Easter Sunday 2015

Easter Sunday began with gloomy, ominous-looking cloud coverage and a light splattering of chilly rain. My first thought when I woke up was: "There goes any chance of an outdoor egg hunt." However, Matthew excitedly bouncing into the bedroom already fully dressed for Mass in his button-up shirt, vest, and khakis swiftly made my somber thoughts dissipate.

That is, until I had to dress myself for Easter Mass and shed a few tears over how gigantic I've become. This is how we know we're getting close to our baby's due date - I cry about once a day over my rotundness. Vain.

We all cleaned up pretty nicely and headed to Mass. The kids gave us the best Easter Sunday gift by being incredibly well behaved throughout the entire Mass. I actually listened to every reading, clearly heard the homily, and sang every song. I can't tell you the last time that happened! Normally, Emma needs to be taken out at least once because she has no volume control and usually chooses the most quiet times to suddenly yell: "I a dinosaur! ROAR!!"

We headed back home and banished the children to the upstairs to change while Paul prepared the Easter hunt and I slid the blueberry buckle into the oven. When the eggs were all hidden, the children were handed their Easter baskets and told to start searching in our living room first. Matthew went tearing into the room like a tornado and quickly found 90% of the eggs while Emma proceeded to try to wear her bucket as a hat. Paul and I had to majorly encourage her to find at least one egg in the room: "Here Emma - what's this behind the couch? Matthew, we know you see it, let your sister find one!!!"

The egg hunt continued throughout the rest of the house and Emma gradually picked up speed once she discovered there was candy inside the eggs. Suddenly, she became a pretty good little egg hunter. We still had to keep Matthew at bay from sweeping the entire room clean. He was on a mission. He did not even really care about the candy inside the eggs - he just liked the hunt! This was clearly illustrated after we declared all the eggs found. Emma sat down and began to enjoy eating her loot while Matthew continued to aimlessly wander throughout the house with his basket looking for more eggs even though we had explicitly assured him several times that all eggs had been found. At least this pointless mission kept him occupied out of the kitchen so I could finish preparing our breakfast.

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of blueberry buckle, hard-boiled eggs (the kids ate about 5 each...gross), fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola. Oh, and the best coffee in the world - Peet's Coffee!!

Speaking of hard-boiled eggs - they were the ones we dyed on Saturday with the kids. Paul was pretty stressed about them spilling the multiple teacups filled with dye, but the kids did great! They only cracked eight of the two dozen eggs in the process.

After a quick clean-up, we saw that the temperatures had risen and the rain, while still threatening, had stopped. We asked the kids if they wanted to go outside for a walk and they quickly agreed as long as they could bring their umbrellas. They had been waiting for an opportunity to use them! So, we headed outdoors and enjoyed a relaxing stroll. Matthew loved puddle jumping (thank goodness for rubber rain boots!) while Emma conked out halfway through, exhausted from all that candy eating!

Both kids enjoyed some "quiet time" once we arrived back home while me and Paul called our parents. Then, it was time to make some fried chicken! Paul was in charge and I was happy for him to handle the task. He did a beautiful job - the chicken turned out perfectly crispy, juicy, and moist. The kids loved it as well and gave us Easter gift #2 by eating so well for dinner! There was no complaining!

After dinner and cleanup, we just enjoyed coloring pictures with the kids and enjoying time together as a family. It was really low-key but we rarely find the time to simply be present with the kids without distraction from other worries, concerns, or tasks. It was a pretty perfect ending for the day.

From our family to yours, here is wishing you a very blessed Easter season!

This post is being linked up for Tuesday Talk. Check out the other contributing posts in the linkup by clicking on the button below!