Easter Activities 2025

Easter is Amelia's 2nd favorite holiday. Yes, she gets two baskets full of fun, but it is the tradition that she loves more.

 We dye and paint eggs the day before. 

No fancy stuff here, Amelia insists on just the standard dye and vinegar.

Her and I each paint a wooden egg as well. This year we got over ambitious and painted 2 each. 

These get added to our years past collection. I love making these and we do a similar tradition at Christmas and Halloween with ornaments and pumpkins.

On Easter morning she wakes to a very intense scavenger hunt for special eggs that hold clues to where she can find "Our" basket. 

After looking thru the goodies of ours, it is off to find the eggs the Easter Bunny has hid outside.

She usually finds a golden one in there too.

Then she wanders around trying to find the basket from The Easter Bunny. Why every year she has trouble...we have no idea ;)

Eventually she finds it.

and heads in to open the eggs and look thru the basket.

 We stay in our pajamas all day and eat our traditional Easter Day Dinner of Ham, Mac and Cheese and Asparagus.  It is all about tradition. No wonder she loves it. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! 

Freshman year is almost done which means...that will be the next blog post.

Fifteen

 

I could say "Where did the time go?", but I know exactly where it went...making a smart, generous, caring individual whom we couldn't be more proud of. Now we are so eager to see what the next 15 years will bring.

We certainly take care of our one and only, but she is humble and thankful for every gift.

Books are always on the list.

Along with clothes and accessories!

After opening presents, we headed to Barnes and Noble for a small "book" birthday party with her closest friends.

Everyone got a goody bag along with a gift card to buy a book.

Dad and her chatted while waiting for the girls to arrive.

Then he and I left to do our own browsing when the guests arrived.

We headed home for Amelia's favorite cake... 

Mary Barry's Victoria Sponge Cake. 

The Happiest Birthday to our favorite being!

Valentine's 2025

 I am a traditionalist. I have been since as early as I can remember...maybe 3? 

Amelia is a too, maybe more so than I if that is possible, as I trained her to be so. That being said...she will always have her 13 days of her valentine advent that includes a daily affirmation of things we love about her, along with the heart playing card garland close by that she made back in 2014 when she was almost 4. That post you can see HERE.

She gets just excited as she did back then. 

Yes, I overdo it. She knows she is a lucky girl to be an only child and all attention on her. Luckily, we have taught her to be humble and thankful for all she has. She tells us she loves us multiple times a day, for no reason, from the heart, without ever feeling she has to. We are honored to have her a part of our lives and so proud of who she has become.

She reads out loud every card she receives.

Acknowledges even the kindest gesture by us remembering how she loves Nerds...

...and favorite authors.

Trinkets of the things she loves growing up and still dabbles in.

Makes sure we did our homework and got the best deals on more luxury items. Of course we did and it has rubbed off on her to be thrifty so you can have the nicer things. 

She treasures everything she is gifted. Perhaps too much, although she says "Mom, I want to save things for my children." 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Onto the 15th Birthday planning!

Naples Come for a Visit!

Extending Christmas even further... my niece and her kids came for a visit!

Along with bowling and horseback riding (Olivia owns a horse), we headed to Chicago for an overnight.

We grabbed Starbucks and set out for a hike around the Magnificent Mile.

Dinner at Ed Debevic's was a highlight and you can see that over on Instagram below.

The following day we headed to the Griffin Museum of Science and Technology. We were saving this museum for just the right visitors as we heard it was fantastic and great for kids. It is officially one of our favorites!

The Naples headed out for their long ride back to NY, with promises to meet this summer.

A mention to the gift Cole gave Amelia, made with his new 3D printer.  Since he and Amelia play Roblox a lot (and Piggy being one of their favorites to play), he made her this set. How cool AND thoughtful is that!

Back to school for everyone and gearing up for Winter Dance, a room revamp to house all her new books and of course...Valentine's Day!

The Naples Chicago Trip on Instagram