There's a reason I get everything from Kohl's and Target.

Yesterday Sarah and I went dress shopping with my mom. Sarah has her first ever piano recital at the end of this month and my mom wanted her to have a new dress.  And new shoes.

So we started with an early lunch at Jason's Deli and then headed to the mall.  If you are a regular reader of my What I Wore Sunday posts you know that most of my shopping is done at Kohl's and Target. 

And yesterday I remembered why.

The mall is big and I think I should have eaten more at Jason's Deli to sustain me for the whirling shopping dervish named Sarah.

She picked out and tried on 10 dresses and then picked out and tried on 4 more.  She was in hog heaven parading in front of the mirror, twirling around, posing like a model. 

We finally narrowed it down to 5 dresses.  We each had a favorite and she was torn.  She ultimately although I think reluctantly decided on the one I like the best and we headed out to hang to dresses back on the racks. (At Kohl's and Target you do not have to hang up your merchandise.  I'm just sayin'.)

As we began the hunt for the cash register (At Kohl's and Target the registers are conveniently located by the entrances.  I'm just sayin'.) we all stopped in our tracks.  Hanging on a rack out in the middle aisle was a dress.  It was so pretty. It was navy blue with white polka dots.  It was just the right mix of sweet, stylish and dressy without being too dressy. It was just perfect for a piano recital.

It looked out of place hanging on a rack with only all white dresses.  I am assuming someone just stuck it there because they didn't want to hang it where it belonged. (Another Kohl's shopper perhaps?)

We all looked at it and said, "What a pretty dress!"  Sarah smiled when we said, "You should try it on."

So we went back into the dressing room and tried on dress number 15 and we all agreed it was "the one."

If only the shoe shopping had been as smooth. 

We went into store after store and continued to come out empty handed.  I had enough of the mall and decided it was time to head home. The mall had beaten me down. Worn me out.  Made me hungry. I felt like I had just done a Jillian workout.

So on Friday I'm taking Sarah to Kohl's and Target. 

I'm just sayin'.

The best.

The Easter Bunny come yesterday morning even though my kids have their doubts.  They both even wrote letters for the bunny.  Dan and I suspect that Peter was doing it for our sakes although I think deep down he still really, really, really wants to believe.

The baskets were filled with mostly non-candy items.  But don't fill too bad for my kids because Grandma and Grandpa always have another big basket for them full of good chocolate. 

And then the bunny does what he normally does....he continues to hop through our house all afternoon leaving little chocolate eggs for the kids to find.  It's a continuous egg hunt around our house all Easter Sunday...

I hope everyone had a great day celebrating Easter - which truly is the best holiday of all!

What I Wore: Easter Sunday Edition

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful day. We got up, opened Easter baskets and headed to Mass. After Mass we had lunch at my parent's house with my best friend and her family and now we are back home resting up.

I don't normally nap but I'm thinking that today might be a good day to start. The weather was gorgeous here yesterday so it as a disappointment to wake up to clouds and rain. But it's like the priest said, "Don't let the weather dampen your excitement over the risen Lord!"

And I didn't let the weather stop me from dressing like it was warm and sunny either.

Blazer:  Wal-mart
Dress:  Target
Shoes:  Target
Jewelry - Target

(Apparently I only buy my clothes at stores where groceries and automotive products are also sold!)

And here are my munchkins.  Aren't they cute?!

Linking up with Camp Patton for Show Us Your Easter Dress! and Fine Line and Purple.

Me too.

His dad was already sound asleep on the couch, still on Irish time, so I didn't give him a hard time when he came down the stairs.

"I need to talk to you Mama."

"Okay sweetie."

"In my room."

So together we climbed the steps back up to his room. He crawled into his bed and I sat down on the edge.

"What is it, honey?"

"Some people say that the Easter Bunny isn't real.  Is it? Is it real Mama?"

He and I had a similar conversations about Santa for the last couple of years so I said what I always say, "Well, what do you think honey?"

"I'd like to think that there is an Easter Bunny," was his quiet reply.

"Well, okay then.  There you go."

And then big tears squeezed out of the corners of his eyes and he said, "I miss being 4 or 5 sometimes."

I nodded in agreement and ruffled his hair.

He grabbed his teddy bear and rolled over and I realized that at that exact moment he had stopped believing in the Easter Bunny.

As I headed back down the stairs, I fought off the tears myself.

I miss 4 or 5 sometimes, too.

Sometimes the fun is in the mess! (Well, for kids, that's always the case!)

The kids had their BFFs sleep over last night.  This morning we dyed Easter eggs using the shaving cream and food coloring method I saw on Pinterest.

You are supposed to swirl food coloring in shaving cream and then lightly roll the eggs in the shaving cream.  Wait about 15 minutes and gently wipe the shaving cream off to see your tie-dyed effect.

Well, I think the kids had a little too much fun swirling the food coloring around because we ended up with some very pale eggs.  Extremely pale, as a matter of fact.  And not a trace of any tie-dyed effect what so ever.

After lunch we are heading out to a neighborhood egg hunt and then it's off to church for the 3:00 Good Friday service.  I might be re-dyeing these eggs afterwards just to see if I can get them to look a little better.

The shaving cream made a huge mess so the kids had fun even if the eggs didn't turn out quite right!

I've been dyeing to show you these....

Haha!  Dyeing?  Get it?

We dyed Easter eggs this past weekend and I took lots of pictures.  I spent the whole time fiddling with the settings on the camera and I still couldn't get it right. Some are washed out, some are too blue, some are blurry. 

But I did get one thing right...I have the cutest egg dyers ever.  Am I right, Grandma T?

I'm melting! Surely this is a harbinger of Spring.

Danny Boy's in Ireland yet again and Easter Break starts tomorrow.

Peter wants to know why we aren't going to Hawaii or Florida like his friends from school and Sarah wants to know how many play dates we can arrange over the next 12 days.

I'm just trying to find ways to stay warm that don't involve Jillian's Ripped in 30.  Y'all, the week two workout leaves me drenched in sweat.  Next week I'm moving on to week three.  If week two is any indicator, I'm going to look a bit like this afterwards....

It's just ridiculous.

Yesterday I realized that I had a $10 Kohl's coupon, $10 Kohl's cash and a 30% off coupon (all set to expire within the next couple of days.) And if you are a Kohl's shopper then you know that's Kohls' version of the trifecta and it doesn't come around too often.

 So I dropped the kids off at school this morning and headed to Kohl's. But I decided I better swing into Target first. I really enjoy cruising through Target with a big red buggy and a cup of their coffee.  I  looked at the shoes and some dish towels and grabbed a few things to round out the kid's Easter baskets.

Which reminds me, yesterday Sarah said, "Mom, are you the Easter bunny?" As soon as she said this, my dear sweet scared husband headed out of the room and out the front door to avoid that conversation.

"What do you think, honey?" That's always my go-to response when I'm asked about Santa Claus so I figured it would work for E.B. as well.

"Mom, I want a real answer from you." I tried to change the subject and she said, "Now, you're just changing the subject!"

We went back and forth until she said, "I mean, really? A big bunny that hops around delivering Easter baskets is just ridiculous!" And somehow, I got out of that one without actually answering the question.

 I think she still believes in the Easter Bunny but it will be interesting to see what she says on Easter morning.

Anyway, I was cruising through Target with my big red cart, my big cup of coffee and generally enjoying myself before the craziness of Spring Break begins in a couple of days, when I wheeled out from a side aisle into the big  main aisle. As I was doing this an older woman wheeled out from a side aisle on the opposite side of the big aisle. 

So she and I were both in the big aisle going in opposite directions but driving with our carts on the left side of the aisle as if we were in Ireland and not in America. 

And then she gave me an evil stare and started muttering that she thought you were supposed to drive your cart on the right side of the aisle and she thought it was ridiculous that people were driving their carts on the left  side of the aisle.

So I muttered out loud, "Are you serious?"

But really, I should have just taken her to the aisle where they have these:

 Because needing to use something other than a knife is what's ridiculous!

Well, that and a big giant bunny that hops around handing out Easter baskets.

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