Easter & That Birthday You Never Speak Of

During my little hiatus, something happened.

It's really hard for me to talk about, I still can't believe it happened myself.

I turned 30.

I KNOW, RIGHT?

The big 3-0.

I have never looked forward to 30 but it finally snuck up on me.

It also snuck up on me Easter weekend and Zaria's 13th (holy cow) birthday fell on Easter, so we celebrated with a big Easter/13/30 party.

Mat's parents came down from Oklahoma, my parents came up from San Antonio and we all headed to my grandparents house, which is about an hour away from where I live.

My mom, my sister and me.

Family that I hadn't seen in awhile traveled in, it was a great time.

I have always loved my grandparents house. Every holiday and birthday has been spent there and there are so many memories that have been made there.

Jaxon playing with the paddle ball game my sister bought him.

Did someone say, "Cupcake"?

My mom had found this thing on Pinterest where you plant jelly beans the night before Easter and they turn into suckers by morning. Since we were only spending the day, we decided to plant the jelly beans, then dye eggs. While the eggs were being done, the jelly beans would grow and the Easter bunny would come.

Strategic thinking when dealing with 3 year olds, eh?

After the jelly beans were planted, it was time for egg dying to begin!

Jaxon had no interest in dying eggs, he was more excited to curl up in Grandma's lap (she had surgery 2 days earlier) and play on electronics.

But Hayley and my sister had a blast!

My sister and I may not have read the instructions for glitter eggs.

Whoops!

After the egg dying was done, it was time to see what the jelly beans grew into!

The planting of jelly beans was a huge success and a tradition that I think we will continue for years to come!

Even with all of the chaos, the Easter bunny still managed to stop by. And he brought the Twinkies exactly what was asked for!

A pink hula hoop for Hayley and a blue hula hoop for Jaxon.

In our family, until your married, you still get visits from Santa and the Easter Bunny so my sister got a little basket too.

I had found these masks at one of the big craft stores (I can't remember which one exactly, I think JoAnns) and I just had to get them.

I couldn't believe how awesome the kids found them. I wish I had a picture of Zaria's because she went all out on hers, including glitter glue!

After some time playing with their basket contents, it was time to hide and hunt eggs!

We did two egg hunts, one for the twins, and one for the older kids.

First up, the twins!

I had left the newly minted 13 year old in charge of my camera. Pardon some blurriness! haha

This was the first time Mat got to spend Easter with Hayley and Jaxon and he was all in the action. I was happy to just sit back and watch for once.

After the Easter egg hunt, it was finally time to celebrate what I had been dreading.

My 30th birthday.

I was excited to celebrate Zaria turning 13, that is a huge milestone for a girl.

I'm not real sure how it was my birthday but the twins still got something however, look at that face! She loves her pillow!

Did you know how late it gets dark now? Waiting for the 2nd hunt took forever.

 Why did we have to wait for it to get dark?

Because any kid whose age falls in double digits (most are over 18 and on their own), hunt eggs at night!

We like to make a challenge for the older kids. At their age, most are really just interested in money. We stuff a bunch of eggs full of money, lottery tickets and food and send them out to see what they can find.

This was seriously one of the funniest things I had ever seen.

 I really wish I had more pictures of the actual hunt or even pictures of the yard, we had glow sticks everywhere and it looked super cool!

Even though I dreaded turning 30 that day, celebrating with family made it a lot easier. It was definitely a great time and I can't wait until next year!