Easter

I know I'm a few days behind the mark on this post, but I wanted to share our Easter celebration with all of you. My mom and sister helped me with last-minute things in the kitchen (and another round of deviled eggs after my first batch got ate up within the first ten minutes).

After we hid the eggs (which took thirty minutes), we lined the kids up to start the big hunt (which took all of five minutes!). We let the smallest kids out first to give them a bit of a jump start.

They had so much fun running around, finding eggs in high and low places, between fence posts and in our newly sprung daffodil patch (my dad even snuck outside and half-buried some of them, ha!).

After the hunt ended and while the kids were busy cracking open their plastic eggs to find the sugary treasures hidden within, my dad started to carve the ham while my mom, sister, and I finished the last-minute stuff for our meal. We enjoyed two hams this year - one that was baked with a brown sugar and pineapple glaze, and one that was smoked all morning long. To this moment I can't pick which one was my favorite - they were both just so yummy! We completed our meal with mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted sweet potatoes, deviled eggs (the second batch), corn, and rolls - pretty simple stuff, but all of it was delicious!

After dinner, we gave the kids their goodie bags. The bags from my parents included kites and since it was a beautiful and slightly windy day, we decided to make a trip to the schoolyard to give them a try. The kids weren't as successful in flying kites as we hoped, but their interest faded quickly and they made their way to the playground equipment. However, my father and husband can testify to the quality of the kites - they ended up being the ones playing with them! :)

After we left the schoolyard, we all walked across the street to visit my maternal grandparents. Now, I'm not sure what happened while we were there, but the entire house shook after a loud boom and pictures fell off the wall. We inspected the house, inside and out - and found nothing to explain what we all saw and heard. It was the most bizarre thing! So, after wreaking our havoc on my poor grandparents (all 13 of us!), we headed back to my house for dessert.

This is where the bunny cake comes in. The yummy bunny cake... I'm usually the baker in our family. Birthday cakes, desserts for family gatherings... you name it, I'm typically elected to make a bring it. My grandmother even made sure to stock me with most of my baking essentials early on so I wouldn't have an excuse, ha! Well, this year my Mom offered to bring dessert (score for me since I was busy with the rest of the meal). Then she told me she was making a bunny cake. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but when she arrived with that cake, I could not have been more proud. It was the cutest thing! My dad was beaming and so proud of her... it was one of those great family moments that we'll talk about for years to come - Mom making her first novelty cake at the age of 40-something (yep, MY mom is 40-something and I'm 30-something... you do the math).

Isn't it cute?!

All in all, it was one of my favorite holidays to date. No drama, no tantrums, no bickering - pretty amazing considering we had seven kids there, ages 10 and under! Great memories and I'm thankful for each and every one of them.

Peace and blessings to all of you,