Easter

Eric and I joked not too long ago that the passage of time is marked by the holidays we celebrate.  Any holiday that gets a boatload of chocolate and a bunny that comes in the night to leave you a prize?  Awesome.

These first couple of pictures are from our neighborhood egg hunt the weekend before Easter.  One of the playgroup moms decided to organize it as she said that our town's hunt is one that might end up on the evening news as an example of how society has gone down the tubes.  Emily said that the grade school kids run the show, parents encourage finding as many as possible at the expense of the little ones, and she even saw a few adults out collecting baskets of eggs for their kids who had other commitments.  Yikes.

Lucy was the biggest kid at our 1st annual hunt, which is a change that's kind of hard to get used to.  It's some serious responsibility - and I'm pretty sure at times I've seen other parents taking mental notes about what they want their kids NOT to do when they're 3 1/2.  We talked about not running or pushing and making sure that all the other littler kids had eggs in their baskets as well.  I think she did well.  In this photo, Lucy is standing right next to her favorite neighborhood friend Carolyn (who just turned 2), in the pink jacket and orange skirt.  I'm pretty sure Lucy loves seeing Carolyn because she's so easy to boss around when we end up at her house: "Here Carolyn, let me show you how to use this toy/bike/ball/etc."

 She's a daddy's girl!

 Jamie got in on the action as well, but didn't find a single egg.  He was more content to chew on sticks.

 Now on to the actual day of Easter ... I thought it would be fun to leave baskets out for the Easter Bunny to fill, kind of like a stocking at Christmas.  Maybe this will become a tradition?  Like last year, we left a note and some carrots, which Lucy was thrilled to see got munched.

 The face of triumph!  It didn't take Jamie long at all to figure out how to open the eggs and that they contained delicious treats.  I had to pull a number of foil wrappers out of his mouth - he could get the egg open but didn't bother to unwrap the chocolate.

 When she opened the Strawberry Shortcake house the bunny brought her she exclaimed: "It's exactly what I wanted!  How did he know?  Just like Santa Claus!" 

A quick walk to the park and no hesitation to embarrass Ryan and Grace.  Trying to remember who climbed on first ...

 Then to the outside where I had put all the stuff Grandma sent.  We did another egg hunt (I had put my eggs inside) and this time gave Jamie a bucket too.  He immediately found an egg in the car and sat right down with it.

 Lucy showing off her prizes.

 This egg hunting was serious business.

 Still parked (haha) in the car with the jelly beans and fruit-snack things my mother stuffed the eggs with.  I keep meaning to ask what the heck those things were.  Mom?

 And a quick skype in with Grandma so that she could watch Lucy hunt for eggs and say hi to her midwestern kids. 

 Photography a la Lucy - great shot of her feet.  It really makes me wonder how much time this kiddo spends staring down at the ground.  It is literally all she takes pictures of, though to her credit this time there are some of the bugs that were in the eggs Grandma sent on the ground which I think were intended to be the focus of the shots.

 And the dis-easter (another haha) I suffered at the handle of the frittata pan.  For anyone who is unfamiliar with the concept of the frittata, you basically cook an omelet halfway and then pop it in the oven to finish it off, let it brown and puff up a little like a quiche to be cut and served in slices.  This photo does absolutely no justice to the number of blisters or pain and suffering I endured after grabbing the handle of a 400 degree fry pan just out of the oven.  I think I had a grand total of 13 separate blisters on every finger, thumb, and my palm.  The biggest blister is right on my lifeline - at the height of its glory it was probably 1x2" - and it's still, 2 weeks later, obnoxiously red, raw, and itchy.  It was miserable.  Eric, after working in kitchens for 10+ years said it was one of the worst burns he'd ever seen.  The frittata was pretty good, but next time I think I'll use a pot holder.

So ... other than the burn, Easter this year was a smashing success.  Lucy had fun, Jamie had fun, Eric had fun, I had fun (before the burn), and it was great to visit with Ryan and Grace again.