Friday, March 27, 2015

Easter Sunday Plans

Since I have no new photos to post, I just keep dipping into the archives in order for everyone to have something to look at besides text! Plus, it's kind of fun to look back and see what the kids looked like during this time last year. They certainly have grown since last Easter!!
 
With Palm Sunday coming up this weekend, we are not too far away from the closing of the Lenten season and the beginning of my favorite time in the liturgical year: Easter!!

One of my favorite memories from Easter Sunday growing up was being able to debut my brand new, spring-themed dress. My sisters and I always dressed super fancy on Easter Sunday in flouncy pink chiffon dresses with white lace gloves and pretty strappy sandals. Sometimes, we sometimes even wore pretty white straw hats with pink bows on our heads, probably more to hide the bad 90s haircuts we were currently sporting than to complement our outfits. I don't remember my brothers ever wearing anything special except maybe Raymond who would break out a stylish pair of Amish-inspired suspenders to hold up his pants. We always felt so fancy going to Mass and it was always breathtaking to walk into the church interior that had been previously an unadorned, quiet, and somber space for duration of Lent and find it completely transformed into a joyful space filled with the beauty of fresh flowers and the sounds of holy water flowing from the baptismal font.

Look how small sweet little Emma was on Easter Sunday last year!


After Mass, we always were excited to head home and search for eggs and baskets filled with goodies. My Dad normally wrote a little riddle personalized for each child that led us to our hidden baskets. Michael's basket was almost always to be found on one of the toilet seats. I don't know why he even bothered reading his clue most years. After the hunt was over, we sat down to a delicious breakfast of hard-boiled eggs (dyed the day before), pineapple and strawberries, and my Mom's delicious walnut twist with brown butter glaze. That walnut twist is still my favorite pastry in the whole wide world and one I need to share on this blog very, very soon! The only reason I will not be making it on Easter Sunday is because my picky, picky children will carefully extract every single nut from their piece before eating it. That or stick one of the nuts up their nose where it will have to be dislodged by an ENT. It's just not worth the aggravation.



Paul and I planned way ahead for Easter this year. We have already gathered everything needed for the Easter baskets. Paul especially enjoys selecting candy for the kids because he has a huge sweet tooth when it comes to candy: "Robin Eggs! It would not be Easter without Robin Eggs!" In addition to hoarding a ton of candy for the kiddos, we have also sat down and completed our Easter menu. We traditionally cook the meals together for that day and both look forward to it very much. This year, we debated about cooking rack of lamb for the first time but after gawking at the meat prices and thinking of how upset we would be if our kids scorned our protein of choice, we decided to go a completely different route. No, we are not doing ham or pork rib roast (as we have done the previous two years because it is so gosh darn good!). Instead, we are going to keep things simple and summer-themed.

I doubt it will be as sunny this year as it was last year. We loved having the egg hunt outside!


Our menu plans for Easter Sunday is as follows:

Easter Breakfast

Blueberry Buckle - so delicious!
Fresh Fruit of some sort - Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, pineapple
Yogurt
Granola
Hard Boiled Eggs - Paul hates eating them straight, but the kids love them!
*Ideally we would also have bagels and Lox but my midwife will not allow it until after Baby Lucy arrives!

Easter Lunch

Candy from our Easter Baskets - I wish I were joking!

Paul's comment while previewing this post: "We didn't even take the tag off Emma's basket last year?!
What the heck is wrong with us?!?!"


Easter Dinner

Fried Chicken (We never make it and the kids love it!) - either this recipe or this one
Potato Salad (Mom's recipe)
Seven Layer Picnic Salad - Can be found here
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Biscuits or Challah

Hopefully, the weather will be semi-decent so we can try to get outside for a little bit. My sister Catherine gifted a beautiful dress for Emma to wear for Easter. Matthew will probably wear the same exact outfit he wore last year (and pretty much every Sunday since) because he loves it so much. He refers to it as his "Easter outfit" even though he has worn it through Ordinary Time, Advent, Lent, etc.

We are looking forward to a beautiful day and some great time spent together! What are your plans for Easter Sunday?

 

4 comments:

  1. Tell Paul I just bought my Robin Eggs on Wednesday - it is not Easter without Robin Eggs nor without moistening them and wearing their candy shell as lipstick. I mean, I know it's really about Jesus, but then the next most important thing....
    Have a fun hunt with the kids!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember doing that Tori. Maybe we learned it from our older and wiser cousins.

      Delete
  2. Tori, Paul admitted to wearing candy shell as lipstick too! Did you teach him that?!?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sometimes I think it would be nice to do a big easter or thanksgiving meal at home...then I think more and realize how much easier it is to go to our parents where we only have to take one dish! Although we will be home easter morning for brunch for the first time ever, I think we are having your orange sticky rolls (which may be left over in the freezer from christmas...).

    ReplyDelete