A Sucker for Tradition

Another Easter has come and gone. The years are going by too fast for me. It is true that the older you get, the quicker the time goes. As you'll quickly see from this post, I have a hard time letting go of the past. I am a sentimental person and I love traditions. I love the ages my kids are now, but sometimes I miss life as it was when they were small. Every Easter I make a jelly bean trail leading from their bedrooms to their Easter baskets. Even though they no longer believe in the Easter Bunny (duh!), there were once again jelly beans on the floor at our house Easter morning. Ross spent the night off Saturday night, so his trail led from the door coming in the house to this bucket. He didn't even try to hide his delight over it. It was awesome.

I want to share with y'all some of my favorite memories from the day. Really and truly, though, I could've added a lot more pictures. It was a good day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Perfect really. This is my dad and Ross and Cam at the river at my aunt Barbo's. Every time I see my daddy and my boys together, it is a special memory for me.

I think this picture catches the devilishness and playfulness of these two. They can fight like crazy, and they truly define the old saying "as close as brothers".

Here's what the two of them were up to. Someone actually found the egg stuffed in the birdhouse. No small feat, considering the egg hunters were under five feet tall.

This is my cousin Jessica's little girl. Her name is Madison and I believe she is five. She was hunting eggs, but rather than running and picking up the eggs and putting them in her bucket, she was taking the time to look at each egg. When she picked up this pink, glittery egg, it thrilled her because it was one that she had dyed herself!

After spending a few hours at Barbo's, eating too much good food, we went over to my mom and dad's. We always have another egg hunt over there. EVERYONE hunts eggs. Well, that is every grandkid. Including Ross, who is 20-and-a-half.

And Cam, who is 16-and-a-half. Ross was so funny because after it was all over and they were opening their plastic eggs checking out their loot, he said I still have my egg hunting skills. I guess it's kinda like riding a bicycle. Even Ross and Cam had fun hunting the eggs. We hid four gold eggs. This picture is of Eli finding the last golden egg. The funny thing is that Eli was more interested in playing with the ceramic snail that decorates mom and dad's pond than he was of any old golden egg.

But we all wanted Eli to find one of the golden eggs, because let's face it, almost-five-year-olds make great pictures. So here's a picture of the winners of the golden eggs. Ross, Cam, Eli and Alayna found the golden eggs.

And as tradition dictates, here's a picture of the losers putting on their sad faces for the photographer. Joseph, Ethan and Reid were the unlucky ones this year.

This last picture is of all the kids together. Holy cow, have they grown from last year.

Do y'all think they'll mind when they're in their 30s and 40s and their crazy Aunt Kelly wants them to hunt eggs and make their picture with the golden egg? I hope not because I'm a sucker for tradition. That is for sure.