The Hunt Was On

For the second year running we've hosted an intimate egg hunt in our backyard. Lots of eggs, 12 kids, scads of jelly beans and chocolate eggs and smiles. For an hour we enjoyed the company of close-by friends who were kind enough to join us for a romp between church visits and brunches.

The prize for best Easter Bonnet was awarded to Ms. Lilly van Goethem. Were awards given for finest belly buttons, they would have gone to Mariel Carr and Sabrina Paul.

We hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Easter.

Serving-Up God on Easter

Church is difficult with little kids. We have a church nursery at our disposal, but it's not an easy option at Easter. So it was with an expected, heavy sigh that we got up and exited our Easter service just 15 minutes in -- after the stash of sippy bottles and goldfish were no longer doing the the trick -- and went outside to walk the seminary garden.

I might have been embarrassed had a dozen other families with tiny kids in tow not emerged minutes later to do the same thing. So we met some other parents, swapped parenting tales of disciplinary woe and enjoyed a beautiful morning to take some pictures of the kids (thank you Aunty Skippy for the gorgeous outfits).

We returned inside for communion. Paul suggested I "pick my poison"...so I took Harry, who I knew would enjoy another snack, the Host, which he informed Rev. Faith "tastes sweet!" after dipping it in the wine with the finesse of a chicken nugget diving into ketchup.

Then it was on to our church egg hunt.

Easter Morning, Bed Head and Baskets

Harry woke Easter morning, took one look at his basket of treats and asked me if he could bring it into the baby's room -- and get into her crib to open it. One of those mothering-moments when you're so choked-up it makes you forget the thousand thing your toddler did the day before that nearly make you crack.

So Harry clambered into Charlotte's crib, woke her, asked for her basket and the two of them examined exactly what the Easter bunny brought: battery-powered bubble wands, chocolate rabbits and a super-cute bunny doll from Zaza. An excellent start to an excellent, sugar-fueled day.

Detente

Our four-footed friends have reached, at last, an accord. If anything, I think Gnocchi, the cat, has actually asserted himself as the alpha male. Poor Typo, down another rung on the household pecking order.

"You're Motorin'"

Apologies to Night Ranger, or perhaps anyone who remembers Night Ranger. But the smell of AquaNet and the lyrics from the hair band's 80s smash "Sister Christian" ring in my ears when I look at these pictures.

"babe you know you're growing up so fast, and momma's worrying that you won't last, to say, 'let's play,'.....cause you're motorin'....

Warming-Up for the Big Day

Easter is a time of renewal. And candy. Lots and lots of candy. We enjoyed an awesome day of sunshine and green grass and friends at the home of our friends Jack and Will, who hosted the holiday's first of four egg hunts. Charlotte plucked her first plastic egg -- making mom a little weepy.

Cheers!

Sometimes you just have to wet your whistle...en mass.