The parents of the students in Brittain’s preschool class were invited to 2 different special days – Muffins with Moms and Dinosaurs with Dads.

I received 2 special gifts at Muffins with Mom. I will treasure them both always:

I died laughing at Brittain’s answers:

Both of Brittain’s teachers were pregnant at the end of the year, so we combined the day with a baby shower for the two of them.

We were so blessed to have Miss Brook and Miss Jamie as Brittain’s teachers this year. I’m thankful for both of them and for taking such good care of my baby.

Unfortunately, Dan didn’t take any pictures the day of Dinos with Dads. But, here was his special gift from Brittain that day.

Mimi and Aunt CC came over late afternoon on Easter day once naps had been had and we were all feeling a little more revived. Brittain’s Easter basket was actually a picnic basket which was something she had been saying she wanted since we had been having the occasional picnic lunch during the week when Mimi was able to come over during her lunch break. The 2 highlights of what the basket actually held? Smarties candy and a 5-pack of sunglasses in different colors. As the owner, Brittain required the sunglasses to be worn a certain way. Also? you will see they looked great on everyone.

Oh, the tattoos you see on us and my child are not real. They were one of the gifts in the Easter basket that the Easter bunny brought her that morning…and she was obsessed.

Cecilia ended up having an extended stay and it was great. Whenever we have the opportunity to visit each other we always have high expectations of actually being able to really talk, like we used to have the time to do. But each time as we’re saying our goodbyes we realize how naive we are to think that will ever happen. We’re only able to merely skim the surface of what’s going on in our lives. This time, though, we got to talk! And by talk, I mean we almost came close to running out of things to discuss. There was one night after Brittain went to bed that we were up drinking wine and discussing what it is that makes us want to have children. I, of course, was coming at it from the perspective of being a first-time mother. She was coming at it from a person who eventually wants to start a family. There were many different facets to this conversation, which I hope to devote an entire blog post to at some point, but at one point Cecilia asked me what the bottom line reason was for me wanting to have a baby, before I became pregnant with Brittain. I sat there or a minute and thought about it and finally said, “I guess I thought it was just time. It was the next natural step in my life.” I then asked her a similar question, “Why do you want to have a baby?” She came back with such a heart-felt, meaningful answer. “To think about having a part of you in another person. Knowing that there’s another person in the world that actually has a part of you in them.” I suddenly felt like I was Lucky or Dusty in The Three Amigos movie when they’re all laying in bed together, talking about what they plan to do with the money they are (supposedly) making from what they believe is a movie they are starring in. Lucky says that he plans to buy a big shiny, silver car. Dusty says that he plans to go to New York and Paris and drink champagne and go to parties. When Ned was asked, he said, “I plan to start a foundation…for homeless children.” I felt the need to go back on what I said as I stumbled over my words saying, “Well, yeah, that was the initial reason I wanted to have a baby and this was the second reason…”

It was one of the best visits Cec and I have been able to have since Brittain was born. And you know she didn’t go back to Florida without at least one dance party:

It was another special Easter surrounded by the people I love the most…our family. Fortunately, everyone also gave into my request of posing for pictures.

In case you don’t know, this is apparently called an Easter basket (even though I have always referred to it as a wheel barrow). Yes, suffice it to say, the child is spoiled.

One Easter basket was not enough. She had to get 4. So, we also made a quick stop by her Uncle Terry and Aunt Janice’s to pick this one up.