{Easter Beauties}

What a gorgeous day we had to celebrate Easter! How fitting for the sun to shine so brightly on the day Christ rose from the dead. We had an eventful day to celebrate this miracle, and here are a couple of the highlights.

We began the day with Easter baskets inside. The bunny brought LOTS of chocolate this year. I had given up chocolate for Lent, so I made sure to get a big peanut butter egg, a bag of milk chocolate bunnies, and a box of Cadburry Eggs just for me. Yum!

The girls have been begging for Bendaroos (like Wiki Stix) for months, so we got them some for their baskets. We also gave them a soft vet kit from Pottery Barn, a princess cookie cutter set, and matching princess aprons. Once all the sugar is out of the house I'm sure we'll have fun making some cookies!

Next we went outside to hunt for eggs in the backyard. The girls had a blast! Sasha refused to look at me while hunting for the eggs because the sun was too bright for her eyes. That girl has the most sensitive eyes ever! So the best pics I could get of her were simple running through the yard shots.

Clara, on the other hand, wanted me to take a picture of every egg she found. She's quite the ham.

After our egg hunt we headed to church. It was a really nice sermon and it was great to see such a packed house. During the service some of the older kids went outside to decorate a cross with flowers donated by members. It turned out beautifully, so we took the kids outside for a photo. Aidan, Ryan and Kari were here for a few days so we were blessed to have them with us, too. They all looked so adorable in their Easter outfits!

We headed to my mother's house for lunch right after church. She made a yummy brisket and cooked a ham from the pig we bought together (the best pig ever). We had another egg hunt at her house, this time with candy-filled eggs. The kids got another basket full of goodies, too.

This is the only family photo we got all day. I don't think it's too bad, but Cory hates how he looks so if you see him tell him he looked handsome on Easter Sunday. :)

One of the cool surprises we enjoyed on this day was finding a momma duck nesting under one of my mother's bushes in front of her house. I guess we stressed her out by getting too close for a picture because she waddled away in a not-too-pleased way. Believe it or not, there are TWELVE eggs in her nest! We're a bit concerned about the ducklings, though, because there isn't a water source close by. They'll have to waddle down Rt. 30 and then cross the highway to get to a pond that's about a mile away. I hope they make it!

Our last stop for the day was at the Meyers Picnic Woods. Almost all of the Meyers clan as well as most of the Scarlatta clan was there. We arrived after everyone ate - just in time for another big egg hunt. There were over 200 eggs filled with money and some candy! There were lots of kids there (about 15) of all ages, and the only unfortunate part of this hunt is that there are no rules. It's a total free-for-all. So Clara ended up with only five eggs and Sasha had seven or eight. It's not my event to plan, but I do wish there was either a separate area for the little kids or that everyone was allowed to find the same number of eggs. Oh well, they still had fun!

We celebrated Easter with Cory's other side of the family the night before instead of Sunday night, which was nice. So we spent the evening relaxing at home, eating leftovers, and stuffing our faces with candy.

I hope you and your family had a wonderful, fun, and blessed Easter!