Happy Easter!

Today was a good day.  Probably really a great day.  It was a lot of work for me, but it was fun.  And everyone was (mostly) happen and having fun pretty much all day long.  That's a complete success in my book.

Last night after Jayden's nap we went down to the beach to meet one of my friends from work and her husband and son.  Her son just turned four, so he's got a year or so on Jayden but only maybe an inch in height!  Jayden also is not used to the beach and the ocean so he was not as excited about running into the water and chasing the waves.  He eventually caught on and had some fun running into the water and really fast out of it.  We then had lunch at a restaurant right on the beach, which was great.  It's a place that's completely kid-friendly but actually has grown-up food.  The boys had burgers and fries and the grown-ups had crab-stuffed Salmon, ahi tuna, baby back ribs and scallops.  It was a lot of fun.  So we might have found one other couple we can hang out with and not offend with our rush home to bedtime or our inability to finish a conversation or us being covered in some substance such as sand, snot, water, fruit snacks, crumbs, etc.  :)

This morning we woke up and had our regular morning, eating yogurt, walking the dog (Jayden and I, while Carmen exercised), and then getting ready for the day.  Once everyone was ready, Jayden got to open his Easter basket and then search for eggs in the backyard. 

The Easter basket after I wrapped presents and prepared it last night.

Opening the first present. 
The hat is because Carmen decided to put his hat on so then Jayden put on his hat and I put on my hat. 

One of the gifts was a kaleidoscope with Mickey Mouse on the outside (in the dollar bins at Toys R Us - love those!).  It was hilarious watching him try to see in.  He apparently can't close one eye at a time, so he was squinting with both eyes, putting the kaleidoscope in the middle of both of his eyes, etc.  I still don't know if he ever actually saw anything.  But someday he'll figure it out!

One of the other presents was a police motorcycle lego man.  This was probably the biggest hit.  We looove us some motorcycles.

He found the first egg! 
I "hid" it by sitting it on the base of his basketball hoop.  We definitely had to do some strong hinting to help him find the rest of the eggs, but he still felt like he "found" each of them.

Dropping the egg into the basket.  Thanks Daddy!

Finding the last egg!

We then hung out in the backyard for a bit, enjoying the rather ridiculously warm California sunshine.  One thing I love about SoCal is because of the weather there's never a reason to get that dressed up.  A polo shirt and shorts that aren't athletic shorts are about as fancy as Jayden gets.  Even at nicer events, it's usually acceptable to wear something like this - thank goodness!

My boys.  Probably one of my favorite pictures EVER.  Jayden now gives his version of a smile when you ask him to, and I think it's a pretty decent one. 

Mommy hugs.

Checking the water to see if it was warm enough to swim.  "I go check Daddy, I check.  I tell you if iss ok."  Yeah, it wasn't okay.  It was cold.  So our pool heater still isn't working.  Awesome.

On Mommy's shoulders so he could be "talwer" to be able to throw the ball on top of the umbrella.  It worked.  He regularly threw the ball on top of the umbrella and only once did it fall into the pool.

 

The photo I put up on Instagram/Facebook.  My boys relaxing in the backyard.  Shoes optional.  Mimosa required (if you're a grown-up). 
By the way, Jayden is going to be the life of the party.  I don't know what this says about Carmen and me, but during brunch he kept saying "Everyone!  Drink wine!  And juice!"  And we'd all have to stop what we were doing and take a drink.  Eventually Carmen and I had to switch to water because you just can't drink that much that fast!)

Snacking on some pear. 

If I do say so myself, our brunch was pretty darn good.  I made baked nutella French bread and a chicken apple sausage frittata.  I'd eat that for dinner every night if it wasn't ridiculously unhealthy.  Welll, not ridiculously unhealthy, but certainly not the healthiest meal we've ever had.  But boy was it yummy.  Thank goodness for leftovers. 

The rest of the day was uneventful.  Jayden napped for 3-1/2 hours or so while I went to the grocery store and napped for a bit too.  After he woke up, we hung around some more, danced, watched some NBA playoffs and generally had fun.  A funny story: Jayden thinks whenever he gets presents that it's his birthday.  So after his nap he was a little grouchy so he was demanding all kinds of things.  One of those thing was to "bwow out a cand-ull" because it was his birthday.  So I lit a tea candle, we sang "Happy Easter" to the tune of "Happy Birthday to you" and he got to blow out the candle.  Problem solved.  :)  Carmen grilled some steaks for dinner (for me and him) and Jayden ate a plate full of pasta.  We ran in circles for a bit, our usual post-dinner activity, and then it was off to bed.  Really, a nice, relaxing, fun day.  And I even fit two loads of laundry in there too!


I will leave you with this, a quote from one of my friends today (because I am feeling strong and accomplished and happy at the moment): "Just a woman?  Oh honey no!  I am awesome with a splash of bitch and a dash of wonderful and a hell of a mother, you be sure to remember that."