I was pretty excited for Easter this year because it was going to be the first holiday Jamesie is old enough to understand and appreciate. (Actually, that's not entirely true. When I told him the Easter Bunny was going to come on Easter he said "Why?" so I told him because it's a special day that we celebrate and he said "Why?" so then I figured I should mention Jesus since He is the real reason for Easter and then James said "Why?" again, and then I was really stumped. Why does the Easter Bunny come?) Anyway, back to Easter. I went to the store and stocked up on some Easter Bunny goodies. We all know James has way too many toys and is a junk-food junkie, so I tried to get things that would make a fun Easter basket without going overboard. I thought I did a really good job and spent the days leading up to Easter looking forward to Sunday morning. That is, until the Easter Bunny was totally outdone. As Tom mentioned
here my awesome coworkers brought over a big brother basket for James on the Friday before Easter. It was very nice of them; however, everything they included in their basket was similar to what I was planning to include in Jamesie's Easter basket except much cooler. Examples: The Easter Bunny got a bubble wand, coworkers got a bubble sword and an awesome electric bubble blower; The Easter Bunny got a 4-pack of Wal-Mart brand sidewalk chalk, coworkers got a deluxe Crayola brand sidewalk chalk set; The Easter Bunny got a yellow kickball (the kind in the big racks in the stores that only cost $1), coworkers got a sweet Nerf kickball. Not to mention the school bus, dump trucks, puzzles, and books that were also in the basket. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed because I obviously couldn't give him my junkie stuff anymore, but I rallied and decided to focus my efforts on the candy side of Easter. I decided the Easter Bunny could bring an empty basket and hide eggs all over the house. Jamesie could fill his own basket with a good old-fashioned Easter egg hunt. The night before Easter I stayed up late and lovingly filled plastic Easter eggs with candy. I wanted him to have a lot of eggs and not much candy so I put 2 M&Ms in each egg. I was very pleased with my plan as I hid eggs all over the house and anxiously awaited the next morning. James woke up Sunday morning and had a great time searching for eggs. Tom's mom had brought James an Easter basket also, so Tom put the eggs from that basket in with the Easter Bunny's eggs, and we sat back to watch him open his eggs and enjoy his M&Ms. Trying to be a good mom, I told him he could open and eat 3 eggs before breakfast. The first egg James chose was from his Grandma Ruden and imagine his excitement (and my dismay) when 30 M&Ms came pouring out. James REALLY enjoyed his candy, and was not interested at all in the eggs with only 2 M&Ms. I decided maybe 3 eggs was too many and we should just call it quits. Sorry Easter Bunny, there's always next year.
We bought this brand new swing for Logan because James loved swinging so much. It almost killed me to buy something at Target rather than a garage sale, but look how much Logan is enjoying it!
Very patiently waiting for Daddy to finish putting his birthday present together.
Ready to play!
Enjoying his birthday present from mom and dad while also playing his new drum from Grandma and Grandpa. Looks like someone else is also enjoying the music set. Who knew Tom could play the trumpet? 
So stinkin' cute!
Big brother's birthdays really make a guy tired.
Sweet.
"Ready for my cake!"
Yes, he had a pink cake. I was thinking cherry frosting would be delicious. I did not think it would be so pink. I have taken a lot of grief about it, and it was very embarrassing when Dr. Sayeed asked what kind of cake he had and Jamesie replied, "pink." I will not make this mistake again. 
It may be pink, but it sure is good.
Everybody knows you don't have to wear pants on your birthday.
Maybe he has all the musical talent we don't have.
"I'm in the band too."
