THE EGG HUNT!!!

Our family Easter Egg Hunt had to be moved to after Easter.  We were invited to several - and I mean several - other egg hunts, but I decided that this year, while Aiden is still really curious about things and likes to really experience things, we would do our own small one-on-one with Aiden.

Which included over 60 eggs.  First off, not all of them were for Aiden.  We invited Smeds and Breanna and Kelle were sweet enough to come and have a toddler version of an egg hunt.  We just sprinkled all the eggs around the grass and let him find one, open it, and really experience whatever was inside.  It took us almost an hour, but he enjoyed every second of it.   We did candy, bubbles and other small trinkets in the eggs this year.  They let Aiden open all of them, but then (due to Mom's diet) gave away most of the candy, but kept the small bubble things.

At first, Aiden just thought we were cleaning up these stupid eggs that someone just left lying around.  Then, we opened one... and then another... and then he realized that the eggs were CRAP!  There was treasure inside.  Then, the egg hunt changed.  Dramatically.

Thanks, Kelle, for doing the photography.  Thanks, Uncle Chris for the use of your back yard.  Sorry you were out of town.

CHOCOLATE!!

Mouth full of candy.

He gets the tongue thing from me.

Na Na blowing bubbles for Little Man

My favorite picture of the day.  Hands down.  Love it!!!  Click on it.  Make it bigger.  It will make you laugh harder.  Promise.

Mom accidentally packed an empty egg.  Look at the sadness in his face.  Bad mother award.

Awesome day.  After that, we took a much needed nap.  Then a trip to the park where some little slimy kid tried to pop Aiden's beach ball while the kid's parents were in their car watching the kids play.  Come be a parent!!!


Whew.  Sorry.  Then a nice traditional Easter meal - Hawaiian Turkey Burgers with homemade sweet potato fries and ultimate dipping sauce.

Easter Eggs.

First off, if you haven't seen the egg decorating shenanigans from last year, check out this post.  Hilarious.  

Yesterday's 12 Days of Easter finally said we could decorate Easter Eggs.  (actually, I work from home on Thursdays and I planned it that way...  )

I tried a new technique that my dear sister, Teresa, told me about.  It is tie-dying eggs with silk ties.  They turned out gorgeous.  I wish I had found more ties.  Maybe a DI hunt this weekend.  They turned out amazing.  

Check it out here: Silk Tie Easter Eggs

They turned out gorgeous.  Especially the red ones.  I will definitely do this next year.  

Then, onto the fun.  Before getting Mister ready, I cooked the eggs and wrote on them with a white crayon so they would be a big surprise when they came out of the colored water.

At first, he didn't want to wear his oilcloth apron (see below), but it was DARLING (thanks, Aunt Jodi) and necessary.  He was used to it soon enough...

I love this picture.  Just his cute little bum and the apron.

I let Mister take out eggs, put them in other colors, and just generally have an amazing time doing whatever he wanted.  He was actually very gentle and we only had one fatality, but that was Mom's fault.  

We used Neon food coloring this year and it makes ALL the difference in color.  

Notice that there are a lot of brown eggs?  Because they were dipped and redipped in all sorts of color combinations.  He LOVED it!!

The Surprise part of the egg!

When we were all done, he sat back, exhausted.  This was the shot as he was sitting back against the wall.  He said, "Whoa." 

I agree.

More Easter Fun

Sorry I haven't really written about our Easter stuff.  It has been super, super fun, though.

Day 6 - We watched an Easter movie.  We watched Thomas and the Easter Surprise.  Then I watched The Robe.  It was a wonderful and fairly Sunday appropriate.

Monday we had a late day with a doctor appointment, but we were lucky enough to have stories at the ready.    We went to the library on Saturday and picked them up.  How lucky I am that Aiden loves to read!!

Tuesday we made "Carrot Cake".  Okay let me set the scene.  I had made the pound cake earlier in the day and had carved it.  I PROMISE it looked amazingly like a carrot.  Really.  When I set it on the table to frost, "someone" tore the point off.  Then it looked like a potato.  I tried to fix it, really, but eventually I figured it was a baby carrot.

Homemade frosting!!! (Lemon)  Delish...

Please remember that a toddler helped me frost it!

Our little Carrot Cake!!

It was fun playing the game of "try to get the jelly beans on the cake before the toddler takes them off..."

He probably ended up with 20 or so before we were done.  

For anyone who wants to do this, be forewarned.  After much searching, the only place to get single-colored jelly beans is Zurchers.  

Then, Mom gave Aiden a haircut and then a dunk in the bath.  Not too bad for someone who doesn't wield scissors well.

Yesterday, we "egged" or neighbors.  We filled a bunch of eggs with candy and dropped them off with this sign: 

Today we FINALLY get to decorate Easter Eggs!!!  Yay!!

A little insulted

This morning, I was driving very early to a work-sponsored breakfast.  I was listening to my normal morning radio program and there was a writer being interviewed.  She has written a recent novel which she classified as "angry fiction" in defense of all the young up-and-coming writers who never "get a voice".   This woman (by the way, I had never heard of her and hope never to hear from her again) began to criticize every person in the huge world wide network who blogs or has a personal website that crowds out the "artistic voices".

I know that I will never win a Pulitzer for my blog.  Or any of my blogs.  This one is very much geared toward family and friends who want to casually glimpse our lives.  For the friends and family in far away places, this is a way to catch up without having to call.  I try to be light-hearted and realize that most people don't really care about the deep thoughts here.  My other blogs, definitely.  But not here.

Does that make my time putting this together less important than the poet who is trying to be creative on a blog elsewhere?  I browsed some of her "up-and-coming" writers and I found a few little gems from their  poetry blogs:


-Dingy life.  Hopping from disappointment to minute disappointment.   Frogs lead better dreams.


-Singing the praises of the rain.  Wash away my hope.  Leave me in despair.  It is my nirvana.


-Kaleidescope eeriness.  Laughing to the moon god who takes my vital signs and pours sand in my brain.  I realize I am nothing if not ape.

AND THEY ARE ALL LIKE THIS!  All these "poets" smoking crack and writing.  I am sorry, but I will stick with my mundane narrative of my mundane life and hope that someone will think me, if not verbose, than at least sincere in what I write.

Especially this:  I love my life.  I am very happy.  I love my family.  I love my friends.  I love my religion regardless of popular opinion.  I love myself.  I love my son.  What else matters?