sharing the reality of our easter weekend

alrighty, it’s been about three or so years since I’ve posted a blog… about time to dust off the ole wordpress. I’ve really missed this space, it’s like an open journal for the world 😘
soo our first easter weekend with four children. how’d it go? well, surprisingly it was one of the better easter weekends we’ve had since having children.
our youngest is a little over 10 months old now, and we are definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this whole baby life thing. it’s bittersweet, yes. I cried twice last week with bitter tears that there’s no more babies for us, but this weekend, it was mostly sweetness.
good friday | april 15 2022

The easter weekend started for us on Friday. Audrey was already on spring break, and the preschool that Henry and Daisy attend was closed with it being Good Friday and all.
So what to do? Let’s get those damn family photos out of the way! I mean, I love the photos, don’t get me wrong. Truly I treasure them. But man, they are a lot of work. And now with four children… plus, we try to get ourselves into the mix for Easter… well, it’s a lot.
The plan was head out right after Everly woke up from her first nap. She likes to take two naps these days, first one from around 6-8 am and another around lunch time.
I had everything packed up the night before. All the camera gear neatly put in my bag, batteries charged, memory cards lined up like cute little ducks in a row, tripod folded away, wireless remote with a fresh set of batteries… all the outfits completely finished down to the last damn handsewn buttonhole (no safety pins this year!) all lined up ready to be pressed in the morning… you get the drift. I was ready.
Friday morning came, the kiddos had breakfast and we played as a family for a bit before Everly went down for her first nap. Once she was asleep, I pressed the outfits. Everything was looking beautiful. I was so ahead of the game, I started to shuffle all the crap out to the car while Everly was still napping. I opened our front door. And then it hit me, a whopping 33° F. Oh shit. I closed the door and mumbled some choice words under my breath. I knew things were going too well.
I’d completely forgotten to look at the weather forecast. Things had been warming up here in the Smoky Mountains area… but then I googled it: wasn’t going to warm up until late that afternoon. More choice words were mumbled and I’m sure I did an eye roll at the weather report on my cell phone. Eye rolls come fairy naturally to me.
I do my best to keep photoshoots in the morning. My children acting like sweet, kind humans instead of ravage animals is directly correlated to their circadian clocks.
But I wanted to be done with the lingering pressure of Easter photos. But all means, I know things are not going to be perfect, and that’s quite alright, but damnit, twice a year, I want a decent family photo. Easter and Christmas. And I want a decent picture of our lovely children at both of those times, too.
So we carried on with the day, grilling up the chicken we’d marinated the night before, and trying to keep our children from turning into their ravage animal selves as the day progressed.

It was now time for Everly’s second nap, and she went down like a champ. We watched tried to watch a movie as a family. Our children are still a little on the young side for that to be an enjoyable activity.
After an hour or so, Everly woke up. It was show time.
We wiped up their faces, tried to freshen up their hair, and set out for our favorite little area. It’s basically a park without a fence (I know…) but it has some really pretty flowers and landscaping, plus hardly anyone goes there.
Once we arrived, we dressed the children into their outfits (car seats and heirloom garments don’t mix well) and then hoped for the best.
We got out family photo out of the way first.

And then we tried to get a photo of all four children together, but that proved easier said than done.

My next goal was to get an individual photo of each child. Oh, and Henry… he would not let us button that top button. Seriously, two grown adults (and I’m regularly doing my pushups these days) we could not get it buttoned 🙄🙄🙄






And then any sibling combination would be a bonus on my mind, and we got some really sweet photos like Audrey and Everly.

This photo session totaled 1488 photos. I kept 323, which is a fairly high success rate. When we just have a photoshoot with one child, it could be around 500 photos, but only keeping 20-30 photos. So much work, but I treasure all the memories and photos.
And crying, definitely had some crying during our Easter photos.

Daisy was comforted by Daddy, which is were we lucked out with this sweet series of photos.

And Everly only wanted mama, naturally. But that means I got some really sweet photos with this little girl 🥰🥰🥰 seriously!! lucked out on that one!

So we wrapped up the photos, changed everyone back into normal clothes and packed up the minivan.


We headed to a nearby children’s park and spent the rest of the afternoon there.


for more photos of the children in their garments, check out this page.
Saturday
Once again, our day started bright and early at 4 am. We did breakfast for the kiddos, played some as a family, and Everly went down for her first nap around 6 am.
After she woke up, we grilled more chicken (this time we grilled kale instead of broccoli… wild and crazy, I know!) and then headed to my sewing office.

The town that my office is located in does an annual Easter Hat Parade. And between having the office has a landing space and our children being older, we finally felt like we could participate in the festivities.


It was so fun being around all the friendly people, fun hats, and beautiful decorations! I’m really glad we went to this event.

Oh, and bonus, I weeded and planted fresh flowers the week prior. I know, squirrel, but I felt like putting that in here. My poor flower bed has looked like crap as I’ve juggled this sewing business under two babies (Daisy and now Everly).

Anywho, it was a great time and I’m looking forward to more events like this as the children get older.


We came home, tried to watch Peter Rabbit II and then did the bedtime routine. After the bedtime routine, we prepared their Easter baskets, sourdough challah, and chocolate peanut butter eggs. Then we called it a night… after all, our bedtime is around 7 pm these days lol.




Easter SUnday!!
Easter Sunday was finally here! Our children slept in until 5 am!! 🙌 🙌 🙌 That was celebration enough for me.




But alas, it was Easter, so I suppose we should celebrate some more. The kiddos opened their Easter baskets that morning. We skipped all the candy (we’ve been a sugar-free household since this past December), but had homemade slime, sourdough loaf, and clothes for those that needed them.
Daisy got a much-needed tea set and sweet Everly got repackaged toys from our play room. We are thankful to have plenty of toys and clothes at this point, so I don’t buy something new if I can avoid it. I swear the toys multiply at night.
We kept things casual that morning, after all, we still have a little one who demands an early morning nap. After she woke up, we did Easter brunch as a family. I grilled sausage, eggs, and kale.



And then we enjoyed the challah that Daddy had been preparing with his sourdough starter. It was life-changing.

So good, seriously. We pulled it apart and enjoyed it with our coffee. The kiddos loved it, especially little Everly.



And to finish everything off, we broke into those chocolate covered peanut butter eggs. They are just homemade peanut butter (ground peanuts, nothing else), some coconut oil, and dark cacao. No sugar, and the kiddos ate it up.



Check out this sweet girl!

Finally, we dyed eggs. I swear we did this in record time. Three children, 36 eggs, two minutes. omg cue nap time please!




Once we cleaned up from brunch and the egg dying, Everly went down for her second nap. The TV was turned on in attempt to watch Peter Rabbit II.


After nap time was over, we headed to a local pub that was holding an Easter egg hunt. This was the first time our children did an egg hunt that wasn’t orchestra by their parents in the backyard. It was so fun and we grabbed coffees on our way out …definitely the way to do an Easter egg hunt!





We walked around for a bit longer, and ended up back at the picturesque park that we’d taken our Easter photos earlier. And Everly was now hungry. We were about a mile from our minivan. And no baby food/snacks in the diaper bag. Blah, thankfully this park was empty, so I hiked up my dress and fed the sweet baby.


Kinda funny, because when I picked this zipperless dress, I thought, “I can wear this… I’ll feed Everly before we leave and she’ll be fine during the egg hunt.” But we stayed out longer than expected. It’s fine, I’m just throwing it in there since it’s real life. I know I get tired of the instagram game.

Anywho, I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend! If you are still in the thick of baby life, I am sending you all of my love! I know there can be some really sweet moments filled with an aroma like none other, but I also know that there can be some dark times like none other. Hang in there! As our last baby is now 10 months old, I’m seeing the light on the other side and it’s a huge breath of fresh air.
One stitch at a time, you got this mama ❤️

Happy Easter everyone!