Sunday, April 12, 2020

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter today in such a very different way than we originally thought we would be celebrating. Originally CK was supposed to be at The Masters golf tournament through late Saturday and we talked about having a few people from Meeting over for an Easter meal after our church service. We also talked about just going to the Park Cities Club for a delicious Easter buffet. Once everything was turned upside down and The Masters was completely cancelled and we have "social distancing" and "home isolation" we decided to spend Easter at the lake. Thankfully, the Park Cities Club offered an Easter menu for pick-up on Saturday afternoon to re-heat for Easter. Their food is so delicious and it makes it so much easier than bringing all of our food down in ice chests and cooking. CK ordered ham with peach chutney, lamb chops, green beans almondine, two side salads, two slices of carrot cake (for CK and myself) and two chocolate ice box pie slices (for the girls). The meal came with rolls and pecan butter. The only dish I planned on making was scalloped potatoes, which are my absolute favorite thing to eat! I love it at Easter and love having it for leftovers for days after Easter. I have an excellent crockpot recipe that I've used for the past 4-5 years but I didn't want to lug my crockpot down to the lake, so I found a recipe on Pinterest, of course, that was easy and looked delicious.

We arrived at the lake on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a gorgeous day on Saturday morning. Buddy and I took a 3-plus mile walk which was so fun and a great start to our day. Around noon, the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. Olivia decided to go with me to pick up our meal from Park Cities Club and we headed out just after 1pm with the plan to arrive around 2pm. The drive into the city went smoothly with the rain stopping about mid-way through our drive. Olivia told me about a few books she's reading and we talked about what superpower we'd most like to have, if we had one. We went to the Park Cities Club and the staff greeted us like we were old friends. Within minutes, we had our food in the back of our car and headed out. We decided on the drive up to Dallas, that we wanted to bring back Sprinkles cupcakes for our desert Saturday night, so we drove the short distance over to Sprinkles where there were maybe 10 cars parked waiting for their orders as well as people waiting for their cupcakes to come out. I tried their phone number but it never went through, so I downloaded the Sprinkles app and made our order that way. The website said it would be ready in 20 minutes. We were both hungry and found a little taco place nearby and we ordered a cheese quesadilla and a veggie burrito. We returned to get our cupcakes and ended up waiting for an hour! At one point, Olivia even said "they aren't really that good. Let's just go home." I nearly decided to drive away, but finally they found our order and brought it to our car! So annoying! With cupcakes, we headed back to the lake.

On Easter morning Buddy and I took a shorter walk in the neighborhood and CK made biscuits, bacon and scrambled eggs. It felt so odd not to be doing our usual donuts and drive to Meeting on Easter Sunday. The girls woke up around 9:30am and Olivia was the first out to inspect her Easter basket. She waited until Sofia arrived to go through all of their goodies together. They normally get a chocolate See's Easter bunny and chocolate eggs that have a little white chocolate chick inside, but See's is completely closed right now. They each got a new book and a game as well as chocolate bunny and some candies. After they had gone through their goodies, the four of us read Matthew 28 and Luke 24, taking turns reading a few verses. We also read aloud the thoughts of those from our Meeting. We are all on an email chain and suggested that we write down our Sunday morning thoughts between 10-11am. It was really not the same as being together in the same room, but still a refreshing start to our day and great to be able to read everyone's thoughts. After, we decided to lounge around the house and I worked on our Dog puzzle for a bit before we decided to take the boat out for the very first time! We originally had a plan to have Andrew, the Nautique salesman who sold us the boat, come out and give us a lesson on what we need to know about operating the boat, but that got cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation, so we decided to start it up and give it a shot.

The girls were so excited to get on the boat and especially to be pulled around on the inflatable. The water temperature is in the mid-60s, so it would be pretty brisk if they fell in, but they still were super excited to go out on the lake. CK got the boat started easily and we headed out. It's such a perfect day for being out on the water and there were several other boaters out. We headed over to the marina and then the girls got tugged all over the lake for a while. CK turned around to head back toward out house and both girls got sprayed by the cold water. Plus, I think Olivia was afraid she might fall off, so she got off the tube for a bit. Sofia went by herself and Olivia soon joined her. I needed to get back to start cooking the potatoes au gratin, so CK took me back and dropped me off and then headed back out with the girls to play around with the boat settings. It's so fun to be out on the water and I love that the girls enjoy it so much.

I started making the potatoes au gratin, which came together really easily and were in the oven in no time. Just as I finished up, CK and the girls were back from their outing. It had become a lot more windy and thankfully our neighbor was at the dock and helped guide the boat into the slip. We have a remote boat lift controller which is a HUGE help. I worked on our dogs puzzle that we started the day before while our potatoes cooked and then but the rest of our food into the oven to reheat. Soon, it was time to eat! Olivia set the table and we put everything on the counter and took turns filling up our plates. It was all so delicious and such a great Easter meal, even if it was a very unconventional Easter. We cleaned up and worked on the puzzle and the girls played for a bit before we all changed into pjs and watched The Karate Kid. I haven't seen that movie since it came out years ago and it was so much fun to rewatch it and let the girls enjoy a classic. So much fun and a great end to a really fabulous day!

Sofia's Easter basket.

Olivia's Easter basket.

The Easter baskets ready to be checked out if the girls every wake up!

Such a beautiful Easter morning at the lake.

Olivia is ready to check out her Easter stash.

Sofia is ready to check out her basket, now that she's finally awake.


The girls check out their goodies, as CK makes us breakfast!

Easter breakfast is served (along the puzzle that we are working on..)

The maiden voyage of the boat!

The girls are more than ready! They can't wait to get on the inter tube!

Olivia.

Our boat captain!

The girls!

They love sitting at the front of the boat while we rocket across the lake.

Here we go!

The girls on their happy place!


CK and the girls head back out to play with the boat.

Sofia with her Easter art work!

Serving Easter dinner! So delicious.

CK and the girls before the Easter egg hunt begins.

Hunting!!




The girls and me after the hunt.


Sofia!

Checking out the goods.

The girls and CK going through their candy-stuffed eggs.

Happy girls after a successful Easter egg hunt!

Easter sunset.

Friday, April 10, 2020

Dying Easter Eggs

I had planned to get the girls to dye Easter eggs yesterday afternoon, but the day somehow ended up getting away from us and the girls enjoyed playing on the trampoline in this beautiful weather. So, today I woke up at 7:30am thanks to my furry alarm clock, Buddy, and he and I headed out for our morning walk. We ended up running into our dog friend Riley and his parents and had a good time catching up. Buddy and Riley are about the same size and actually play together (or completely ignore each other) and Riley's owner John always gives Buddy treats, so he's a huge fan. After our walk on such a perfectly beautiful day, we got home and CK headed out to fly. Since it was Good Friday and a day off from school work, I let the girls sleep while I got organized for our drive to the lake later today. Finally, at 11:30am I made the girls get out of bed! I couldn't believe they were still asleep! Sofia has really become a sleepyhead in the past two years, but Olivia used to actually get up at a relatively normal time, but now that we are "home schooling" she tends to be able to sleep in just like Sofia. They slowly woke up and got a little breakfast in their bellies and went straight to the trampoline to play, since it really was the perfect weather out.

I had two cartons of 18 eggs hard boiled and ready to be dyed and set them out on the patio table with two sets of dye cups. Olivia helped me add the vinegar and we watched the tablets bubble and blend into the vinegar until it was time to add the water. Sofia was a little less excited, but I told her she would get into it once it was time to dye eggs. Soon it was ready to get started and Olivia was super excited while Sofia sat and read her book. I did manage to get a few photos of Sofia actually smiling while dyeing eggs. Olivia took her time and really tried to figure out what exact color she wanted on each egg, while Sofia was a little less focused on her egg-dying outcome. She did use her wax crayon to draw her name and other things on a few eggs. Sofia read her book between egg dyeing rounds and wasn't as into all of it, but she was a good sport. Olivia really enjoyed it and I had fun with them taking photos and enjoying this tradition on such a beautiful day.

Once the girls were done, the returned to the trampoline and I continued to get everything ready for our trip to the lake later. The eggs really did turn out to be beautiful and it really is one of my favorite traditions to do before Easter. I hope Olivia continues to enjoy it for many more years and Sofia continues to be a good sport.

The girls having fun dyeing their Easter eggs!

Sofia showing her "true feelings"! Ha!!

Sofia being a good sport and dyeing her batch of eggs.

Olivia making sure her blue is just perfect.

Sofia checking on her pink egg.












Olivia and her finished eggs! Beautiful!


Sofia and her finished eggs! Gorgeous!

The finished eggs! So beautiful!! Some are missing because the girls needed a snack while they worked.