserts, we had cheese, we had crackers, we had salmon, shrimp, and more. It was wonderful! There wasn't much time for shopping before the store closed so we quickly browsed, grabbed what we needed, and were on our way. Olive got a tad fussy as she was hungry so we went to the car for a snack while the others checked out. I may have caused a scuffle between an older couple parked near us.. but I'm not sure. All I heard was "Jim! She's breastfeeding her baby... I don't know... I don't know.." I don't know.

We dropped off our friends and went home for a bit - Olive needed her diapers washed and we wanted to get a few chores done. After that we headed to Brooke & Scott's for Easter sushi. That's right - after a nice Easter late lunch at IKEA we had Easter sushi. :) This was my first experience making sushi and I had a great time. Olive seemed to enjoy herself as well.. and she used a big potty again. We headed home with a sleepy Olive and went to bed. It was indeed a wonderful Easter.

Here are some photos from the day... Scott had borrowed my camera Friday night so I wasn't quite prepared for photos until IKEA. Unfortunately I didn't get a nice shot of Olive in her Easter dress (which was actually an Easter gift from her NiNi opened the previous afternoon!). Scott, of course, took photos of the day as well so I'm eager to see if there is a nice one of Oliboo in there!

[slideshow]

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

This Easter joins the ranks of:
- Our first Thanksgiving, in 2006, when we were friends - hoping for a turkey dinner at Denny's we had to settle for chicken. We barely knew each other and both stayed in Chicago for Thanksgiving rather than traveling home.
- Our next Thanksgiving, in 2007, our first as a married couple, was spent in Uganda. Obviously they do not celebrate Thanksgiving there but we found ourselves at someone's home having a big chicken meal and joked about it being Thanksgiving. :)
- Thanksgiving 2010 - Friendsgiving. My first attempt at making almost everything that a holiday dinner entails and it all turned out and wasn't the least bit stressful.

5 comments:

  1. What a great day! I love Easter and its so fun to spend it with family!

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  2. Sounds like you had a Wonderfully Blessed Easter!! Your pictures are really good. Thanks for the nice comments that you left on my blog. I make my own laundry detergent also and I use the same recipe that you do. The only difference is my husband makes me a laundry bar that I grate and add to the borax and washing soda.

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  3. Olive is quite the potty princess! Your ikea Easter sounds lovely to me. I've actually never eaten there, but we're moving in May so maybe we'll be there anyway some time... I'll give it a try!

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  4. Isn't she? Oh you must eat at IKEA! The regular stuff gets a little boring after you've had it a few times but it's a really good deal. Fraser Bloomington is a few feet away. I used to go a lot before having Olive. :) Where are you moving to??

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  5. I really like your blog! I wish my husband would make me a laundry bar - wow! :)

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