Easter Egg Hunt at the Park

Our Easter weekend began with the traditional Egg Hunt on Saturday down at the neighborhood park.  I know that it is something that we have done since ... forever ... but I didn't realize just how much the kids really enjoyed it until it was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.  We've done it year after year, and even if the weather was formidable, it was simply scheduled to Easter Day with no worries at all.  Last year was surely a disappointment but it this year's Hunt even more special.

The air was a little chilly (it always is down by the lake), but we were grateful for fresh air and a bit of sunshine. Along with the Hunt, there was the annual hard boiled egg race and Sam jumped at the opportunity to participate.

Jack made good time running laps and filling his bag with plastic eggs.  Later, the kids would open them and score candy and little prizes.

Sophia was fast too -- and likely yelling at Jack -- as she was searching not only for the little colored eggs but also for one of the 6 golden eggs, which would yield a bigger and better prize to whomever found them.

Jimmy knew just what to do with no assistance needed this year.  He may not have secured the most eggs but he was content with what he added to his bag.

My Big and my Little, both on a mission, with the beauty of the lake behind them.  Soon this grass will be green and we'll be spending many of our summer days down at the beach.

Afterwards, they kindly obliged me and let me take a picture of them together.  I can't believe just how tall they are getting!

Easter Egg Coloring 2021

This year, Easter was a more highly-anticipated holiday than I think that it has ever been before.  We always look forward to it -- the signs of Spring, the Easter Egg Hunts, gathering with family -- but we are finally starting to turn a corner on the pandemic.  

Easter 2020 was a somber one; we couldn't gather with anyone outside of our household and all Easter-related events were cancelled.  Our dinner gathering was quaint and quiet and the chills of what the future held for our state and our country were still very real.  

This year, we made up for a lot of what we missed by celebrating all weekend.  We began with our annual egg coloring on Friday afternoon.

Over the years, we have perfected our system.  I always put down a disposable tablecloth (pulled out of a bin of random partyware) that can be wrapped up and thrown away afterwards.

We use plastic trays underneath for each kid -- these trays were an Amazon purchase about 6 years ago and are used for anything and everything in our house.

 

The glass teacups are part of a punchbowl set that belonged to my grandma and are ideal for egg-dying.  They are the perfect size and clean up easily.

We attempted a few eggs using a wax crayon and it was semi-successful.

I boiled 4 dozen eggs so that each child could color 12 eggs apiece.  They would have colored double that amount, but I couldn't imagine eating that many hard-boiled eggs and egg-salad sandwiches over the course of the week!

Sophia's creations were beautiful -- blended colors, swirling and filled with patience; just like any art project that she does.

Jack still puts his tongue between his teeth when he is concentrating ... and I love that.

This scene makes me smile.  Each one of the kids is focused on their own eggs, but still working together sharing colors.  And this is the first year where they all had almost complete independence.  I just sat back and watched.

Jimmy tried a method of dribbling color onto eggs.  It required some supervision and a steady hand, but he managed just fine.

Mia was a bystander over on the couch and Samantha asked to have a picture taken with her so that we could know that she was "here."  Mia is now about 12 years old and (sadly) I'm not sure how many more Easters we will be lucky enough to have her with us.

So many colors and so many designs!

Mid-Month Randoms

 

We celebrated Sophia's birthday with family and friends early, so on her actual birthday (February 26th), I set up a little table and decorated with pink and purple; her two favorite colors.  The gifts were from Steve/me/her siblings and she was beaming when she came home from school that day and saw the display.  The sparkled purple frame made me smile because it was a Dollar Store purchase that I spray-painted 6 years ago for one of Sam's birthday parties and it is still going strong!

The one item that Sophia asked for this year was these Adidas shoes and she was tickled to get them.

She loves gummy bears and Jimmy wrapped a big bag of them up for her.

A very cool wooden calendar for her room.  And the necklace that she is wearing is a shark tooth that Grandpa brought home for her from Florida when he visited there earlier in the month.

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Samantha and Sophia surprised Steve and me with a special birthday dinner!  They schemed together one of the neighbor families (where Sam babysits) and we had a quiet spaghetti dinner at home -- with champagne! -- while the kids went across the street to eat and watch a movie.  We had no idea that they were planning this and it was a wonderful surprise for us.

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I never miss an opportunity to get out watercolors and let the kids paint.  With the Easter holiday coming up soon, I cut out a bunch of egg shapes and let the kids decorate them however they wanted.

As the kids get older, it isn't always easy to find something that they can all do together, but this definitely worked.

The older girls spent more time on the details and less time blending, while the boys worked a little faster on their designs.

I think that they decorated at least 20 eggs in total and I plan to put them up around the house once I pull out my Easter decorations.

I also introduced Jimmy to the idea of using a white wax crayon to then paint over and reveal designs.  It worked really well and he ended up decorating quite  a few eggs that way.

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Jack inherited a Zero-Turn mower from one of the neighbors (it had been rescued from a home fire and was still in pretty good shape).  It required a few things including an oil change, clean-up, some new front lights, some new traction tape and a replaced arm rest, but Jack was in heaven.

In no time, it will be all spiffed up and ready to mow lawns.  A couple of neighbors have already asked about his services!

A wire brush and a little elbow grease and he set to work. 

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Sophia is running for 4th Grade Class President so we made some special posters for her to hang up in her classroom.  She tends to be more introverted than her older sister and both her teacher and I are excited to see her come out of her shell during the campaign!

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One day, the girls asked me if they could paint on canvases.  I have a lot of small ones left over from various birthday parties, so I got those out -- along with my tote of acrylic paint and various brushes.  

Collectively, they decided to paint Spongebob (Sam) and Patrick (Sophia) using a picture from online as a guide.

This kept them busy for quite some time on a day that was gloomy and rainy outside ...

The final products!  They turned out so cute!

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St. Patrick's Day 2021

Last St. Patrick's Day was the start of COVID-19.  Schools and businesses had shut down; people began living in quarantine and ordering supplies/groceries online; we were social distancing from families and neighbors.  We had no idea how long it would last, and here we are, one year later, and things are finally beginning to turn around.  Even though the numbers of infections are still running higher than we would like, there have been steps taken to begin getting "back to normal."

Jimmy worked hard the day before decorating a 'leprechaun trap,' made with a deep box, gold wrapping paper and lots of St. Patrick's Day stickers.

There was a long ramp for a leprechaun to walk up -- attempting to steal the fake gold coin at the end of the plank.  Once he tried to take the coin, he was going to flip down into the deep box and be trapped.

  

But, he was a clever one!  He just happened to have a trowel hook with him and used it to climb up and over the box so that he could escape to safety.  

 

Not to fear ... he DID leave a nice letter behind for the kids and directions for a really fun scavenger hunt!

Samantha read the note aloud to the kids and they began with the first clue that was stuck to the plank where Lucky Leprechaun made his wild escape.

This was tricky and it took them a few tries to figure out that the next clue was in Jimmy's toy box in his room.  (Jimmy was completely miffed to think that the leprechaun was 'in his room' while he was sleeping!).

The kids took turns reading the clues out loud once they found them and then took off together to find the next one.

Eventually, with all of the clues gathered, they were led to the hall closet where their very own treasure could be found.

Gold chocolate coins, sour rainbow candy and skittles:

At that point, Jimmy wasn't too upset that he wasn't able to catch a leprechaun!

Afterwards, everyone headed to the dining room for a special breakfast consisting of shamrock cinnamon rolls and a fruit rainbow.

There may have been a few starbursts thrown in there for an afterschool reward later in the day!