Egg Hunt!

A very big and essential Walker Easter tradition is the annual cousin/grandparent Easter Egg Hunt. Everyone gets 15 small eggs and 1 big egg (to be turned in at the end for a PRIZE!) with their name on them. The challenge is to find your eggs without letting others know where theirs are (no moving eggs, though!). The parents hide and once you become a parent, you move from a searcher to a hider. I always loved the searching part, but the hiding can be quite fun too (think: all of Katie's eggs go as high as Chris can climb ;) or this year, Rachel's are all hidden impossibly hard to test the dedication and perseverance of her boyfriend who we're all meeting for the first time ;)).
Last year Evie was a little young to truly enjoy the end hunt. This year, however, she loved it. I think mostly because she thought the eggs were little balls. ;) She LOVED collecting little balls in her brightly decorated bag! I'm enjoying this stage because she doesn't realize yet that the real prize is inside - Nathan and I still get all the contents. ;)
Decorating the easter egg bags while we hide (I forgot to mention, once you become a great-grandparent you get to join the searching committee as well :)).


The hunt:
 
Counting to see if she's found them all:
Meg's helping her shorter cousins :)

Josh proving himself a good tree climber on behalf of Rachel ;)
Drew Man getting distracted by all the balls :)
Everyone!
  

Strawberry Picking

Last night Beth and I were talking and we decided that we should go strawberry picking.... today. :) So bright and early this morning Beth, David and Margaret packed into our car with us to head across the ferry to Surry to pick some berries. Evie and David LOVED the ferry ride. :) It was David's first time! The wind, birds, boats, waves - they were all quite exciting. :)
I thought it might be a bit early for strawberries, but College Run Farms was right - they're ready and soooo juicy and delicious.

Evie was eating the strawberries almost as quickly as I was putting them in our basket (think Blueberries for Sal :)) She was mostly interested in just taking 1-2 bites out of each one, however. I kept looking into our basket to find several half eaten berries laying on top. :) We got better at eating the whole berry though as time went on. ;)

Double fisted eater... :)

Strawberry eating is serious work and takes a while... Evie had a tendency to get behind - can you see her way down there? :)

"See any more good ones, mom??"

Remember how clean Evie looked back in those pictures of her on the ferry? Well, this is the "after" picture. :)

To cap off  the fun, the farm even had an amazingly cool truck for Evie and David to play on during lunch. You should have seen both of their eyes when they saw it! :)

Thanks for the impromptu strawberry date, Beth and Margaret!!! :)

Exploring the Palace Gardens

Last week Beth and I decided that we should take advantage of our Good Neighbor passes and take Evie and David to explore the palace gardens. There are so many mazes, paths and flowers - exactly what two independent toddlers love to explore. :)

Needless to say, the LOVED it. The shell pathways provided some great opportunities to get all dusty and dirty too. Another toddler favorite. :)

They found the reenactment stage in the gardens and thoroughly enjoyed running all over - just practicing for when they get a bit older, I guess. :)

Thanks for going with us, Beth and "Dadid!"

Lawyer Conferences

Last week Nathan had a lawyer conference all week in Baltimore. Don't feel too sorry for him though. ;) While he was in sessions all day, he said they were actually really good and in the evenings the conference definitely treated their attendees well! The first night they rented out the National Aquarium for their fancy reception! Instead of battling crowds to see the amazing aquarium, Nathan pretty much got a private viewing! (All the open bars were at the front, so if you ventured further you had the place to yourself :)).

Evie and I, rather than spend the week home by ourselves, flew up to Ohio to visit Nana, Grandpa, Aunt Emily and Aunt Caroline. I was a little nervous about flying alone with Evie while 7 months pregnant, but she was a dreamboat and most people were helpful. :) I rested, relaxed, went to Starbucks and out shopping with my sisters, decorated my mom's bathroom, and helped my mom get ready for the big Easter celebration. Meanwhile, Evie colored...

Took walks...

Went to the park...

Ate special snacks...

Picked dandelions...

And hung out with her grandparents among other things...
Nana even had a special balloon there for her!

Thanks, Ohio Family, for the wonderful visit!

We had a great time, but we were happy to see Daddy again!

Spring Fun

Our first month in our new home has been quite full with all sorts of fun spring activities. Here's a few pictures from some of our miscellaneous adventures - the ones that haven't gotten their own blog post. :)
1) No spring is complete without March Maddness, of course!! Here's Evie sporting her cheerleading outfit for her favorite team! Unfortunately we didn't quite pull it out against Kansas. :( :( :( Every year my family does a big March Maddness bracket and guess who won this year?!? NATHAN!! Congrats Nathan! It would have been a double Mortier victory, but my cousin Megan (*glare*) snuck into 2nd place, leaving me to 3rd.

2) One of the things we're loving about our new place is how close it is to the James River beach. It's about a 2 minute drive or 15 minute walk. We've made several trips down there. A few weeks ago we went with our friend Janel and her daughter, Lucie. The girls loved it!

Evie and I walked down another day and she had so much fun that she completely passed out on the way home. :)

3) It's sunglass weather! Evie far perfers my sunglasses to hers and likes to wear them on her head like I do. :)

4) Spring is a great time for consignment sales and we have enjoyed a couple this year. We've found all sorts of great finds like dress up tutus and toy trucks. :) This truck was such a favorite that it even took a couple naps with Evelyn. :)

5) Puzzles. We've been very into puzzles lately.
Evie's imagination is also growing, here she is making her cat puzzle piece walk around and meow. No longer is it just a puzzle piece to get back in!

6) Lambs! There are 10 brand new baby lambs in Colonial Williamsburg these days. They are too cute! I failed at getting pictures of the actual lambs (we'll go back soon though, don't worry, we still need to show Nathan!). Here are David and Evie peeping through the fence that them though. They loved them, especially when they started bleating. :)
7) Lastly, we just bought a bike trailer so we can take our girls biking with us! We've been trying to take advantage of it before I get to big and the weather gets too hot. Evelyn really enjoys our rides and is so pleased when she sees Nathan getting the bikes and trailer out of the shed. :)