Easter, Married-with-a-Dog Style

When Husband and I were engaged and newly married, it seemed as though everyone had some advice to share with us. Some of the advice we got was pretty unexpected and kind of weird, but many of our loved ones offered little bits of treasure that we follow to this day. One of those beloved pieces of advice was from my former Stake Relief Society President, who wrote me a sweet card explaining the importance of tradition in her family. Nate and I grew up in families who shared cherished and somewhat quirky traditions, so I determined that we would start forming our own family traditions right from the start.

My Easter banner! Sorry about the terrible lighting...

You can find the printable letters for this banner here, and the bunny printable here!

One of the traditions that I have continued to follow since we formed our own little family is the tradition of the Easter egg hunt and Easter baskets. I loved these traditions growing up and have no doubt that my kids will love them, too! We don't have kids yet, but why wait until we have little ones to carry on these fun customs? Besides, I always tease Nate that he is 24-going-on-five, so he loves this kind of stuff anyway. Here's a little taste of what we woke up to Sunday morning:

I made Nate go to bed before me on Saturday night so I could pull together my Easter surprises for him to find when he woke up the next morning. Yes, he's in his early twenties but seriously, who doesn't love an Easter egg hunt designed specifically for you?

I spent a little while trying to come up with fun things other than candy to fill the eggs with. I wracked my brain for some ideas involving things that he loved that could be incorporated into the egg hunt and came up with the perfect plan! Nate loves Legos so I decided that I could buy him a small Lego project and hide pieces of the set inside each of the eggs.

Aside from the Legos, I filled the eggs with his favorite candies. Nate loves chocolate and peanut butter so I filled the majority of the eggs with a combination of Reese's and other yummy candies. Additionally, I set aside two eggs for our little doggie Kona, which I filled with her food and a small dog bone. She ended up appreciating the plastic egg more than the food and the bone.

The look on Nate's face when he opened the first Lego easter egg was totally priceless! I could tell that he was experiencing two very different emotions: first, excitement because that's how he always reacts when he sees Legos, and second, utter fear of where these Legos came from and of the idea that the set wasn't in one place... that could mean that a piece might be missing and the whole project could be ruined! No worries, though. I was all over that concept and was extra careful with the small pieces. 

After Nate opened his eggs and had a bowl of Legos and a pile of candy I gave him his Easter basket, which had the box for the Lego project along with the instructions. I'm not going to lie: Nate was all over this Lego idea. Touchdown!

 Along with the box for his Lego kit, I bought Nate Bananagrams (the best Scrabble spin-off game ever) and some dog treats and a toy for Kona. I was a little selfish and included in his basket a chocolate Peter Rabbit for me because I used to get a chocolate bunny every Easter, so I had to throw that in the bunch!

Nate was a sweetheart and surprised me with these Frye flats that I have been drooling over for weeks. I thought I hit it out of the park with the Legos, but Nate totally dominated this Easter!

And there you have it! We had so much fun this last Sunday. Do you have any favorite Easter traditions that you've incorporated into your own marriage and family? I'd love to hear about them!