Easter

Easter- another holiday to celebrate. The secular side of this holiday has been my least favorite of any so far.  There was way too much candy, getting, grabbing, and not much effort or involvement on the kid's part.  However, like many things in life, it was not all bad and the baby is not be thrown out with the bathwater.  So, we jumped in and enjoyed many aspects of it.  We did love the egg dyeing and Ruby and Owen now love eating the entire boiled egg, which is new for us.  I do love the idea of a hunt...I just plan on spicing it up with more of a scavenger feel next year (which Nana did this year and they loved!...she is sorta a pro at that. It is a skill I intend to weave into our family culture as well).  Our good friends, Team Kirby, have a tradition of making some amazing Eggs Benedict in conjunction with a potluck, so that was amazing too.  And, we also had an incredible meal with family (both from in and out of town) in the evening! So, here you have it- the first Easter Ruby and Owen really participated in.

First- egg dyeing.  We did a method that involved drawing on a warm eggs with crayons and then dyed the white space with a shaving cream and food coloring approach I found on pinterest or facebook or something.  You roll (or massage in Ruby's case) the eggs in the cream and let it sit for a few minutes, then wash it off (Owen headed up this part- the kitchen sink is his favorite place to "play" these days). It was a mess, but perfect for two year olds.  Owen was in a bad mood for this activity, so Ruby gets the stage for these pics.

 Easter baskets were pretty simple, but fun to hunt for.

 And then, the group egg hunt!  8 kids looking for 80 eggs in our front and side yard as well as the driveway and trail over to Kirbys'.  Broad range of ages and still, went over really well. Owen found one egg and walked around eating its contents the rest of the time.  He did not care about getting any more.  Ruby filled her bag and persevered in areas long after other kids had moved on to other areas.  So typical- their ying and yang approach.

Graham, Owen, Greta, Ruby, Griffin, Tait, Kaya, Aminata

 Brunch!

 Jess and I (mostly Jess- I was just some extra hands when it came to assembly) enjoyed passing out these beautiful plates of edible artwork.  The bloody mary that Stephen made me was pretty gorgeous as well.

 Dinner with the DuRoss'!  Some play with playdough before dinner.

 And, as usual...no great pictures from this part of the day other than this priceless one of Ruby and Owen sticking their fingers into the dessert (brownies, ice cream, and whip cream) while they thought no one else was looking!  Not sure where they would have learned something like this! ;)