UBC Springtacular and Easter Egg Dyeing

Every year, UBC holds a Springtacular Celebration on the grounds of the church. Kids come from all across the Clear Lake area to participate in a pretty spectacular egg hunt. This was Sadie's second year to attend. She showed up wearing her hot pink tu-tu, hot pink bicycle shirt, hot pink bow and white Stride Rite sandals. Felt egg basket in hand, she was ready to hunt some eggs! As soon as we arrived Sadie was greeted by John and Deb Williams, Ross' mom and Step-Dad. Deb presented Sadie with a little present - a book with a bee on it! When you move the pages back and forth, the bee looks like it is moving! Thank you, John and Deb!

Aunt Leslie also thought it would be fun to attend, so we were so happy she came! Sadie and Leslie wasted no time playing with all the chalk out on the main sidewalk.

Sadie was also very happy to see her little friend, Collin Ernst. Katy and Ross had to head out early, but were able to stay long enough for a photo opp with Sadie! Sadie loves giving Collin hugs and touching his soft hair. She was very glad her friend showed up for some of the Easter Spring fun!

One of Sadie's favorite activities was the Little Tikes bounce house! Sadie was super excited to play inside and went in and out several times. This year it was especially fun to watch because last year she was not yet 1 1/2, therefore jumping was a bit challenging. She was still not a giant fan of carelessly jumping, but she relished the chance to crawl along the uneven bouncy surface with her peers.

Aside from bouncing, Sadie;s absolute favorite activity was the petting zoo. She isn't frightened by any animal and enjoys touching any creature that will venture close enough for her to extend her little tiny hand. She was overjoyed to see a giant turtle and yelled to Granddaddy, "GRANDDADDY! YOOOOOOOK (Look!) A TURTLE!!!!" Sadie knows Granddaddy has turtles at his house and certainly didn't want him missing out on the opportunity to see a giant turtle!

Then there was the donkey or miniature pony or whatever it was. All we know is that we are pretty sure we have photographic evidence of Sadie getting at least 4 horse lice in her hair. YIKES! We didn't realize until she was scratching her head after eating at Pho 21 Noodle Kitchen. I looked on her head, saw a small bug, calmly reacted - HAHAHA, yeah right! I totally freaked out. As in, I rushed next door to CVS, spoke to the pharmacist about lice, called our dear friend, Katie Leestma (who happens to be a spectacular vet) to find out that every species has lice and one cannot live (Or breed...ewww.) on another species. So, after combing through Sadie's hair more times than Sadie knew why, I decided we were safe. (To be sure, you can bet Sadie had an extra long hair washing that night). Anyway, back to the day's events - cannot get too hung up on lice, can we? You'll miss hearing about all the other fun of the day that did not involve horse lice. And besides, check out that smile while hugging the horsey. If Sadie was asked, I'm sure she'd say, "TOOOTALLY WORTH IT, MOMMY!"

Sadie also ran into her Mother's Day Out friend, Max. She adores Max. They played and danced at their Pizza and Art Show earlier in the year and she is always excited to see him at church functions.

The horse that now remains my favorite, since it did not involve lice (haha), was the spotted one Sadie rode on. The lines weren't too bad, so Sadie was able to ride twice! She had just ridden a pony at the Houston Rodeo for the first time in February, so she was very excited for the chance to saddle up again!

One of our last activities for the day involved taking a train ride in the real live "Choo-choo train!" Sadie was extremely excited to take a leisurely ride around the parking lot, while she waved excitedly out the window to Aunt Leslie, Granddaddy, Daddy, and Gammy.

Sadie also had her face painted! She picked a pink butterfly to have painted. I am almost certain, if memory serves me correctly, that she had that butterfly on until bath time later that night. She loved her butterfly.

Notice this cute picture, which later turned into more photographic evidence of aforementioned horse lice. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just looking at her scratch. Eeeeeeek!

The main event of the day was the big egg hunt. It is intelligently organized by age so the older kids are terrorizing younger ones as they knock people out of the way in search of eggs. This is fabulous news to a parent. Sadie stood next to her sweet friend, Emily Simmons as we anticipated the start signal.

Once released, Sadie dashed forward looking for eggs. Well, kind of. At first, Sadie just enjoyed running forward and screaming along with all the other kids. She quickly realized there were eggs to be grabbed, so she stopped to deposit some in her green felt basket.

And here's round two at the petting zoo. It's no wonder we no only enjoyed the animals, but took some (lice) home with us too!

And here is Santa -- I mean -- here is the animal caretaker. Sadie adored him; you can guess why. We are all pretty sure he also has reindeer back at his "ranch" - probably up "north."

One cool picture of the day was with Fausto, the groundskeeper and head of janitorial staff at UBC. Fausto has been a dear friend to me, my Dad and family since Dad was on staff at UBC. Such a kind soul, dedicated to church and family, and always a willing servant for any task big or small.

One of my favorite pictures of the day was Leslie and Sadie smiling. How adorable is this. Need to remember to print it out ASAP.

When we got to the Pho restaurant, Aunt Leslie gave Sadie a beautiful Easter bunny made from a Clorox bottle! Sadie was mesmerized by it and loved playing with all the tiny goodies inside.

After that, we headed to Granddaddy's house to see the new turtle pond and help Granddaddy feed them. Sadie always loves watching them eat.

When we got home, Sadie made a cross for Easter and employed Granddaddy's help in making Easter cookies. We decided to have family over since it was a special day and also hoped to celebrated with Aunt Margie for her birthday. We bought a little yellow cake and made Easter cookies the night before.

Sadie helped by rolling out the dough and pressing the cookie cutters into the dough. She was a great helper and especially liked making chicks and cross cookies.

While I iced the cookies, Daddy and Gammy began dying some eggs. Sadie learned very quickly that you cannot just drop them in the egg cup because they will crack! After getting the hang of being gentle, she really enjoyed watching them turn all sorts of colors - mainly pastels because it was just too hard at two and a half to wait that long for the brighter hues. Brighter hues, I'm convinced are for kids 5 and up. ;)

Sadie was especially good with the bunny egg grabber that Gammy brought over. I mean way better than all us adults good!

Our finished products! You can tell James' are all the brighter ones and Sadie's would be the lighter eggs. How fun! Egg dying is now a super fun tradition in our little family of three! Happy Easter!