Happy Easter

We got to celebrate Jesus today with Grandmother and Grandpa at our church. 8:00 am service continues to be hard for us to make on time. We came home and had brunch; Made to order omelets, blueberry muffins that were gluten and dairy free, tropical smoothies, coffee and tea and fresh fruit. The girls found their Easter baskets, all right in a row in front of the fireplace. I appreciated that he didn't give them any candy. A game for their leap pads, a big bouncy ball and Ava got a play phone. G&G gave them baskets after brunch and before we hurried off to Joe's.  They loved all the little books and toys so much they didn't notice the lack of candy in those baskets either.
After a lunch of delicious ham and all the fixings we spent the afternoon at Joe and Lynn's. They have so much fun playing outside on the swings, blowing bubbles, riding tractors, etc. And of course, Grandma orchestrated an egg hunt. This year Audrey had pink eggs, Allie purple and Ava orange. They each had a certain number to find. We were exhausted at the end of this holiday weekend but so very blessed all the same.

Random thoughts and tidbits:
I decided this might be the last year I could dress all the girls alike without a fight, so I went for it.
There wasn't enough budget left for Momma a dress so I bought a scarf and called it good.
Jeremy is wearing the same shirt from last year. He's frugal like that.
Audrey has a random string of curly/crimped hair as she had a small side braid in the day before. We got home too late the night before to put rollers in and got up too late this morning to  straighten it.
I found their identical shoes at Target.
Ava did not have it in her plans to pose for pictures so I had to bribe her with jelly beans.

we purposely didn't use fine china as we had to leave almost immediately following brunch. So, festive paper products this year. Jelly beans in little mini muffin cups on top of flowers, bunny bait in our striped popcorn bags and placemats to color for the kids. 

Sarah

Gluten Free Bunny Mix

You can search bunny bait on Pinterest and find many examples. I was inspired by a few of them.

I added bunny ears from a template provided by nobiggie.net, added a white pom pom for a tail to the striped favor bags from Party City to make a container for the bunny bait.

The mix is just a white chocolate covered trail mix but this one is gluten free. I realized way too late that I was  short one bag of M&M's and did try it with Starburst tropical jelly beans. I did not like it as well so I opted to just be short M&M's. I served these at Easter brunch and took the rest for family.

Gluten Free Bunny Mix
Rice Chex (2 cups)
Glutino pretzel sticks (2 cups)
Skinny Pop popcorn (3 cups)
1/2 of a bag of white chocolate melts from Guittard
gluten free sprinkles (I didn't have any spring sprinkles so I  just used a variety of colored sugars)
1 pkg holiday milk chocolate M&M's.

Sarah

Easter Eve

Years ago my Aunt Carol did one of the smartest things she's ever done. She moved her Easter gathering from Sunday morning to Saturday night, insuring that no one would have a conflict and everyone could come.  I don't know how many years it's been this way but I do know that her grandkids were my kids' age when they ran around and picked up as many plastic colored eggs as they could.

Easter eve always means a visit to Aunt Carol's house and my hometown for supper, visiting with family and an egg hunt. Even though the weather was a tad bit chilly, it didn't stop the kids from playing outside. My Aunt arranged for this car that had been rebuilt to look like a radio flyer wagon to come and give rides, etc. This was Ava's first egg hunt and she was more interested in walking down the drive way than picking up eggs.

My contribution to the food this year: Bacon deviled eggs. Um, yes. They were awesome. Add bacon to anything and it becomes impulsively addictive. I normally don't make deviled eggs. I just don't have the patience to sit there and peel them all once they are hard boiled.  And darn, I didn't have a fun egg plate either. And I would have known that but it's been years since I've made eggs. But it won't be years again. These were delicious. Eggs and bacon go together naturally so a little mayo, mustard and green onions and you've got yourself a very proud egg.  I got the recipe from  myrecipes.com. Super easy. Totally worth the patience building exercise I endured while peeling them and then trying to use my easy accent decorator to fill them but the bacon and green onion kept clogging the fancy tip. So there were only a few that were fancy. And if you were wondering, no that didn't stop people from eating them. I didn't bring any home. Not a crumb of bacon was left on that plate. 

 Everyone checking out the car made into a Radio Flyer wagon.....

 Egg hunt time!

 getting a little distracted, Ava checks out Allie's scooter.

 And then heads down the driveway again...

a rare occurrence. I'm always behind the camera! It was tough taking pictures of three little girls going in three directions for the egg hunt so I asked my Dad to take some too. With me? My cousin Penny, and I don't believe we've ever had our picture taken together, so it is truly a rare picture.

A highlight of my day: holding my little niece Olivia. Isn't she so cute? I could not believe how much she'd grown since her newborn pictures at my house. I just love her. And when we got in the car today Allie said to me, "I like baby Olivia Mom." She was pretty infatuated with her too.

Audrey and Allie love to take their scooters and ride up and down the long driveway. They were excited to play with their cousin Skyler and a few neighborhood girls. We are so thankful for all the work Aunt Carol puts into buying goodies for the eggs, filling all 90 of them and doing that year after year. Not to mention making the majority of the food.

Now, off to steam Easter dresses, set the table for brunch and finish the Bunny Bait bags.



Sarah

cousins and a trip to Grandmother's house

Before our egg hunt at Aunt Carol's we stopped at my parents house to see them and baby Olivia. Ava really liked the Easter grass Mom had in a few baskets. I refuse to buy Easter grass. Ava was just infatuated it. We tried to get a picture of the 4 grand girls together and then a picture with Grandmother and Grandpa. 

hanging with Uncle Ben

got to have a smoothie when we go to Grandmother's