Easter 2011

We had a great Easter weekend this year. On Saturday morning Cassie hosted a HUGE egg hunt at the park next door to our house. She invited all her friends, daycare families, etc. It was complete with a giant potluck (someone brought a griddle and made fresh blueberry pancakes!), egg dying, paper bunny ear hat making, kiddo tattoos, and of course hundreds of candy-filled plastic eggs.I think Eddie ate his weight in jelly beans on Saturday.

I got to the park at about 8:20am that morning and sat on the picnic table to reserve it for the party. Normally I guess you can reserve the picnic areas, but Cassie wasn't able to do that this time. The egg hunt started at 10 but she asked me to get there before 9 to make sure we could have that spot. I happily left Dave in charge of Eddie at home, took my blanket, hot coffee, and yarn and practiced crocheting for 40 minutes. Leila went home with me once they arrived so Cassie could have some alone time to set up. Eddie was SO EXCITED to see Leila come inside our house. He was seriously screaming and clapping his hands out of pure joy! Those two tromped around the house, read books, watched the chickens, and Dave bounced them on the yoga ball. At one point Dave came into the kitchen and said to me, "wow, I can see why Eddie comes home from Cassie's so tired every day--when he's with other big kids he just go-go-GOES!"

We got to see lots of Eddie's friends and their parents at the egg hunt. Most of the kids weren't really interested in collecting eggs, especially once they realized there was candy inside them. Jonah opened one of his eggs and was so confused to see jelly beans falling out onto the ground. He had one half of the plastic shell in each hand and still tried to pick up the beans. But his toddler-sized hands out barely hold the egg shells, let alone anything else. He was getting frustrated and then MY child swooped in, snatched up those beans, and ate them! Poor Jonah. It was sad, but so, so funny. Eddie know candy is a treat so he was stuffing it in his mouth as fast as possible, probably fearing someone would make him stop.

Our cousin Chip is a dentist and he said it is better for kids to have a TON of sugar once in a while, rather than a little bit of sugar all the time (in terms of tooth decay from sugar). This is clearly the doctrine we've established in our household, and Eddie knows it.

Eddie took a good, solid nap that afternoon while I ran downtown to Ace to buy our summer veggies. I brought a $100 bill with me as my budget and easily stuck to it (and even bought 100 pounds of chicken food). I bought starts of tomatoes, peppers, stevia, lemon verbena, and fern cilantro, plus a ton of seeds (cilantro, borage, calendula, Asian greens, chard, tomatillos, okra, dill, basil, an heirloom zucchini I can't name right now).

I spent the rest of the day finalizing the garden beds. Dave had tilled them on Friday so I had to shovel the loosened soil up from the paths and onto the tops of the beds. I also laid out the irrigation lines, tested everything for leaks, and then Dave and I hammered and wired T-posts to hold up the tomato cages. This year our 'mater cages will actually be used as bean trellises since Dave wants to try growing the tomatoes on the ground (it'll be a mess with all those vines on the ground, but that's okay once in a while).

Everything is in bloom here, our yard is looking so nice! (And yes, this is a picture of Eddie with one boot on, playing with an empty distilled water squirt bottle by filling it up with gravel. Isn't this how all 20-month-olds entertain themselves in the suburbs?)

On Sunday I got up and started cooking our Easter meal. We had ham, bunny buns, hot crossed buns, greens, black-eyed peas, fruit and green salads, and deviled eggs. Everything except the ham was vegetarian so Jessica could eat it. Normally we cook the greens and beans with a ham hock, but this time I just used seasonings that are "meaty." For the greens I sauteed some green onions and then reduced a bottle of pilsner beer with the onions until it was all caramelized and delicious. I added two drops of liquid smoke, too. For the beans I used Spike seasoning and more sauteed green onion. No one missed the meat in either dish.

Once Eddie went down for his nap, Dave and I got busy sweeping/vacuuming/moping the floors, dusting, and setting up the patio for our guests.

Around 2pm my mom and Gayla arrived and by 4pm John and Jessica came with a "dirty pudding" and Lucas bought too many delicious desserts from Nugget. It was a fun, yummy meal! After we'd all eaten, my mom and I brought out the Easter treats: Palmer's hallow chocolate bunnies, sacks of little candies made by my mom, and a bucket of goodies for Eddie. The Easter bunny brought Eddie some candies, chalk, and fizzy dinosaur eggs for the bath (he thought they were giant candies...sorry to disappoint you, kid...). Gayla brought him a cool Diego safari truck toy, which he has really enjoyed playing with.

I think Eddie ate his weight in chocolate that evening.

John and Jessica are scheduled to have their babies in about a week. I can't believe their much-anticipated darlings will be here so soon! And that in two years they'll be dealing with two times the chaos that I have to deal with right now. But I'm sure they'll handle it with more grace than I ever could. (I need to plan the Schwind twins birth celebratory meal! It'll be a feast of epic proportions considering there are TWO babies! John is Italian and Jessica is a Georgia Peach. I should do a Yankee/Rebel themed dinner!)

That night as I was putting laundry away in our room, I found two little insulated cups I had bought for Eddie's Easter bucket. I was SO bummed that I'd forgotten to include them because I know he'll absolutely love them (he loves anything with a straw that remotely resembles something adults use). I was really looking forward to seeing his face when he opened them up. They are in the dishwasher now so once I know they are clean I'll give them to him.