Easter for Stella started on Thursday.  We went to our local community center for an Easter party.  It was a bit of a struggle getting Stella out of the house, but once she got out of the car and saw the egg hunt, she was excited. Stella loves hunting eggs (throughout the year, she will hide eggs around our house for herself and me to find), so of course she wanted to skip the party and go straight for the hunt. I was able to convince her to go inside.  There we were greeted by the Easter Bunny, herself, an added bonus.

Stella decided to partake in a few of the party games, but after a good 20 minutes, she loitered by the door waiting for the egg hunt.  Well, her strategy paid off.  Stella was the first to the egg hunt for her age group and raked it in.  I actually had to tell her to save eggs for the other kids!  Stella also collected all three prize eggs.  We graciously gave away two, and collected our prize (a huge bag that contained a basket with candy, toys and a board game).

Once the egg hunt was over, Stella was done with the party.  We went home and she spent a good hour or so, opening all her eggs, sorting candy and playing with the toys from her prize.  Success!

On Friday, her school had an Easter Egg hunt = more fun! That evening Stella and I headed to Spokane to spend the weekend with family, including her cousin Jacob, who is her same age.  Talk about a fun weekend of nonstop playing.

Saturday the kids dyed eggs and ran and ran and ran.  They even did a practice egg hunt.

On Sunday, the kids woke up to Easter baskets filled with books, toys and candy from the Easter Bunny. Stella was able to wear her Easter dress (pictured above), a princess dress, for the little princess.

The uncles gave the all clear for the yard (=no green pigs, no angry birds, no cats, just eggs), and the kids raced out and

finished the final egg hunt of the season.  Each kid even found a golden egg.

After taking a few obligatory photos, Stella and Jacob parked themselves on the kitchen floor and promptly emptied their eggs (more candy) and started munching as quickly as possible.  Oh joy, sugar high!

It was truly a wonderful holiday, no crying, all fun (and candy).  We now have enough sweets to last us to Halloween, or at least the summer!