Easter Baskets

I loved the children's Easter baskets this year.  As always, they were themed and this year it was all about books and bunnies!

For Grace there were books, a silver bunny bookmark, a chocolate book, bookworms and a t-shirt of a favorite book (with bunnies on it!).

For Harris there were books, bookplates, a chocolate book, and bookworms.

A Little Easter Breakfast Buffet

We arrived home on Saturday and with the time change and no prep time, I knew that I wanted to do something a little special for Easter breakfast, but it needed to be quick (I knew that everyone would want to sleep in and we had church to make) and easy (I wasn't yet in the groove of cooking again!).

I decided on a mini breakfast buffet of hard boiled eggs, make your own yogurt parfaits and bunny tails.  It was a hit and I would definitely do it again.

I got the idea for the doughnut bunny tails at Lark and Linen.  However, instead of making the doughnut holes from scratch, I bought pre-made doughnut holes, covered them in white chocolate and rolled them in coconut.  They were easy, tasty and darling!

We hard boiled eggs and drew fun faces on them which tickled the children to no end.

For the parfaits, I just put out yogurt, fruit and granola- I didn't even decant the yogurt!

Harris made a yogurt bunny using his bunny tail!  Sometimes simple is best...

Grace made a cute Easter card that added the perfect festive touch to our buffet!

Easter Sunday

I hope that everyone had the loveliest of Easters just as we did.  As we were gone for 9 days before Easter we didn't have any of the lead up to Easter Sunday- no egg hunts, egg painting or carrot dinners! I felt a little guilty about missing a year but I let it go and honestly, I didn't hear any complaints since we were busy living it up in California!

After church, we went to my sister's house to have lunch together.  She fixed a delicious Easter meal complete with my favorite dessert- creme brûlée (lavender no less!).  It was a really nice afternoon spent with family!

(this was one of our Grandmother's china patterns- so lovely)

It seems silly to post this picture of me that Harris snapped, but I wanted to note my vintage (ish) Easter dress. I found it at the consignment store for next to nothing and loved it!

Easter

Our Internet is back!  Yeah!  While it feels like Easter was forever ago and we've all moved on, I still want to jot down some Easter memories.  We had a lovely day that included church, Easter baskets, brunch at home with family and then a lovely dinner with friends.  It was a nice relaxing day for us all.  I hope you all had a wonderful day too.

photo by Harris

photo by Harris

Eggs

I'm always surprised at how beautiful our painted eggs turn out.  It's not at all easy painting on the small, sloped surface of an egg but every year my family out does themselves!

This year bird's eggs were used for inspiration.  Bryce started the trend when he painted a robins egg.  A discussion of the egg lead me to go get our copy of An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long.  This beautifully written and illustrated book covers the gamut about eggs.  It's gorgeous and informative!

Grace painted a booted warbler,

and Harris painted a black-necked stilt (from the cover).

Grace also painted a ballet scene that included her leotard, ballet shoes and a barre.

Harris made a flower garden.

My Mom made a colorful egg!

Egg Decoration and Carrot Dinner

Our Easter egg decoration and carrot dinner is one of my favorite traditions because it is easy and fun (past years are here and here).  This years menu consisted of carrot soup, carrot burgers and bunny ear salad.  For dessert I made bunny sugar cookies. In an effort to keep it simple I chose not to ice the cookies but rather I used cotton candy to create a tail and used a candy eye- I think they turned out darling!  Sometimes simple really is better.

For place cards I used a printable that was meant for cupcakes but it worked out perfectly for our purposes.

Our eggs aren't strung and hanging on our Easter tree quite yet, but we did get some really pretty ones this year.  I'll share them soon.

Egg Garland

Friends, thank you for your wonderful suggestions of riding out the funk and just being.  That's exactly what I'm going to do and you've made me realize that perhaps "the funk" is necessary and good (though I"m still ready for it to pass!).  Thank you!

The one thing that I have managed to accomplish this week (and it took me 6 days!)  was making an egg garland for our stairs.  Harris was very helpful!

When we first looked at this house I was instantly smitten when I got a look at the staircase.  I immediately envisioned Christmas morning, prom and garlands!

Years ago, I clipped this picture out of Better Homes and Gardens.  I love everything about this look but every year I have put it off because the idea of blowing out that many eggs is completely overwhelming to me.

Instead, I just used regular old plastic eggs and though it is not as sophisticated as the inspiration garland, I'm really quite happy with it.

I used stretchy jewelry cord to string the eggs and having a very large needle was critical to making it easy and quick.