The Marusiak Family: Happy Easter

Happy Easter Monday!

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable Easter weekend as we did! I have lots of photos to share with everyone, along with Hayden's 4th birthday we celebrated last week!

Hayden and Aubrey enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt last night as we planted clues from the Easter bunny around the house along with lots of treats for them to find . . .

Hayden got really into it . . .

And followed the clues no problem to find the treats . . .

. . . got very excited when he discovered hidden ones . . .

And very expressive when he was explaining to us how much fun he was having . . .

He looked high and low . . .

And squealed with delight at every surprise they found . . .

You might be wondering why these pictures are of just Hayden finding the easter eggs . . . well, Aubrey was usually trailing behind with a mouth full of chocolate. She didn't make it very far after each surprise, as she would try and eat as much as possible before going onto the next clue.

But her basket eventually filled and the kids enjoyed their chocolate feast after the hunt!

This was the last clue that led Hayden and Aubrey to the mailbox where the Easter bunny left them their big surprise!

Earlier in the week, we also enjoyed dyeing easter eggs . . .

. . . and painting them.

These were the easter eggs we used for a Ukranian easter tradition we introduced the kids to last night before we ate our Easter supper. I'm not sure where this tradition came from or the meaning behind it, but Jonathan grew up having an "egg fight" before starting his Easter meal. Everyone starts with a hard boiled egg, turns to the person sitting next to them at the table and they simultaneously hit eachother's eggs. One egg will still be intact while the other egg will be cracked! The winner then goes on to compete with the other winners at the table until only one egg remains to be the winner! Hayden really enjoyed this game - so much that he bashed so many eggs, his egg shell was in crumbles by the end!

As many of you know, Hayden celebrated his fourth birthday last Wednesday!

And what a day he had . . . .

He spent his birthday at the zoo (sorry, I didn't take any pictures) for the first time. It was a rather cold day and ended up snowing just as we were leaving, but that didn't dampen his spirits, he enjoyed seeing the new penguin exhibit (as did I - those penguins are just the cutest things to watch!) and the monkeys were the other favorite!

Hayden then enjoyed a birthday party that night with his favorite meal (spaghetti - his request!) and birthday cake and ice cream! He was very excited to find his new bike at the front door and mastered riding it within minutes - he was riding circles through the kitchen and living room for a good hour!! We finally convinced him to get off the bike and have a birthday bubble bath which he loved!!