Easter Fun

Easter was a busy, but special one this year!  We were thrown a curve ball from the start, when a little change of plans had us hosting the family at Jeff's house on Sunday afternoon, instead of his grandmama's.  Which meant a weekend of cooking, and cleaning, and yard work to have everything just right.  Which is funny, since they all live two acres away, and are in and out all the time, but Jeff has learned by now "it's all about presentation" and he appreciates it just as much as I do!

Saturday, Adam came over with a prowler full of little ones to visit for a while.  I believe that's code for "my wife kicked me out with the kids so she could iron Easter clothes in peace!"  ha!  I would guess that's totally necessary too!  When it was time to head back home, Rani just wasnt budging, so I recruited her to help me with some shortbread cookies for Sunday.  As you can see, she's quite the little diva.....

This little bunny was a big help to me in the kitchen too!  Well, when it came to sweets at least.  Sunday morning we baked a chocolate sheet cake (courtesy of the Pioneer Woman) and being Easter and all, we just felt like chocolate icing wasn't enough.  And Emmy, being the cake-decorating queen that she is, took the challenge with pride!

 Let me tell you on Sunday morning I realized my camera battery was dead.  A little piece of me died at that moment too.  It's Easter, for pete's sake!  And cars (and 4-wheelers :) were pulling up that moment.  Ugh!  So I made do from here on out with my camera phone.  So you'll have to excuse quality.  I will admit the teens in the house weren't terribly disappointed.  Go figure!  But it made for less, and quick, photo opps.

 Jeff's parents, his two brothers, and their family's join us for lunch, and as always we over cook in fear of never having enough, and over eat in fear of our plates disappearing!  After all that food, the couchs, rocking chairs, and porch swings seemed to fill up faster than I could count to ten!

 But it wasn't long after than, the kiddos were getting antsy and there were eggs to be hunted!  The clowns range in age from 16 to 3, so it was only fair we split them up.  So we decided to kick it up a notch for our teenagers this year (aka:  be really mean) and host a blindfolded Easter Egg Hunt.  We convinced them to do this by telling them there was $1000 hidden in their eggs.  So Jeff took Kyle, 16, Emmy, 13, and Jake, 12, and darkened their world while the ladies prepped the scene.....

 This cracks me up.  Jeff is off to the left giving instructions,  which pretty much consisted of "go find the eggs.  Stay in the yard.  Don't touch your blindfold.  Oh, don't crawl into the highway."  I have a feeling Kyle is praying none of his friends drive by and see what he's doing.  Emmy is looking (well, facing) her dad as if to say "are you kidding me???"  Jake, the math genious in the family, is just trying to come up with a plan.  And little Abigail has that hand on her hip,as if to set Emmy straight any minute.

 What ensued was total chaos.  And the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.  We all sort of flocked to a child, and began to direct them toward eggs.  More than once I had to say, your other left Kyle! 

 Uncle Stan thought it would be just too funny to put a rubber snake in front of Emmy's path.  Emmy however, did not. 

 They eggs were FINALLY all found, blindfolds off, and they soon realized they were shorted about $950.  But it was all in fun, they had to admit, and I'd venture to say, this might now be an annual race.  It was the most I laughed all day!

Next up the little ones hunted the back yard, and they're way too fast and serious to even think about getting on camera!  They know how to hunt an egg, yall!

 Well, except Garrett.  Garrett takes his time, accessing the egg, making sure he wants it, and drops it in his basket.  It definitely didn't help that the little man had a yuck cold, and all he wanted to do was snuggle!  Hopefully some of that loot he collected will perk him up soon!

 After counting more money and more candy, we spent the rest of the afternoon cooling off by the pool.  All and all, it was a great weekend, celebrating our Risen Lord!

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 

-- 1 John 3:16