Easter dinner and eggs and bunnies, a half-birthday celebration, and a sign of gratitude (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

 Happy Easter! I hope you had a beautiful Easter celebration. We had two of my sisters, my brother-in-law George, and our local nieces and nephews over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. I had invited them for dinner with one menu planned. But in the end I rejected lasagna in favor of a crockpot pot roast.

After trying—but not trying hard enough—to get to the grocery store, I ended up running to the store on Easter morning in between peeking into the Easter baskets and going to Mass. I’m not sure I should encourage people to go shopping on Easter morning, but I have to say, that is a fantastic time to go. I breezed in and out of the store.

Our boys hid the eggs for the two little girls, who hunted slowly and methodically and would probably have been content to find two or three eggs. Then my husband hid the boys’ eggs, and they made a mad dash around the yard to find all of theirs.

~2~

Because it was the Easter of changed menus, I decided not to make a bunny cake covered in coconut, even though I do love a cake shaped like a rabbit and I also love coconut.

Instead, I bought three kinds of ice cream, some Milano cookies, and chocolate chips, and we made ice cream bunnies.

The grown-ups may have been even more excited about them than the children were.

~3~

Dyeing eggs is one of those activities that is more fun every year. The first few times we dyed eggs with children, I decided it was a terrible idea.

Why are so many holiday-related activities so child-unfriendly?

But now that the boys are 8 and 10, egg dyeing is not scary at all. I don’t worry about mugs of dye being spilled all over the house or people dropping the eggs into the dye from a foot above to make a big splash or anyone drinking the dye.

It’s almost sedate.

~4~

Have you eaten all your hard-boiled eggs? We dyed 20 eggs, and we’ve eaten maybe…five? Six? And the clock is ticking. We have to finish them soon. I’m no help because I will only eat eggs scrambled with cheese and veggies in them.

~5~

The boys and I had off for Easter Monday. That morning I said we could each pick one thing we wanted to do that day. Leo wanted to go to the library, Daniel wanted me to break a $20 bill so he could trade some of the coins he found in our Easter egg hunt for bills, and I wanted to go to the cemetery. So we went to the library, stopped at the store to buy something to place on our nephew and cousin Georgie’s grave, and I paid for it with the $20 so I would get bills back for our second grader.

Then we went to the cemetery and rigged a bunny on a ruler with rubber bands and stuck it in the ground. We could have brought flowers, but the bunny looked so much more cheerful—and the deer won’t eat it.

~6~

Yesterday my twin nephews celebrated their half-birthday! I’m not sure they really celebrated themselves, but I stopped by for a quick lunchtime hello and three rounds of singing, one for each of them and one for their sister, my goddaughter, who is about to turn 2 next week. I have the most wonderfully impractical and fun gift for her. Oh, how I love being an aunt.

I can’t believe those baby boys are six months old already. And there is nothing like taking a few moments during a busy day to sit and hold a baby.

~7~

When I returned to work on Tuesday, I found a small sign on my office door that says, “Gratitude.” I could try to figure out who left it—and I have a guess—but I am enjoying the mystery. Maybe I won’t try to find out where it came from. I’m leaving it there, and every time I see it, I think of how I could be more grateful.

For instance, we made it to Friday! So we have lots to be grateful for right there.

You can find more quick takes at Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend!

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