Baby Eve turned 17 today! Not such a baby anymore, but she’ll always be my baby.
I had lots of celebration ideas, but she vetoed them all this year, so instead we’ve had a really nice low-key day. We had presents and cake in the early afternoon, with Lex joining us via Discord. :)
The usual birthday table. The yellow thing at the bottom is actually a present, not the table. :)
Queen E
I’m curious to see the rest of this costume come together.
Anything that arrives in the mail around an birthday becomes a birthday present. :)
Afternoon cake
Blue Angel Food cake with Cool Whip and dino sprinkles.
Party table
Alan got her a Lego succulent set, so we had fun building that while chatting with Lex. Lex was moved to the phone after R took his computer away. LOL.
:)
E decided she wanted to spend some time in nature, so we took a walk along Mink Brook, a Connecticut River tributary. It was a beautiful day. We brought Huxley along for the outing and we all had a lovely time.
Huxley wants to catch up!
Smiles
Can’t forget the doggo.
Fun in the sun.
Zoom in to see the “Princess” sign on the bench. I decided it must be Eve’s bench.
Practicing for her senior pictures? LOL.
There’s the Connecticut!
There’s the Connecticut!
This spirally thing (bark, perhaps) was so cool. There were several others on the tree as well, but this was the biggest and best.
We had dinner at Molly’s and now we’re home, watching The Simpson’s, E’s favorite show to watch with her daddy. Overall it was a beautiful day for a beautiful girl.
Also, it’s Easter! I totally skipped it this year. We put up a few tiny decorations, bought some jelly beans last week, and that was it. No eggs or baskets or anything. Oh well. Happy Easter to those who celebrate it better than I do. Happy Birthday to those who celebrate today (both E and my bestie Lisa!). Happy Sunday to all. 🐰💖
Easter is a holiday I struggle with a bit. Seeing as we aren’t religious there’s really no good reason for it, and now that the kids have outgrown cute little toys in baskets, it’s mostly just a candy buffet on the piano. However, they always want to do Easter and color eggs and we always have fun. As I was scrolling through social media the other day I came across a lovely quote about Easter being the time when the Earth is awakening after a long winter, a time when we celebrate new life and a fresh start. I connected with that quote and felt a little more inspired to celebrate the holiday.
We decorated the house last week, decorated eggs on Sunday morning, ate way to much candy, reminisced about the time both kids threw up at Grandma Pat’s house because she fed them too much chocolate (why can’t I find that blog post?!) and hid/found/rehid/refound eggs. It was a nice day all around.
Easter morning candy buffet.
They did play with the bubbles too. Inside, which wasn’t my goal, but oh well.
They still like a good egg hunt! No construction vehicles or large dumpsters to hide the eggs on this year.
Huxley found the first one!! I had to keep him on a tighter lead after that. 😂 He didn’t eat it, don’t worry.
Among Us eggs, because why not.
We are still missing one….. No one used the cute baskets to find eggs this year. They remained on the candy buffet while bowls, egg crates, and pockets were used to gather eggs.
Happy Easter, regardless of exactly what you are celebrating! I tried to find that inspirational quote again, but couldn’t, so I settled for this one instead. :)
Easter this year was a little different, but also a lot the same. I debated for awhile about Easter baskets because I can’t really go shopping and didn’t want to buy stuff on Amazon and it’s all just too much right now. We never even got out the decorations. Two nights ago I asked the kids at bedtime if they would be sad if the Easter Bunny didn’t come. Eve said, “Of course the bunny can’t come, otherwise he’d be spreading coronavirus germs to all the houses!” I know she’s totally in on the Easter Bunny secret, but I really appreciated the response. I told them I had some Cadbury Mini Eggs (the best Easter candy!) and they could still color eggs if they wanted to, and they were happy. So this morning started like any other Sunday, with sleeping in and Sunday comics. Then Eve went outside to help our neighbor decorate the driveways on our street for the 3yr old who lives at the end of the street. This kid has a neighborhood of grandparents loving his every move! While she was out decorating with sidewalk chalk, I set up the Easter Egg coloring station.
Eve got right to work.
I’m glad they still like coloring eggs.
Eve had a theme in mind, of course! She decorated her to look like My Hero Academia characters.
See?! :) She drew two faces on each, apparently they each have a cute face and an angry face. I think that’s what she said anyway. :)
It was such a beautiful day that Alan did his CrossFit WOD outside, then I went out for a run. Ha! I decided to try running again. It’s been a very long time! I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to do it at all. I’ll keep practicing. :) When I got back our little neighbor was outside and all the elderly neighbors were standing in their driveways watching him. It was a weird little scene. One of the ladies said that they are all missing their own quarantined grandkids so much and it was nice to have him as a stand-in. He’s a cutie, but I guess I’m just not there yet. :)
Our driveway. Eve is a talented artist. :)
Someone hung plastic Easter Eggs all along the fence on the bike path!
And also put out this little offering.
After showers and lunch we decided to have some family outdoor times ourselves. Starting on the roof, of course! Eve has been asking to walk on the roof for awhile now and I keep telling her to ask dad. Today he said he was putting in the screens, so she jumped at the chance to ask before that happened! Out they went. For a girl who claims to be afraid of heights, she sure liked being on the roof. :)
She kinda liked it. She was definitely a little nervous.
I told her, from my spot on the ground, that her payment for going on the roof was that she had to pose for just one photo. And she did!!
Then the kids wanted to find Easter Eggs. So Alan and I hid them a few times and the kids had fun finding them. Then Alan and Eve hid them and Lex and I had no fun finding them. Those two are competitive and us two are not!
This is the fire and ice guy.
This is some other anime guy. :)
After that we were all tired and ready for some alone time… until it was time to ZOOM with the extended family! How fun is that?! I didn’t take a picture, but you can imagine it. I know we have ALL seen our share of video conferencing these days. :P
Happy (quarantined) Easter to all. I hope you enjoyed your day. I wonder if the Bunny will return next year. Hmmm…..
Huxley likes the smell of hard boiled eggs! I had him outside with me when I was hiding them and he immediately made it his job to find them. Silly boy. He spent all day popping up at the table or by the counter. Wherever the eggs were, Huxley wasn’t far away. :)
Easter, like many other “minor” holidays, has been in flux a bit over the past few years as the kids grow up. Easter baskets are harder to fill as the kids lose interest in tchotchkes and really just want candy. This year I didn’t add jelly beans because I didn’t get around to buying them, and when I asked the kids if they noticed anything missing they said, “Yeah, there were no jelly beans. Just like last year.” Oops. Good thing we already ate a bag of jelly beans earlier this month! :)
Both kids were indecisive about coloring eggs this year, so we bought one box of dye and a dozen eggs and I got things started yesterday. They halfheartedly joined in and colored a few eggs each. I did most of them. This morning I hid the eggs outside while they were playing MInecraft, then made them turn off the computers and go outside to find them. That turned in to a lot of fun, with many rounds of hiding and finding. The sky was threatening the whole time, but the rain held off.
And they’re off!
Alan joined in on the fun too!
We had lots of places to hide eggs, and a variety of boundaries.
Do you see the green egg?
This one is my favorite picture. The trees are blossoming! I can’t wait to find out what these flowers are going to be!
Hunting for Easter Eggs in a construction zone! Not the safest of ideas, but we had fun.
The final round was down in the pit. The kids each found six eggs, so they decided to rock/paper/scissors for a winner. :)
Can you guess who won?
Now we’re going to settle down for some dinner and a Spider-Man movie. Very traditional celebrations around here. :)
On a tangentially related topic, I’ve been thinking a lot about Grandpa and Grandma this week. It started when I drove by a cute house in the neighborhood with colorful eggs hanging from a small tree and a cute Easter wreath on the door. It made me think of a grandma house. Later in the week I stood behind an elderly man at the grocery store with a cart full of Easter candy and small toys. I guessed he had grandchildren coming and baskets to fill. I was reminded of our visits to Grandpa’s house and all of Grandma’s little decorations, several of which I have now, but it’s not the same. We were there one year when the kids were small and Grandpa and Grandma hid so many eggs and filled them with so much candy that both of the kids threw up! It wasn’t funny at the time, but it sure is now. And long, long ago wearing Easter dresses and hunting for eggs in the park in Northport. For some reason Easter in my head is a grandma holiday. Or just an excuse to eat candy and play hide and seek with colorful eggs.
(Apologies for my lack of religiousness in this post. I know Easter has a much bigger meaning that chocolate and eggs, but that’s how we celebrate around here.)
Easter this year was pretty low-key. After yesterday’s birthday fun, we were all ready for a “no plans” day. The kids woke to Easter baskets with minimal filling and no candy.
There were a few little toys and big cookies from King Arthur Flour, which they ate before I took the picture. I intended to get jelly beans and chocolate eggs, but never quite found the time, without kids in tow!
We spent the morning baking scones, banana bread, and buttermilk bread while listening to our audiobook and coloring Easter eggs.
After that was done we settled in with our respective screens while the eggs dried. They kids seemed in no hurry to hide and find them.
We took an afternoon trip to the dog park, only to find it was closed, and also windy as all heck, and also I forgot the leash.
Later in the afternoon Eirene and her boys came over for dinner. I warned her that there would be no traditional Easter meal served. 😀 We called around until we found an open pizza place. The kids ran and had fun. Then we snuggled up for dinner and a movie.
After the kids were in bed I noticed the beautiful bowl of Easter eggs that never got hidden. Oh well.
Eve had her Bio Fair today. Each year the fifth graders each choose a person to study. The project goes almost all year and included writing, research, and art. Bio Fair is the culmination of this project. The kids have to dress as their person and “be” their person for the duration of the fair. Parents and families come, as do all the other students in the building. This has been going on for many years and all the students look forward to it.
Eve chose to be Emma Watson for her Bio Fair project. Because Emma Watson is alive today, her “costume” was just regular clothes, but she looked oh so grown-up!
Emma Watson has a big fan club! They had lots of questions for her.
I tried to take a selfie with her and I just looked so tired next to her! I tried three times, then gave up. My friend took this one. It’s the best we could do. :)
Me and Emma :)
This afternoon she decided to come shopping with me while Lex was in karate. She has been saying all along that the doesn’t want to bring in a birthday treat to school, but in the grocery store today she changed her mind and decided to make “bunny butts” for her treat. Thanks YouTube!
Really they are Oreos and frosting.
Mini marshmallow tails and feet, pink frosting toes.
We ran out of frosting so she decided to melt chocolate and make some of the bunnies brown. Things got a little messy!
This might be considered a “Pinterest fail” but I’m going to call it a success because she did most of it on her own and she’s thrilled! :)
I did some Googling and it seems “bunny butts” are all the rage this Easter. There are a wide variety of ways to make them, using cookies, cupcakes, cakes, etc. Who knew!?
Happy Easter! Today was a beautiful, perfect day! The kids were up at 5:15am (thanks Eve!) and eager to see if the bunny brought candy, despite our recent sugar reduction efforts. I was interested to see if the kids are still into Easter as a holiday or not. I did a lousy job of decorating or any sort of prep work, but we bought eggs yesterday (five dozen because they were only .50¢ more than four dozen at BJs!) and managed to get most of them colored before the kids got bored and wandered off. I left a dozen uncolored and Alan made himself some egg salad.
Five dozen eggs!
They managed to color nearly four dozen before wandering away. :)
The bunny did come, of course, and there are jelly beans and chocolate eggs in those baskets, plus I snuck in two chocolate carrots from Mema first thing in the morning. I bought one regular sized bag of chocolate eggs and one regular sized bag of jelly beans and divided them between the three baskets (one for each kid, plus the glass decorative one in the middle) and we all snacked on them all day. I’m ok with that and proud of myself for not also buying Cadbury mini eggs and jelly beans and Peeps and eating sugar for weeks leading up to Easter.
Easter surprises on the table.
Eve was worried about not getting candy and where the bunny would leave the basket. She said it might be on the table like it always is, but she cleared off a big spot on her desk, “just in case.” I left her a big basket with a stuffed animal (same one I leave out every Easter) and a card that I think she made last year.
This friendly bunny greeted Eve when she woke up at 5:15am!
They are still young enough to enjoy a good Easter egg hunt! Thankfully! :) Alan and I hid the eggs twice and the kids raced to find them, slightly more competitive than they have been in past years.
A sunny egg peeking out.
A real egg masquerading as a fake egg. The kids found it pretty quickly. :)
Lex paused long enough for the picture, but you can see his eyes are still looking for eggs! :)
Alan though the Serpent was hungry for eggs!
It was a perfect, beautiful day, but we never made it outside for an egg hunt. After a few rounds indoors I took Arlo for a long walk (I invited everyone else, but no one wanted to join us), then when I got home Lex came outside and we spent awhile raking the front yard and dumping the yard debris in the ravine across the street. By the time we were done with that, and had lunch, Lex was ready to crash on his computer for awhile. His friend came over and they played Minecraft all afternoon. Eve was super tired and spent much of the afternoon in her room, listening to audio books. Eventually she came down, we got the cat litter box cleaned out (it can’t be all fun!) and then she laid down on my bed to watch YouTube videos and I passed out next to her. It’s always a good day when you get a nap, and a great start to our vacation!!
We remembered to buy eggs the day before Easter and finally got to coloring them that evening. Plenty of time, plenty of time.
Easter eggs are so pretty
Easter baskets. I told Lex last night that the bunny wasn’t very prepared, but when he woke up this morning he told me I was silly and obviously the bunny was very prepared, as usual. Whew! Really it’s a bunny and books from previous years, bubbles, and candy. That’s it! Oh, and a little bracelet for Eve. But they are happy, so that’s all that matters!
Eve made an Easter basket for me and Alan. :)
She’s so sweet! <3
Everyone loves lying in the sunshine! (ignore that crazy outlet behind him!)
It’s good to label your children so you don’t forget who they are.
The kids took a few selfies while waiting for me to hide the eggs.
Our first egg hunt was at 2pm this year! Normally we’ve done a dozen or so by then! We did three outside, Eve ended up an emotional angry mess, and that was the end of that fun. Maybe we’ll sneak in another one inside before bed. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
Counting eggs. Gotta make sure you find them all!
A few more selfies from Lex. He took about a hundred! I love this boy!
Easter eggs are especially beautiful in the sunshine!
Hiding in plain sight. :)
I took Arlo out for a 3+ mile run/walk this morning, then Alan took him out for a 4 mile run this afternoon. Plus several walks up and down the street for bathroom breaks. He is a tired boy!! He put his head on my leg and fell right asleep. :)
This boy can’t pass up a chance to cuddle a sleeping dog! Luckily the dog is super chill with the kids!
Now the boys are playing Minecraft, the girl is upstairs in her room protesting the world (she’s having a rough day today unfortunately), and I am looking around at everything that needs to be done and feeling totally uninspired. Maybe I’ll make myself (another) cup of tea and read for awhile!
We had a busy weekend! Easter fell just after Eve’s birthday so we did a little celebrating of both. Friday afternoon we had friends over to play (and my bestie over for tea!), Rosy came to visit, and Alan and I went to a late-night dinner party. We were all tired by the end of Friday, but that was just the beginning.
First tree climb of the season, I think.
Saturday included a trip to GemStar, cake baking, egg decorating, painting, and more. Then Alan brought home a movie and is grownups were up until midnight! That made two nights in a row!
Rosy was in need of a few original pieces of artwork so she commissioned two little painters.
Boring mommy made them move to the table because painting on the floor was just too messy!
While they painted I did a little creative work of my own.
Oh yes, and Easter basket filling, of course!
Pretty table, all ready for Easter morning..
I like my own decorations. :-) I was excited to find these sugar eggs on Etsy. I have find memories of them in my own Easter basket as a child, and the eternal question as to whether or not to eat them.
Sunday was Easter, so we started the day with candy for breakfast. Of course. The egg hunts, a trip to the playground, a little birthday party, and early bedtimes!
There was no question for Eve. Sugar? Eat it!
We had the usual Easter egg hunts. The kids still love looking for eggs!
My masterpiece! Eve's final cake for this birthday. As usual it was an ever evolving project. I love how it came out.
We did a few outdoor egg hunts as well, but it was chilly out there!
There is still a fair amount of snow on the ground too! We were hiding eggs in snow banks.
Daisy ran from window to window trying to keep track of everybody outside.
Daddy attack! :-)
Mad dash for an egg Alan hid up high. :-)
Good thing Rosy was here. She took us on a walk to the playground to shoot some hoops.
Aunt Katie and Popcube came over for awhile to hang out and eat cake. Eve was pretty wound up by this point!
This giant slab of cake didn't help matters much.
It's not perfect, but I'm pretty proud of how the cake turned out. I love the vivid colors! Rainbow parties are great!
Alan sliced it in an odd way. This looks like a cake tunnel. Yum!
/div>
After cake the kids proceeded to flail around on the floor, wrestling and laughing like sugared up wild ones! The crash came about 15 minutes later, but some alone time and iPad time helped settle everyone down.
That about (almost) wraps up Eve’s 8th birthday and Easter 2015. Now for a few weeks of sugar detox!
We had a lovely Easter this year. The weather was perfect. The kids are growing up, but still excited for Easter candy and egg hunts. For days leading up to the big event Eve told me elaborate stories of her friendship with the Easter Bunny, who just so happens to be her stuffed animal bunny named Cinnamon. Cinnamon comes to life on Easter eve and brings Eve, and her friend Logan, around the world delivering baskets to all the good children of the world. A lovely story.
For the first time this Easter the kids got up on their own, as they have been doing on weekends lately, and I woke up a bit later. Alan woke up a lot later, missing the first three egg hunts!
Coloring eggs. The kids insisted on 36 of them, which worked out well because we broke many of them along the way!
Pretty colors.
Pretty Easter baskets. That’s Cinnamon, the real Easter Bunny, in the middle.
Daddy bunny was worried the kids would eat all the chocolate before we woke up, so he left a little note.
A word of caution from the Easter Bunny. :)
The kids still enjoyed the egg hunts. We did many and I tried to make them challenging!
After the Easter celebrations we went outside to enjoy the day. The kids helped with yard work as a way to earn some money. Lex worked really hard and earned enough to afford the Snap Circuits kit he’s been saving for. He was pretty excited. We still have the side lawn to do and he is saving for a butterfly tent next, so hopefully next weekend he’ll help me with that. I don’t mind paying for hard work!
In the afternoon, while the kids and I raked the lawn, Alan cleaned out the garage, installed a charging station for the new car, and flew the kite. It was a busy day. :)
Eve made a hat for her bunny. I think it is a beautiful Easter Egg drawing.
It was a wonderful way to end our wonderful April vacation. The day, and the whole week, were both relaxing and productive at the same time. Happy April, Happy Easter, and today, Happy Earth Day!
