With everything else going on that week and weekend, Easter was a bit of a blur this year.  Which is sad, because it is a profoundly special holiday.   But some years are like that.

We had a couple of egg hunts this year.  First, at Grandma Marsha's house in Colorado, when we were on our trip.
 Next, we did one at a park with some friends from church the day after Hazel's birthday.  It was wonderfully cold - last year the chocolate melted, but not this year!


Then we came home and dyed eggs with Grandma and Aunt Ann.  I remembered to get vinegar!


 This year I just took a quickie pic of the girls' baskets, instead of the comprehensive, detailed blog post I like to do.  But some years are like that.  All the girls got: jelly beans, one chocolate-dipped Peep, one chocolate cream egg, headbands, a Utah Rocks! t-shirt, a DVD (H- Bill Nye; G- Prima Princessa; P- Strawberry Shortcake), Hello Kitty band-aids, a child-size offset spatula, and a book of folk tales (H- Native American; G- Irish; P- African.)  In addition, Hazel got a red Chinese silk purse and a bar of Pioneer soap from Zion Nat'l Park.  Ginger got a Tinkerbell PEZ (she's collecting), a hummingbird finger puppet, some shoes for her American Girl Doll, and a blue Chinese silk purse.  Poppy got a rabbit finger puppet and a small board book I won at a recent baby shower game (I win all those games.)

Luckily, I ordered Easter dresses for the girls way before our trip so I wouldn't have to worry about it after.  I would never have gotten to it otherwise.  Hazel is growing so fast, this may be the last year I can get all matching dresses.  Not that it's a requirement.  But when I find a cute one, it's fun.  



I got Hazel and Ginger these cute yellow gladiator sandals at an off-season sale last year, and they would have gone great with these dresses.  But neither of them can stand to wear shoes or sandals without socks, even in summer.  So the cuteness effect is somewhat diminished by socks and tights.  There is only so much I can control.  



Even though it was like ages ago, I hope you had a wonderful Easter.  I think we did. 

Hi.  Are you, like us, swimming in hard-boiled eggs and everyone's a bit sick of them?  We're using up all but two for dinner tonight, in open-faced egg salad sandwiches that will also showcase as much leftover Easter ham as possible.  This is a recipe I made once years ago, loved, then lost.  I hunted down and ordered a back issue of Everyday Food just so I could make it again.  Love it.  Enjoy.
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
8 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4 small red onion, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
8 slices Italian bread, toasted
Green leaf lettuce, for serving
8 slices cooked bacon, optional, for serving

In a medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, mustard and vinegar until smooth.  Add eggs, celery, and onion; season with salt and pepper, and mix to combine.  To serve, top toasts with lettuce, bacon and egg salad.  Serves 4

Recipe from Everyday Food, March 2008

 Art Tuesdays kind of fell apart after the holidays, but we've still done some projects here and there.  Spring break was the perfect time to try out some ideas I've been saving up, including this paint chip Easter egg garland from Modern Parents, Messy Kids.  Except their messy kids must be older, or less messy, than mine because that is some smooth cutting at their house. 
 I loved this project because it was:

1 - Not really that messy
2 - Collaborative; ALL THREE girls could do something
3 - Quick

4 - FREE (thank you, Home Depot)

It appealed to each girl in a different way, which is just the best kind of activity.  Ginger has been really working on scissor skills this year, and cutting eggs was just challenging enough without being frustrating.  Hazel is a smooth cutter, and also enjoyed putting the cut-out eggs in numerical order, and helping string them.  Poppy loved all the colored cards, and holding scissors for probably the first time.

 And me?  I liked making a pretty, homemade, seasonal decoration with my girls that I will have no qualms throwing out because we can - and will - just make it again next year.  Or sooner than that - no one ever said egg was the only shape you could do this with.

What you need:

• An Easter egg cookie cutter or other template
• Sharpie or pencil
• Scissors
• A stack of paint chips (about 3-4 per rainbow color)
• Twine

 We got our paint chips at Home Depot because the Behr ones are nice and wide.  But once we started cutting, I realized something I hadn't noticed at the store (might have had something to do with being in Home Depot with three kids.)  Some of the cards (the medium and dark ones) have FOUR colors; some (the light ones) have THREE.  Most of ours had four - oh, well - but I think the three-ones are better because then you only have one white line going across your egg instead of two.  But it doesn't matter that much.
Trace the egg on the back of the paint chips, making sure it's not where the words are.  I also numbered them before handing them off to the girls for cutting because that makes it easier to put them back in order than eyeballing it. 
 Cut out all the eggs.  Punch two holes in the narrow end of each egg - I had a small heart-shaped hole punch in the Crazy Box - I think a small punch is better than a regular three-hole punch.
 Thread twine or yarn through the holes - I used my baker's twine; MPMK used waxed cotton but I'm not sure what that is - maybe dental floss?  That would work.

Hang it up to show the world!

 When it came time to start thinking Easter baskets this year, I was so glad for this post I wrote last year.  First, it told me whose basket is whose!  This is the first time I've used the same baskets as the last year, and I guess it matters.  It also helped me remember how much it takes to fill them, and what they got last year so I can do some things the same and some different. 

The girls are on spring break this week, which means I didn't know when I could get it all out and take pictures and everything, but the older two are on a Grandma sleepover today so as soon as Poppy went down, the Easter baskets - and camera - came out.

The baskets are not so equal this year, and therefore not so easy to write out.  But here we go anyway.

• All three girls are getting a DVD.  Max & Ruby for Poppy (a steal on the Easter shelf at UNIQUE), Princess Sing-Alongs for the other two.  We borrowed volume 1 from a friend for our Vermont trip, and they loooved it, so we will indulge them.  Truth be told, I kinda like the songs myself, or at least most of them, and I like listening to them in the car better than dialog when I can't see the video.  So we kinda all win.

• All three will also get an Elephant & Piggie book.  Ginger's preschool class has been reading these, so we got some from the library and our family became instant fans.  We love Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny series, though the pigeon books aren't our thing.  But Gerald & Piggie are the BEST, with hilarious illustrations and truly early reader text, the simple but clever situations these friends get themselves in - and out of - are a delight over and over.

• Got Milk? Flavoring straws - these used to be hard to find but now they're at both Whole Foods and Target - yay for fun straws and drinking more milk!

Now things break down a bit.

• Hazel and Ginger are both getting a Calef Brown poetry book - silly, kinda nonsensical poetry, stories and art.  Our very cultured cousins recommend them highly.

• The older girls are also both getting an eeBoo activity book, while Poppy Maude is getting my new favorite board book, "What's Wrong, Little Pookie?" by Sandra Boynton.  We have a lot of Boynton books; I don't know how this one escaped my awareness before, but it is so adorable and so perfect for a 2-to-4-year old, at least in our family.  Pookie is crying, and Mom asks, "What's wrong?"  Pookie won't answer.  So Mom guesses a variety of things that could be wrong - silly things that distract and amuse Pookie, until at the end Mom asks again, "If it's none of those things, then what's wrong?"  And Pookie just hugs her and whispers, "I forget."  Love it.

• The older girls each get a necklace, taken off the card and placed in a plastic egg.

• Ring Pops, tic tacs, and 4-color pens for Hazel and Ginger

• Ginger and Poppy both get new thermos funtainer water bottles - they are our favorite for summer and lunch boxes, but Ginger's is old and falling apart; Poppy is old enough to have her own.

•  Poppy loves Strawberry Shortcake.  We have a few DVD's, and she has two figurines like these from McDonald's a year or two ago.  She treasures them, so I went on ebay and got her a complete set from 2010 happy meals.  Clever seller; I never would have thought of keeping happy meal toys, but you never know what suckers like me will buy.

 And of course, a little candy.  I ordered my Easter chocolate from See's this year, and probably will every year from now on.  See's is just so good, why get anything else?  I put a couple of these filled eggs in plastic eggs in their baskets. 
 Also everyone got a Scotchmallow Egg, my personal favorite. 
 And one last plastic egg filled with each girl's other favorite candy - jelly beans for Poppy, Skittles for Ginger, pretzel M&M's for Hazel. 

And that's it, there's the baskets for 2012!  I just didn't want more junk around the house, so with the exception of Poppy's dolls, stuck with useful media, some treats, and just a few extras.  Happy Easter to us all!



*Wondering about Ed's basket?  Well, I waffle, but this year he's not getting one, and he won't care one bit.  I'll make a good Easter dinner, and maybe fold his laundry or schedule his dentist appointment, something thoughtful and useful that means more to him than candy that just sits around.  After 10 1/2 years, I'm learning.