My Big Egg Helper

Oh my gosh, can I even describe how much this picture means to me?

No, I don't think I can.

You see, these pictures are of Katie Anne helping out big time.  She stuffed 30 of the 36 Easter eggs we were taking to Easter at my cousins Angela and Andy's house for our big family celebration today.  We all three laid down after lunch to take naps before the big event (Saunders and I actually took a nap, while Katie Anne just "played quietly in here" for 1.5 hours, according to her), and we were a little pushed to make it to the Easter party by 4:00 after our alarm went off at 1:00.

So, while I put on my makeup and fixed my hair and Saunders took his shower, our precious little person did one big job for us - putting candy inside almost all the eggs.  (I showed her how to do 2 of them to start, and she said her fingers got tired after 30 eggs - I believe it - so I finished up the last 4.)

It was such a huge help because it let me check one thing off my pre-party to-do list: 

get my myself ready-check 

get KA ready-check

make 24 deviled eggs-check

make lemonade-check

bake 24 oatmeal and 24 peanut butter cookies- check

stuff 36 eggs-CHECK!  

I had so much to do in the 2.5 hours I had before we needed to leave, and Katie Anne's being such a big helper saved me probably fifteen or twenty minutes.  Plus, she was so focused on her work and so pleasant about doing it that it added a little lift to the hustled mood as well.

The no-nap afternoon came back to bite her a little bit, and she threw a fit when we told her we had to leave (she literally threw her shoe in Angela's basement... "Who throws a shoe?  I mean, honestly?" - Austin Powers).  She was so exhausted that she cried herself to sleep in the car on the drive home, and she hasn't done that in a LONG time.  However, after all this quality work on Easter prep and her whistle-while-you-work attitude earlier in the afternoon...

I was willing to cut my big egg helper a little slack.

:)