Easter Sledding Becomes a Thing

Easter Saturday found the kids hunting eggs in tank tops. Easter Sunday found us hauling sleds, snowboards, and skis to the sledding hill. It really was a "tail" of two Easter bunnies. [As much as we like snow and winter, that was a hard mental shift to make from one day to the next.]

Despite spending almost all day outside on Saturday, the girls were so excited for Easter morning (it is hard to blame them. Things that are different and exciting are few and far better right now) that it was close to 10:30 before they finally fell asleep. The Easter bunny was unimpressed that it was nearly 11pm before bunny activities could commence.

The kids slept until close to 7:30, which actually felt like a win. Dec found Quinn and Fiona's baskets and Quinn found Declan's. They are good about not ruining the hiding spot if it isn't their own basket ... but their poker faces could use some work. The best was Dec opening the dishwasher, saying "oooohhhh," closing the dishwasher, and then yelling "Fiona, do you want a hint?" Way to be cool, dude!! Dec's basket was in one of the end tables and Q's was in the TV stand. The bunny may need to expand to the basement - because we are running out of hiding spots upstairs.

They were so excited about their baskets and the big hit of the year was a Garmin Jr fitness tracker watch for each of them. I got a Fitbit for Christmas and Quinn especially is obsessed with how many steps I get each day. Dec asks for the time about 5,296 times a day - so it was imperative the boy get a watch. Their watches track their steps, active minutes, and daily chores. They've definitely been enjoying them and get very excited when they meet their daily goals.

After examining their baskets, we took a quick breakfast break to eat some of our hard-boiled eggs. Then we headed downstairs for the egg hunt. One of Q's eggs proved very tricky until we realized that she had miscounted and only put out 11 instead of 12 eggs in her color for the bunny ... but one magically appeared and her very Type A laser focus was satisfied. The egg hunt was particularly difficult this year. Lots of climbing, contorting and work to discover all those eggs. They really seemed to enjoy the challenge.

Their colored eggs had money in them and the joint eggs held a clue that said "Look high look low in the place where coats go." After some searching, they discovered Tenzi hidden in my rainboot. While we definitely missed church (and the caramel rolls), it was a very fun, relaxing, laidback morning.

I made ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls for our Easter dinner. One tradition that didn't change ... I made way too much food! But it turned out well and everyone enjoyed it. The kids decided to dress up - so Mike and I did too. I even put on make up. I was afraid I had forgotten how! The girls wore tights, shared their fanciest dresses with each other, and put on make up too. Dec wore his tie for a bit, but eventually decided a collar was good enough.

After dinner was cleaned up, the kids and I used candy melts and pretzels to make some spring-themed desserts. There were lots of butterflies, flowers, dragonflies, and other more abstract creations. They had the best time and enjoyed having the freedom to use their imaginations. We even had a lesson on drizzling! It was a huge mess, but we had fun ... and really, where else were we going to go?!?!

Well, actually, we did have a place. After I got the dining room cleaned up, we grabbed our winter gear and outdoor toys. There were eight inches of fresh powder on the ground that we were not going to waste. Off to the sledding hill we went. We didn't stay out for a long time (the ground wasn't frozen so it was hard to pack a trail), but it was really nice to just get outside and play in the snow. It was also fun to add Easter Sledding to our repertoire. We've gone Thanksgiving sledding and Christmas sledding, but Easter sledding was a first! The night ended with an easy dinner, pjs, and watching The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town.

It was not the holiday we had expected. We missed Auntie, Gma, and Gpa (and anyone else we could have talked into joining us!). We swung between having a fun time and missing normal. We are grateful for FaceTime and Messenger video chats, Easter basket treasures, messy cooking projects, and great books that help us talk about the Resurrection. It was a different Easter, but it was still a good one.