Easter eggstravaganza weekend

Happy Easter! We had a great weekend filled with lots of family, friends, food and fun. Our weekend started with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa on Friday afternoon. Emilia hit a big milestone that afternoon -- her first poopy in the potty! She was so excited to get not one but TWO stickers.


On Saturday morning, we had planned to meet up with the Vaughans and Hills at the South Riding Easter Egg Hunt. BUT, it was pouring. We turned to plan B, which actually was the absolute perfect Easter party for the kids. We went to the Vaughans' house for a yummy brunch and lots of fun activities for the kids.


They decorated cookies...
They made crosses...

They hunted for eggs...




And they ate and ate and ate!
As always, they had a great time together. Lots of great memories for this special holiday. Check out the Hills' Web site for another video masterpiece from Brad.

The fun continued later that afternoon when Uncle Kyle, Uncle Corey and Gillian arrived. We dyed some Easter eggs, which was surprisingly cleaner than I expected.

Emilia and Uncle Corey looking too cool for school:

And after dinner by the lake, daddy and his little girl posed for a great shot:

This morning, Emilia woke up to a surprise from the Easter bunny. She followed a trail of eggs...

...all the way downstairs to find lots of fun treats from the Easter bunny (AKA Grandma and Grandpa).

After church, she kept looking for more eggs.

It was a great weekend and I think it's safe to say we're all exhausted!

Bunny meltdown

Emilia has been obsessed with the Easter bunny for weeks. Last month we were in the mall and she caught her first glimpse of him. It was late and she wasn't dressed for the big meeting, so we promised her we would come back. She was devastated and spent the next few weeks talking to our bunny decorations around the house. On Thursday, we decided it was the day we would go back to see the real deal. After work we dressed her in a pretty spring dress and she was completely jazzed -- that is, until she got within 10 feet of the bunny. Her excitement turned to terror. She was nearly hyperventilating -- "no bunny, no bunny, no bunny!" Needless to say, it was an unproductive visit. Instead of a cute photo of Emilia sitting on the bunny's lap, we got this -- a shot of her meltdown in the car on the way home:

Up close and personal with an-mals

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day, so after church, we were looking for something fun to do outside. We decided to try out the Leesburg Animal Park. We were able to get up close and personal with lots of different animals. As if talking to and petting a ton of animals wasn't enough, Emilia even got to go in a bounce house...
and take a pony ride...

It was a perfect activity on such a gorgeous day!

California visitor

Last week, we hosted a special guest. Our friend, Caitlin -- who Eric grew up with and now lives in Santa Barbara -- was spending her spring break on the East Coast. Caitlin stayed with us for two nights and will forever have a fan in Emilia.

Caitlin is a very special person. She is really smart and has a huge heart. She has traveled all over the world and spent a long time as a missionary in Niger. She now teaches Spanish at a Montessori school in Santa Barbara, so naturally we were trying to have her teach Emilia a few words during her visit.

Emilia took to Caitlin immediately. She was even saying, "ah man u, Caitlin" (I love you), which she barely says for us. They had a great time playing around the house...

And on Friday, Eric, Caitlin and Emilia went to Mount Vernon...

It was great to see Caitlin. We were all sad to see her leave!

A playmate just her size

Yesterday we went to see our friends from college, Jeremy and Sarah, and their adorable dog Bowie. Emilia waiting patiently all day since we had told her she was going to meet a new doggie. She and Bowie bonded immediately. The treat might have had something to do with that...And by the end of the visit, they were having deep philosophical conversations together...

Chilling with Uncle Corey

Uncle Corey came over to play and have dinner on Saturday night. It had been a long day of gymnastics and playing, so naturally, Emilia was exhausted.

Gym rat

Emilia has been making improvements at gymnastics and is really enjoying it -- so much so that we went ahead and signed her up for the next session. Here she is tearing it up on the balance beam:

And getting a 1:1 lesson from Coach Mike...

But her favorite activity is still the trapeze...

A break from bed rest

Last weekend, some good friends and I hosted a small baby shower for Sandra. After being on bed rest for about three months, Sandra was particularly deserving of a break with the girls. We had a great afternoon scrapbooking the start of her baby book. Here are the master scrapbookers: Megan, Wendy, Sandra, Kristy and Mary.

Dreaming of someplace we'd rather be

Emilia insisted on wearing her "Mo Mouse ears" (Minnie Mouse's ears) all last week. I think she's trying to tell us something...

Going green

The Korsvall house made an attempt to honor our roots and celebrate the spirit of the Irish a few weeks ago. We started our celebration of St. Patrick's Day on Sunday when we made yummy corned beef and cabbage for dinner. Emilia and I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch all week. We also made Irish potatoes, a sweet treat from my days at Tripician's Macaroons.

On the actual St. Patrick's Day, Emilia was a little confused when I didn't get her dressed before breakfast. That was intentional. We were having a special "green" breakfast -- green food coloring added into her normal breakfast of oatmeal mixed with pear yogurt.

We also both had a special treat when we discovered that daddy had gone to Dunkin' Donuts really early before he went to work and left us some special treats. Surprisingly, Emilia really wasn't into the donut, so mommy was left to polish it off for her (the sacrifices of motherhood).

Not dressing Emilia until after breakfast was a good call.

That night, we had another treat: lime jello. Emilia was particularly excited about this. She saw me making it the night before and was distraught over not being able to have it then. When she woke up the next morning and I told her we were going to have a special breakfast she asked, “jello?” Here she is sharing her treat with her buddies, Nathan and Clara.

I had hoped that all of the focus on green things that week would help Emilia learn that color, but no such luck. Yellow, pink and red remain the featured answers to any question that starts, "what color...?"

Our little Irish lassie