Ali got to have her first experience with dying Easter Eggs on Saturday, where she learned that it’s NOT such a great idea to suck on the spoon that stirred the dyes:
And us parents learned that three year olds that are just starting to grasp the concept of the word “die” are very confused by the concept of dying eggs.
But after moving past the shock and horror of the idea of killing eggs, Ali and her BFF AJ had an excellent time:
Even Tessa joined the fun, but I sadly managed to teach her nothing new.
(I thought maybe our next learning project could be to turn her into a professional Faberge Egg designer, but she was really more interested in chewing on Ali’s blocks. Maybe next Easter.)
Of course, long after all of the children lost interest in the process, the Daddies were still perfecting their masterpieces:
I think we managed to scrub all of the dye off of Ali (and Chris) before Church.
Ali forgot that Easter meant that she would be receiving an Easter Basket, so she was quite thrilled with the extra surprise yesterday morning: 
We couldn’t manage to bring ourselves to tell her that the Easter Bunny brought it (As if Santa didn’t feel weird enough selling – there’s something just super bizarre about convincing your child that a giant bunny with the ability to put candy into plastic eggs broke into her house to deliver her a basket full of sweets that are hopefully not infested with Bunny Mites.)
Anyway, so we just didn’t address the origin of her basket at all. But after being asked a dozen times by different people if the Easter Bunny brought her a basket, I’m sure she’s good and confused about everything.
Because that’s how we like to parent.
After letting her appropriately over-sugar herself before Church, we managed to get a couple partial-family-because-no-one-else-was-there-to-photograph-us-pictures:
And, since we know how hard it is to photograph our family, I offered to help our good friends Greg and Julie photograph their (slightly) bigger family after Church. First I had to ask Ali get out of the way and wait for Greg to summon all his children:
Kids needed to be drug into place, except Benjamin, who was practicing his charming smile…
Greg started “requesting with force behind it”, as he informed me later, and Julie realized I was photographing the process and stuck her tongue out at me. 
Everyone finally gathered, and as soon as everyone looked and smiled at the same time in an Easter Miracle, the baby, Tori, let out an ear-piercing scream:
Apparently she’s not a fan of quiet. And that’s a very good thing.
After a few takes, I think I was successful at photographing their beautiful family:
But Ali wasn’t getting impatient waiting on me. She was way too busy posing for everyone who would look her way while waiting for them to tell her how beautiful she was. I think she liked her dress, smock or no smock. 
When we got home, we got my Dad to give us the family photography services as well, since it’s not often that we all manage to get in the same picture.
Happy Easter!!
YAY! LOVE the last photo of all of you together.
Her dress is fabulous! And the family one is nice too. Happy Easter!
Welcome Back! you were truly missed :)
(Now I feel like a stalker, seeing has how I have never left a comment before)
Great family picture :). And I'm sure Greg, Julie and family were very appreciate. I'm impressed!
Your little family is so cute.
Glad your are back,you make me laugh everyday.
Great pictures!
Your family Easter portrait is gorgeous! Ali's dress is fabulous and I bet she'll think fondly of it forever. Don't worry about the whole Easter Bunny story. We didn't run that one past the kids either and they're no worse off for it. My son saw me making Easter eggs the last few weeks so he knew the eggs come from Mama.
Happy Easter!!
LOVE the last picture. As for the Easter bunny, we never mentioned it, and I blatantly told the boys before bed that Mommy and Daddy got them Easter baskets that they would receive in the morning. When the in-laws asked made E.Bunny references about the hidden eggs at their house, I quietly said, "Didn't Grandpop do a good job as the Easter Bunny this year? He hid the eggs really well!"
We do Santa, but I have never, even as a child, been able to figure out what the point of the E. Bunny is! Too weird…giant bunny.
We don't do the Easter Bunny either. Santa comes, but not the bunny. I still haven't figured out my reasoning on this, but thats what it is.
Ali looks adorable and you do too!
that last shot of you guys is great…and that family has a LOT Of little kids…yikes. lol!
Beautiful family! :)
Great pictures! I love Ali's dress and your's. What a beautiful family.
What a spectacular Easter dress! And the egg-coloring-fantastico looks like a grand time. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll manage to teach Tessa to read during your next visit.
Wow! You had time to do all that BEFORE church!?!?
I love this post! Ya'll are so cute!
Aww, great family picture! You guys all look so great!
I LOVE Ali's Easter dress! SO cute! She looks so fancy and sweet at the same time. I love the pink flower blossoms under her feet, looks like you guys are blooming away!
Our beautiful, warm spring suddenly disappeared and has turned into a regular old snowy, rainy, cold spring. We woke up to a white world yesterday with huge flakes floating down. Of course it was gone by noon…such is a Northwest spring!
P.S. We didn't even mention the Easter bunny…too complicated. :)
great family pic! I thought of you on Easter. We visited my mom and dad's church, and I realized something I should have remembered from my childhood. That church is a smocking-optional-but-hats-mandatory church. Even the boys had on hats (they were cute little sailor hats not ball caps). My daughter was so ill-prepared. . . You'll have to update your categories next year so moms like me are better prepared! : )
Great shot of ya'll on the swing!
PS I just noticed how fast your blog loads. You got a secret?
Great family pic and I love Ali's dress!
That's a great picture of the Blevins…what happened to Tori, she always seems happy!
So where did you end up finding Ali's dress? It's beautiful!!
I wanted to go and take pictures of my kids in that prayer garden area, too, but David was freaking out about all the bees.
Wow, what great pictures of all of you. And Greg and Julie's family is really good looking.
Love the pictures!
Love the pics!! :)