Easter Sunday

I awoke on Sunday feeling refreshed, until I went to stand up. The backs of my thighs were killing me from the weeding the day before. Every step was painful and honestly lasted for 3 days-I'm just now feeling almost better.

Ciera and Logan had plans to go see the Hannah Montana movie with their Aunt Betsey and Grandma, so everyone was up early. When Logan woke up, the kids headed out to find their baskets. Logan was pretty disappointed to find that the Easter Bunny did not hide their baskets this year. "He just left them in plain site?" Apparently the Easter Bunny forgot that he/she usually hides the baskets for the kids to find.

Once he got past his initial frustration he dug into the basket. It was the exact basket he had seen at Costco a few months earlier and Brian and I had told him it would be a waste of his money to buy. He loved the little yellow duck though! Ciera was delighted by her basket, as it had everything she had picked out. (I dropped her at Walmart one day and asked her to pick out a basket and the stuff she wanted inside of it, with a dollar limit. Sometimes I wonder if she'd like a bit of a surprise, but she assures me she likes it just the way it is).

Around 9am my mom stopped by to drop of Easter baskets for the kids as well. They were certainly going to have enough candy for the movie. So I dropped them at the theater and I headed back home to finish the yard, sweep the floor-again, clean the kitchen and get dinner started.

We got everything done, food started, showered and I was getting in my last pump before everyone arrived. Then they all arrived, Brian's parents and his sister's family. There's just 10 of us, so it's not a ton to cook for, but cooking is such a big deal to me I tend to stress a bit when cooking for others. Fortunately, Easter dinner isn't too hard (which is probably why I volunteer to do it most of the time). After taking a mid week vote, it was decided we'd have ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, baked beans, asparagus, corn and rolls-easy enough.

I will pause to give a huge thank you to Brian's Aunt MaryLou! When Ciera was first born she came for a visit, along with his Gram, and they each taught me a few recipes. MaryLou showed me how to make ham and we all love it. It's just pineapple juice, brown sugar and cloves, but it's so much better than the horrible glazes I recall from childhood hams. She also taught me how to cook asparagus at the same time. Every time we make ham, we always think of you and your visit!

After we ate, the kids decided it was time for the egg hunt. Honestly, how can you really hide eggs for 10 & 12 year olds? You can't really, it's the exact same as when they were 4! We randomly toss them around the yard and they sprint to see who can find the most, the fastest. After they were all collected, they emptied the eggs of candy and then rehid the eggs for each other! Next year I'm not going to bother stuffing the eggs. We will toss out the empty plastic and let them 'hunt' and then we'll have a bowl of candy on the table!

It was a lovely day with beautiful weather. We all sat around the table chatting while the kids continued hunting for what felt like hours-they were very careful about where they scattered the eggs.

Then it was time for dessert. Brian's mom had brought apple pie, vanilla ice cream and brownies. It was all delicious and the leftovers were great later on in the week.

We were one of the unlucky families that had to go back to school on Monday, so we tried to get to bed at a decent time. Brian and I did take an extra few minutes to fluff the feather bed though, and it was an amazing night of sleep!

I've found that I'm starting to sleep through my middle of the night alarm. It may be my bodies way of saying it's tired of getting up at 3am every night. Next week I'm going to try cutting it out and see if I drop in supply much. I had planned to not drop it until 12 weeks, but it may be time.

I will edit this tonight to add in pictures, so check back to see how big the kids are getting and their self picked Easter outfits.