We started the festivities the day before, with a low key Easter egg hunt at our church. When I say "low key," you might want to read that as "somewhat frustratingly under-planned," but whatever! It's eggs with treats scattered in the grass! We hoped that this would be our year as far as successful hunting; we've had many problems with the whole concept in years passed. Thankfully, this year, the kids were thrilled to hunt, J moved satisfyingly quickly, and Baby E picked up the concept of hunting and then eating with impressive speed. After that, we headed to a huge playground nearby, where J cried, the husband got stung by a wasp, we all ate some chicken, and Baby E was so blissed out on a recliner type of swing that he looked like he never wanted to leave.
Home again and time for naps. While the boys were napping, I went to get a haircut and run some errands. The husband boiled the eggs while I was gone so we could color them when the boys woke up. When I returned, J was awake already, and we started coloring right away. Sadly, this was NOT our year for successful coloring. J did alright, though he was so enamored of the whole process that he came dangerously close to eggs that were all brown. We rescued them all, thankfully, and then Baby E woke up and the real fun began! And by fun, I mean bowls of dye toppling over right and left, dye splattering all over the table and our clothes, and not enough eggs to sate our little boys' appetites.
In the end, J's hand were COVERED in dye, saturated from the tips of his fingers to his wrists. I quickly goggled how to remove this stuff when it became clear that soap and water were not going to cut it. The Internets advised me that I should try powdered dishwashing detergent rubbed into a paste on the hands. I set about rubbing the powder on J's hands but it didn't work so well. The powder was removing the blue and green dyes but leaving the reds and yellows, which was less effective. So I tried to make a thicker powder on my hands...and suddenly they started to burn! Oops! I shoved J's hands under the water and rinsed everything off as much as possible and then decided we would try plain old baking soda mixed with dish washing detergent instead. SUCCESS! Sometimes the simplest answers are the best answers.
After egg dying, I suggested that we go out to dinner. The husband, though eager to comply, wondered why, and then I reminded him that it was my birthday, silly! In his defense, my birthday present again this year is a family photo session that's happening next week AND it's Easter, so he was forgiven for forgetting! I opened presents from my parents and in-laws, and then we headed out to use a few of the birthday coupons I'd gotten, one for Qdoba and one for Ben and Jerry's. Everything was yummy! And almost free! Then, later that night after we finally got the kids in bed, the husband and I watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The book is INFINITELY better, so just skip the film.
Easter Sunday, the boys got up bright and early and opened their Easter baskets, which overflowed thanks to generous grandparents. I went back to bed and then got up later at a leisurely hour(ish) and put the ham in the oven (spiral sliced, brown sugar glazed). Then I made bananas foster french toast, some coconut crusted, some not. It was to die for! Not healthy in the least, but sooo good. I made the recipe up after running into some ingredient issues, but I was very pleased with the results. Then, not too long after breakfast, we ate dinner (12:30 church strikes again) and had the ham, smashed potatoes, asparagus, and fresh pineapple. Relatively simple and quite good.
Church was good, as usual. J sang "Jesus has Risen" with the other primary children, only his second time singing on the stage, and he was both exuberant and accurate, which was fabulously entertaining. I tried unsucessfully to translate again during Relief Society (REALLY gotta practice Spanish more!) and then, after we got home, we talked to all our grandparents and stayed up too late and finally went to bed happy!
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