Easter Weekend

So since this year is Tyson's first Easter I really wanted him to be involved in an egg hunt. I know, I know he's too small but it still would have been fun to see him picking up the eggs to place in his basket. Even if it was only 1 or 2. Well I had no idea where and Egg Hunt would be, esp since I am not from around the SFV. I kept telling Justin that most of them were going to be on the Saturday before Easter but he was convinced that Sunday they'd have to have something. Well according to my hunch, early Saturday morning I decided to do some Internet researching and found that I was right and most egg-stravaganzas were being held on Saturday. Well the one that was the closest to us was the one in Calabasas at it was only being held from 10am-12noon and it was already 10am when I found it. So of course we RUSHED getting ready and headed to the Grape Arbor Park for the fun festivities.

We missed the egg hunt. But there was an Easter Bunny and they were taking pictures with him for $5. So Justin and I really wanted Easter picture with the Bunny so we stood in the VERY long line to get one. It was so cute. We took a family picture first and then I took one with my camera of just Tyson. Tyson sat on his lap and kept looking up at him like "what is this thing". I couldn't stop laughing. Glad I got a good picture of it though. [I have the family pic on the other computer so when I get to it I'll post that up too. There was a petting zoo at the event so after we took pics with the Easter bunny we stood in another long line so Tyson could pet all the animals. Well I stood in line while Ty and Justin went to eat food. It was funny because about two people in front of me this lady was holding her little baby that kept crying and the man directly in front of me turns and says "i don't know if it was just me, but my son NEVER cried like that". I said "MEE TOO...my son hardly ever cries and when he does he's tired that's it". It was funny b/c then we just started going on this tangent about our kids that never cry. I was hoping that poor lady couldn't hear us.

We finally got into the petting zoo and there was this little Tyson sized baby goat. Just perfect for Tyson. He had this tiny little horns and everything. Tyson didn't really pet him that much but we could tell he liked him. Then there were bunnies, horses, big goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and I'm sure more kinds of animals. Tyson wasn't paying too much attention to them but he got a few pets in here and there.

I think he was more interested on what was going on outside the fence. It was so cute though. He went over and stood next to the fence and looked out as if he were a little animal locked in the cage. So we took him out after that. Since we missed the egg hunt, there wasn't much to do after that and it was already getting past 12pm so we went home.

The next day was Easter and Justin and I decided to have some friends over for a BBQ. I had been lazy and didn't take the time to get and make an Easter basket for Tyson until last minute. And of course there wasn't much left in the stores. Luckily I found at least a few things to scrounge and make this one for him. I thought it was just the perfect size for him.

He didn't care about anything in the basket though except for the plastic eggs filled with candy. Although he has no clue what candy is. I guess the Easter basket was more for me since I'm the one that ate all the candy for him anyways. :) I was on a sugar high for the next few days afterwards searching for candy everywhere.

We did have a small egg hunt though. I boiled some eggs and since we obviously weren't prepared and didn't have dye Justin decided to color them with the only marker we could find. I thought it was really cute! I ate all of those too! hahaha.

All in all we had a fun filled Easter and I'm glad we got to share it with family and friends. Like I was saying below, I am not that religious and really haven't been to church in years so kinda embarrassing to say this but until now I had no idea what Easter was even about. Learning more about Passover made me want to learn more about Christian holidays as well. So I read up on it and learned that Easter was the day that Jesus was resurrected from death. It is the holiest day of the Christian year. THAT is something new I learned. To me, Easter was probably one of the least important and obviously because I never understood its true meaning. Easter is actually linked to Passover. The original Christians were of Jewish heritage and they believe that the last supper may have been a Passover Seder. The celebration of Easter likely evolved as a new facet of passover with emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. Easter starts 40 days prior which consists of fasting and penitence known as Lent. Holy week is the last week of Lent which commemorates Jesus entry into Jerusalem and Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion. It concludes with Easter Sunday. Easter is held on the first Sunday following the full moon following the spring equinox. Rabbits symbolize fertility while colored eggs represent new life. Egg Hunts are traditions for the children. Similar to the hiding of the afikomen at passover.

And all this time I would stop eating a certain food for 40 days and never really knew what I was doing. Not that I ever made it past a week anyways. Maybe from now on, I'll actually try and fast during Lent for the right reason.