Easter 2015

Our Easter Sunday tradition so far has been to do most of our celebration in the late afternoon, since John usually works Sundays.  However, this year, John was home all day because he was sick (he now is going through what I had a few weeks ago).  Yet, we decided to stick to our plan and let the Easter bunny visit during nap time.

Evan and I started the day by dying some eggs.  He helped me do this last year too. This year we used real hard-boiled eggs since last year's fake eggs didn't take on the colors very vividly.  I thought maybe Emma could help, but that wasn't working out so well (she kept pulling the newspapers, which moved the cups of dye and almost made them spill a few times).  So we gave her a snack to keep her busy while Evan carefully spun his egg in the cup of dye to get it thoroughly colored.  I have to say, his eggs were probably the best of all of them.  The rest just didn't get the same level of care and attention (I just let mine sit in a color while I watched Evan with his).  John ended up helping and made some two-toned ones since a few of the lighter colors didn't come out very nice.

 

Evan spinning his egg in the red dye...it came out a beautiful bright pink.

Evan's bright pink egg in the front next to my other favorite, the aqua colored one! :)

We played outside a bit later in the morning.  What a beautiful day it was!  Perfect for Easter!  After lunch it was nap time, but of course, Evan didn't want to nap!  He was too excited for the Easter bunny to come, and so we kept telling him he had to sleep or at least pretend to sleep for the bunny to come.  After almost 2 hours of him just laying there wide awake, he finally fell asleep! And of course he fell asleep right before Emma woke up, which is what we were trying to get him to wait for! So we let him have a power nap while I got Emma dressed into an extra pretty dress for the occasion.

The Easter bunny had hidden a whole lot of little chocolate eggs all around the living room and dining room, left gifts for everyone out on the couch (and for grown ups on the dining table), and hidden plastic eggs in the backyard.  What a busy little bunny! :) 

What the Easter bunny left on our couch for the kids....

After waking up Evan, he was quick to get up when I told him the bunny had come, but he was a bit dazed and confused still.  It took him awhile to register that there were gifts on the couch for him.  But as soon as he spied some of the hidden chocolate eggs, he got very excited!  John and Evan and even Emma too hunted all over the house for the chocolate eggs.  While Emma did find some chocolate eggs and she helped put the ones she found (or that John helped her find) into the bowl, all she really wanted was her chocolate bunny opened that she had found in her Easter bucket!

Every time Evan found new eggs he'd get so excited and say "I found one!!"  He is really at a great age for this game.  Once we determined we had found all the eggs inside, the consuming of chocolate began.  I really should have gotten my picture with the kids before that, but alas, John says the kids having chocolate mustaches is all part of the holiday!  At least I got a nice photo with both of them though!

Me and my cuties...with chocolate in their mouths or on their mouths...but at least they are smiling mouths! :)

Then it was time to take their empty buckets outside to hunt for more eggs.  There were empty plastic eggs hidden all around the back yard.  The wind had blown some away/off the deck, so most were in spots in the patio and yard and fence and trees! :)  Evan did great finding eggs...he ran from one to the next.  He got so many eggs that his bucket overflowed!  When that first happened I suggested he move some of his eggs into Emma's bucket to make more room in his.  However, he kept stacking them carefully and trying to keep them all but every time he'd walk with the stacked bucket of eggs, he'd lose some again.  So finally he gave in and said "Okay, I'll put some in Emma's bucket." :)

Emma did good finding eggs on her own, and she also got some help sometimes too.  Yet, she really is also at the perfect age for starting to hunt for eggs.  She'd certainly have gotten more if Evan hadn't swooped in and stolen some from her after she sighted them.  

Halfway through the hunt

After the hunt was done

Once we got inside, Emma started to open all of the plastic eggs one by one!  We figured she was looking for candy in them like the ones they got last weekend at a nearby neighborhood egg hunt.  (Most of the candy in those was melted since it was such a warm and sunny day, one more reason why we kept our eggs empty outside and did the candy hunting inside!).

We feasted on a big dinner of ham and turkey, in which I made a little special by wrapping it with yummy trimmings.  For the ham, I wrapped it in bacon and pineapple, and then I wrapped the turkey just in bacon.  I also made a cheesy hashbrown casserole, green beans sautéed in bacon grease (see a theme on how I flavored the meal yet?), big yeasty dinner rolls and apple pie for dessert.

One of my more special memories from the day was the game the kids played with me and John after dinner.  I don't remember how it started, but they ran back and forth between me and John saying "I love you" and giving us hugs.  Emma would hug me and say something that sounded like "love you" while Evan did it to John, and then they'd swap.  It went on for quite awhile, and it was not something I was going to end prematurely...I loved every minute of it!  After a little while, they also did it to each other a few times too (when they'd meet in the middle)...oh it was soooo cute.  This was definitely my favorite Easter yet! :)