Easter 2008

After Brinlee's party wrapped up on Saturday, we let the kids go back out and color their own eggs.

Tatum had been napping during this part of the party and Mariah and Asia didn't get to color eggs with the guests, so they were all very excited!

We tried a couple different methods this year. They wrapped rubber bands around their eggs and colored them in one color and then took off the bands and put it in a different color. They thought this was SO amazing!

On Sunday morning, everyone had to shower before coming downstairs since church is at 10:30. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to do hair and dress everyone, plus get myself ready and get pictures before church started.

The favorite goodies from the Easter bunny were the Barbie's. Mariah got a talking/singing/light-up/glittery Ariel Barbie. Brinlee and Asia got the singing Gabriella and Sharpay dolls from High School Musical 2. Tatum, well she didn't get much. She can't have chocolate (or anything with any kind of dairy products), she's still too young for Barbie’s and I guess the Easter Bunny didn't know what to give her, especially since we are moving soon. SAD! Oh well, she was ecstatic with her jelly beans!

The Story of the Easter Outfits (by Mommy)
So, in February after Mariah's party was over, Mommy went on her regular search of the Easter dress. She was immediately drawn to the ivory, pink and chocolate brown silk duppioni dresses that Gymboree has this year. As soon as they came into our stores the 2nd week in February, all the girls went there and tried on for the right size. Though the matching pink patent leather shoes only came in Asia's size and up, Mommy bought them anyway, in hopes of finding one similar ones for little Tatum to wear.

Then Mommy went over to The Children's Place store and saw the most perfect black and white dresses there. She was already thinking ahead to Mariah's baptism and knew that when Mariah wore her white dress to church, she would like to have all the other family members in black and white. So she made a mental note and decided to wait until they go on sale after Easter, because who wants to wear black for Easter?! There would be plenty left.

Fast Forward to the first week in March, Mommy is still looking for shoes for Tatum and can't decide what to put over/under the sleeveless silk dresses from Gymboree. She went on Payless.com and found the most perfect pink ballet flats that came in sizes for all the girls. So she scooped them up and took the patent ones back to Gymboree. By this time the Easter line had gone on sale and Mommy decided to get the matching silk half jackets to go over the dresses. To her dismay, once again they didn't have Tatum's size (SIGH!). What was she going to do with Tatum?! What could she possibly find to go over/under Tatum's dress that wouldn't severely under-dress her compared to the others?? So she decided to wait and see what she could find.

During her search, she happened into The Children's Place again and saw that there is only 1 (ONE) b&w dress left in the big girls size!!! Luckily it was Brinlee's exact size. She scooped it up and decided it would be better to pay full price than to wait and not get them at all. She had them call the other store and they said they had a few left. She rushed to the other mall and they had all the other girls’ sizes. She didn't want to spend that much, but couldn't pass it up, especially since she was told they were already sold out online.

During the week before Easter as Mommy was busy preparing for Brinlee's party and Easter, she was really stressing and trying to figure out what to do. Also, she hadn't found anything for herself to wear. She went in search of a dress for herself, which was a feat in itself since she is not quite ready for maternity wear, but not really fitting her regular size. She found a couple of dresses that would match, but couldn't find exactly what she was looking for.

On Saturday, after Brinlee's party and after we had colored our eggs, Mommy was upstairs putting everything together, but still had nothing to put under/over the silk dresses. The thought came to her mind that maybe she should just scratch the pink and brown and do the unusual with the black and white, especially since she had already found herself the perfect black and white dress to go with the others. This would eliminate the cost of 2 dress occasions, combining them into one. She was really hesitant at first and then realized that she hadn't gotten shoes to go with the black and white stuff yet. The pink ones she'd gotten for the silk just wouldn't do. So in her hesitation, she decided that if she could find suitable shoes that evening, then it would be meant to be.

After Brinlee's birthday dinner at Denny's we went to a couple of stores and found the cutest white slippers with glittery straps. They didn't cost too much and had the right size for everyone. They actually didn't come in Tatum's size, but they had some really cute little white sandals for her.

That was the decision. They went with the black and white. Very unorthodox for Easter, but well, I guess black and white is "in" right now.

While we were getting ready on Sunday morning, Mariah asks "why are we wearing *lip curled* "black" on Easter?" I laughed and said "You sound just like my mother!" She asked "Why?" I said "Cuz that's exactly what she always used to say.’Don't wear dark colors on Easter. Wear spring-y colors.'" LOL