Our New Easter Tradition...

The snow has finally melted and we are finally feeling a touch of spring in the air! We spent the past few days enjoying time together and explaining Easter and it's traditions to Grace.

It always makes me laugh that she never questions any of the things we do around holidays. She seems to think dying eggs makes sense. She is also the only kid we have that will actually eat the hard boiled eggs...finally!

O.K. she DID question the bunny ears. I don't blame her. It is a silly thing to do (and not really her style).

She enjoyed her first egg hunt. It was pretty funny actually. She was so polite that she only ended up with five eggs. Most of the kids involved have been hunting eggs for years and they were on a mission to get as many eggs as they could. Grace was very SLOW in gathering her eggs, therefore, she was left with whatever the quick kids (and pushy parents) left behind.

She was thrilled with her five eggs and the candy that she discovered inside of them.

Soon enough she was able to enjoy an entire basket of goodies. The Easter Bunny hid her basket (and all of the baskets) and she had a hard time finding it. She got a little frustrated, but eventually with a few hints from the older kids, she found it. Again, no questions about this tradition of ours. She seems to like Peeps.

The Princess Tiana shoes that were in her basket were a hit. They light up when she walks. She also got a "Fancy Nancy" dress up dress. I am guessing that the next 100 pictures I post will involve Grace wearing these new items.

Figuring out what to do with the chocolate bunny was no problem.

The weather on Easter was wonderful. We were able to go to church for the early service and then we decided to leave town and create some new Easter traditions.

We decided to head to Milwaukee and visit some animals. Grace was super excited to see BIG animals. She wanted to see the elephants, tigers and lions. She talks about tigers a lot (like that they are going to "get her"). I wonder if that was something they talked about in Ethiopia???

It seemed like 75% of the animals we saw were from Africa. I kept telling Grace that "this animal came from Africa too!"

Bryce with a cute little monkey.

The giraffes were a hit.

Finally, the elephants! They were so cute...side note: Alyssa and I saw the movie "Water for Elephants" this weekend and LOVED it. O.K. back to our zoo trip...

Not sure if Grace is more interested in the tiger or the girl with the braids that was next to us. She kept pointing out cool hair styles to me. Keep in mind that we don't see many "cute" (AA) hairstyles at home.

I found myself having to grab Grace from crawling over the fence a few times. She is pretty comfortable around the animals.

After the zoo, it was time for Easter dinner! We were so excited to be able to having Ethiopian food for dinner. You can tell by Grace's smile how happy she was.

I am not kidding when I say that, Grace ate her weight in food. She ate so much injera that I thought she would get sick. Nope...she was thrilled with her meal.

Drew is a fan of Ethiopian food too. He does such a great job of trying new things.

Before we left the restaurant, we decided to do an experiment. We asked the waitress to talk to Grace in Amharic to see if she still understood. Grace was a little nervous when the waitress started talking to her in Amharic. She did seem to understand though! The waitress asked Grace how old she was and she answered. She also nodded when the waitress said something else...not sure what she asked...hopefully, "do you like your new family?"

After dinner, we headed to our hotel and did a little swimming.

What an awesome Easter we had. I wouldn't be surprised if this new Easter tradition of ours sticks. We had such a relaxing time and were able to spend some much needed time as a family of six. Happy (belated) Easter!