Easter Dinner and Egg Hunting

Several of the folks in Meeting planned to come to our house, so they wondered if we still planned to host given CK's health. I told them that the plans were the same and to come on over to our house right after and CK might join us for a bit. Leah and Jacob wanted to ride to our house with Sofia and Olivia, so we loaded up and headed home. Kristen and Leif followed us in her car. Once we arrived, Kristen helped me get everything ready while the kids played. It was really quiet easy and all I had to do other than set out food, was make the resurrection rolls and pop them into the oven. Judy arrived and also leant a hand setting out waters. Soon, Kyle and Annie arrived and she made up her salad and set out the rolls she brought. Marco and Stacy and their boys arrived and he started cooking the green beans and had the fruit salad (which we completely forgot about until after the meal!). Finally, Kari, Ryan and their three kids arrived and she set out her salad, rice pudding and roasted root vegetables.

Soon it was time to eat. We had Kristen and her three kids, Jacob, Leah, and Leif, Kari, Ryan and their three kids Oliver, Amelia and Elise, Marco, Stacy and their boys Antonio and Luca, Kyle and Annie, Judy, CK, the girls and me! CK was showered and dressed by the time we got home and looked good, although he still had a fever and felt terrible. Kyle gave thanks for our food and then asked everyone to grab a plate off the adult table and help themselves. The kids got their meals and were eating and playing together and soon we were all sitting down enjoying a delicious meal. Our menu included honey baked ham, potatoes au gratin made in the crockpot and delicious, roasted root vegetables, two salads, green beans, and rolls. For dessert we had rice pudding, homemade carrot cake, resurrection rolls and sugar cookies. It was all delicious!!

It had rained in the morning and I was worried we would have to hold the Easter egg hunt inside somehow. However, the rain had stopped and although everything was soggy, it was fine for an egg hunt. After our meal and before desserts, we hid the approximately 150 plastic Easter eggs in the back yard. I had stuffed half with candy and the other half toys, so there wouldn't be a sugar overdose. The kids were ready to hunt and so excited! To give the little ones a chance, we decided to allow kids under 5 to go first and hunt for a few minutes before releasing the older kids. Olivia and Leif kind of stuck together and took their time looking for eggs. They had fun looking and Olivia even gave a few to Leif since he was a little slower at finding them. Soon it was time for the older kids and Jacob and Sofia took off and stuck together. They ran around and went a little egg crazy, especially Sofia!

After collecting their eggs, each kid enjoyed opening them up and finding their candy and toys inside. We served up desserts and coffee and visited while the kids ate candy and sugar cookies and played together. It was just a fun way to spend Easter together and I always feel like I should host more get-togethers like this, just less time consuming and fancy. A simple pot luck after Meeting would be such a fun way to get together and let the kids play together more frequently too.

After helping out as much as everyone could, our friends headed off for home and to rest after such a big meal. What a fun Easter!

CK and his girls. He looks pretty good for not feeling great.

Olivia, Sofia and Jacob

One of the kid's tables

The other kid's table

Sofia!

The kids are ready to hunt some eggs!!

The little ones start off!

Here's one!

Another one!

The older kids hunting

Olivia and her basket

Sofia and Jacob are determined to find every single egg!

Olivia wants to check out her goodies.

A little red fish

The dyed Easter eggs from Marco and Stacy's. They look beautiful in a bowl as decoration.

The four of us! Happy Easter!

The chocolate coyote!

Happy Easter 2015!

Easter arrived and I was making coffee at 7am when Olivia came out of her room! It never fails that she wakes up her earliest on the weekends. The Easter baskets were out on the table and she clearly didn't remember from last year why exactly there were two baskets of goodies for her and her sister. I showed her to her basket and she started looking at all the toys, including a princess sticker book, Frozen hair bands, Frozen rings, a book "How the Turtle Got His Shell," two kinds of gum, a chocolate Easter bunny, a My Little Pony, a new Ariel swimsuit, Peeps, and a little yellow fluffy chick. It was so cute to watch her look at everything and even cuter when she pulled out the chocolate Easter Bunny and said it was a "Chocolate coyote"! Ha! She studied everything and was so happy with all of her goodies.

Sofia came downstairs just as Olivia was finishing up with her basket and was super excited to see her very own basket to go through. Sofia started in on her goodies and discovered a new toothbrush, an Easter book, two kinds of gum, a chocolate Easter bunny, a My Little Pony, two new workout skirts for soccer, a new blue and pink swimsuit, Peeps, a purple octopus keychain, and a little yellow fluffy chick.

The only down side to Easter morning was that CK was sick! He went flying yesterday and came home saying he felt tired and needed a short nap. After he woke up he had a fever and didn't feel well, but we went to a friend's 50th birthday party to help her celebrate. About an hour after we arrived, CK felt terrible and we headed home so he could go to bed. His fever continued and he felt even worse this morning. Poor guy! The girls and I ate breakfast, got ready for Meeting and headed over to Kyle and Annie's for Meeting.

The room was all set and ready for our Easter meal. There were two kids tables to hold 10 kids and two adult tables decorated and set for 10 adults. It had taken a few days to decorate and get ready, but looked good and I looked forward to a fun day.

Olivia's Easter Basket

Sofia's Easter Basket

Going through her goodies!

Checking out her purple octopus

Sofia looking at her Easter goodies

A new workout skirt for soccer

Dressed and ready for Meeting

Sweet sisters!

Dining Room table all set for company

Our extra table set up to hold everyone

Happy Easter!

The kids table

A close-up (although not before a pair of ears disappeared)

One of the kid finger puppets

Easter Goodies From Grandma and Grandpa!

Yesterday, Sofia and Olivia opened up boxes from their Grandma and Grandpa. They were so excited since they each got their own individual box of goodies. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa completely spoiled both girls with toys, candies, window Easter stickers, a new Easter plate, Easter bowl and drinking glass, bunny bracelet and all sorts of goodies. They had so much fun opening up their respective boxes and going through everything. It was great and I loved how they each got their own. No fighting and they both really enjoyed opening all of their stuff on their own terms.

After they opened up their goodies, they played with their toys and stuck the window stickers on the windows. Olivia loved her new Easter bunny bracelet and Sofia helped her put it on her wrist. Of course, both girls loved all the candies and we held them off enjoying too much until after dinner. What a fun surprise!

Olivia checking out her Easter Bunny bracelet

Sofia checking out all of her goodies

Candy!

Sofia and her candy

Sofia checking out her new cup and bowl

Olivia finds her cup

More unpacking....

Lollipops!

What else is in here?

A toy and candy in one! So cool!

Visiting the Easter Bunny

Today Olivia was able to visit the Easter Bunny! I'd originally planned to take both girls after school on Thursday to the mall to get their picture with the Easter Bunny, but got a call around 11:45am from the school nurse that Sofia had fallen and would likely need stitches! Olivia was in the middle of her "chemistry" class at the Hurst Recreation Center, so I had to get her out of her class and zip to Sofia's school. Once I arrived, the nurse said she would only need a butterfly bandage and that there was really no need to take her to the urgent care. She was bandaged up and we headed home so Sofia could rest her leg and keep it iced to reduce swelling. There was no way I was going to convince her to visit the Easter Bunny.

Today, Sofia's friend Milani had her 7th birthday party at Artisan Theater where the girls watched the play Junie B. Jones at noon. While Sofia was enjoying the play and party, I took Olivia to the annual Easter event at Delaney Vineyards. We've gone for several years and it's always been a lot of fun. We arrived just as it was starting and it was very crowded. We got in line to visit the Easter Bunny and Mrs. Bunny and were well in the middle of the line, but it still took us nearly an hour to get up there! I was a bit nervous Olivia would be scared by the time we got up to the Bunnies, but she kept saying she really wanted to see the Easter Bunny.

We finally made it up to the Easter Bunny and Mrs. Bunny and Olivia was so excited to sit on their lap and take a picture! It was so cute! Last year she was not into the Easter Bunny at all, so it was good to see that her feelings have changed. I originally thought we could return for another visit and photo after picking up Sofia, but after that huge wait there was no way we were coming back! After the picture, we headed out to the parking lot where there were food stands, bounce houses, face painting and the main stage where they announced the start of the Easter Egg Hunt, which we missed for Olivia's age group. In fact, I don't think we've ever done the Easter Egg hunt there in the years we've gone. I was so hungry that we both bought hot dogs and chips. I really wanted a pulled pork sandwich, but the line was way too long. Olivia and I sat on the curb and ate our food while enjoying the beautiful weather. Olivia really wanted to go into the bounce house, but the line was easily going to take us 20-30 minutes. I told Olivia that I'd be happy to take her to Jump For Fun anytime she wanted but that the line was just too long. She was fine with that and we decided on getting some cotton candy. Of course, that line was very long as well, but the line for the popcorn was short, so we switched to popcorn and headed to the car. Olivia munched on her popcorn while we walked back to our car and was fine with not doing the bounce house or face painting. I'd love to enjoy it all but there were just too many people and the lines were so long. They need to increase the number of bounce houses, face painters and food stands next year.

We returned to Artisan Theater and Milani and her friends were just finishing up the party. We picked up Sofia, who'd had a great time, and headed home. With 21 people coming to our house for Easter Sunday tomorrow, I still needed to get a lot done. I'd baked the carrot cake that morning and made the frosting, but needed to frost the cake and make sugar cookies and frost those. I also needed to make the dough for the Resurrection Buns. I've always bought the croissant dough at the grocery store before, but wanted to make it from scratch this year. I'm glad Olivia was able to visit the Easter Bunny and plan to get both girls there a lot earlier next year!

Sofia and her friend Milani

Olivia ready for a little Easter fun. She's wearing a pink bunny jacket my Mom gave Sofia that doesn't really fit her anymore, but she wanted to wear it.

Such a cutie!

Olivia with the Easter Bunny and Mrs. Bunny

Enjoying our popcorn on the way to the car.

Dying Easter Eggs

Last night we dyed Easter eggs over at Marco and Stacy's house. We originally had plans to go over for a casual dinner with them and their boys, and I thankfully remembered that I'd cooked 3 dozen white eggs that I planned to set out for the girls to dye last weekend and then completely forgot about. It was extra fun because Antonio had never done it before and Brandon, our other neighbor joined in and said he'd never dyed eggs either! Before we headed over to Marco and Stacy's house, Sofia went over to Brandon's house to play. Brandon is in 5th grade and about the sweetest kid I've met and goes along with any of Sofia's crazy ideas. So, he is often playing horses or dinosaurs or Harry Potter, which he actually loves as much as she does, so it's perfect! Once we arrived at their house, we set up the egg dying cups and put them outside on their concrete picnic table so we wouldn't spill and stain anything inside. It was actually pretty windy but the picnic table is well protected and the kids didn't even notice. I put Olivia into her "smock" which is one of CK's old dress shirts that I cut the arms off. It works great and she wears it anytime she paints or does anything that can stain.

Antonio and Olivia got busy dying eggs and did such a great job! Last year, Olivia used her hands and submerged each egg into each color so they all turned out to be dark blue/green. Plus, I had to watch over her and give her instructions on what to do. This year, she used that little metal egg scoop that comes inside the egg dye packages and I didn't have to tell her what to do at all. She remembered everything, plus, she was good at it! She did use her hands a little bit, but very little. Antonio had a plastic egg holder that he used and he also did a great job. They were having so much fun! When Olivia and Antonio were about halfway through the eggs, CK went next door and got Sofia and Brandon so they could join in the fun. Brandon said he'd never dyed eggs before and he really loved it! Sofia did her share too and after awhile Olivia decided she was done and wanted to play. Brandon, Antonio and Sofia finished up the eggs and they joined Olivia in playing before long. All the kids had a fun time and I love the tradition, especially since Antonio and Brandon haven't done it before! Plus, the eggs turned out beautifully!

Antonio

Olivia is very focused

Having fun!

Stacy, Olivia and Antonio

Brandon's first egg!

Olivia still dyeing and her colored egg pile grows

Sofia's first dyed egg of the year!

Showing Antonio hows it's done!

Starting another one

Brandon, Olivia and Sofia are still busy while Olivia has moved on to playing

The finished product! Beautiful!