Happy Easter

We began our Easter by getting up around 6:30am so that we could go to 8am Easter Mass. (Quite a feat! I usually try to stay in bed until after 7 and both kiddos had to be woken up in order for us to get ready in time.)
We decided to go to the early Mass so that I could get home and start cooking Easter dinner. Daniel, Rachel and Annie were all in attendance and I cooked a dinner which everyone said they enjoyed. It was nice to be together and we reminisced about bygone Easter egg hunts where we had to develop rules for hiding and hid eggs so well, we didn't find one until a year later!

Joseph found his Easter basket in the morning, but had to wait until after church to open it. He got as far as a little rubber dinosaur bath toy and never looked at anything else in the basket. He still hasn't. Just goes to show that the old adage is true: Less is more! Perhaps his future Easter baskets will only have one or two things in them. I have fond memories of Easter and Christmas mornings when we would open tons of little treats and treasures. So it will probably be difficult to resist the temptation to recreate my past, but it would be wonderful to foster a spirit and appreciation of simplicity in our home.

Later in the afternoon, some friends who have children almost the exact same ages as Joseph and Simon came over for dessert and to do an Easter egg hunt for the boys. Joseph seemed more interested in kicking the eggs than collecting them in his basket, and when he did pick one up he promptly emptied its contents into the grass. After a break to feed Daniel's hamster jelly beans, look at caterpillars and escape to the golf course, the boys returned to the egg hunt with a renewed fervor and found everything that was hidden in the other half of the yard. It was a fun afternoon.

I like the boys' coordinating outfits.

Feeding the hamster jelly beans, which the hamster did not like.

On Saturday, Joseph and I decorated eggs which was a lot of fun. Joseph dyed and painted eggs. I made silk tie eggs which came out really great. We also had a fun time hunting eggs at Saba and Nana's house with Hoffman-Hutchings cousins. Silk tie eggs

Happy Easter everyone!