Easter, Part I

I know it's not Easter yet, but we've already done our big family celebration.  My sister's ex-husband has their kids for the weekend, so we did the big family thing last night.

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised (and quite pleased!) that their Easter baskets are still around.  This was the third year we've used these baskets, and they're just made of felt.  I'd hoped they'd last for a few years, but I'm kind of surprised that they've survived three years, three moves and some pretty rough handling in the playroom.  Considering that I think I paid $1.50 for them, I'd say we've gotten our money out of them.

I'm not sure why but, this year, Bug and Boo were both a little obsessed with wearing their Easter baskets as hats.

 

 

Bug had a lot of fun dying eggs with his cousins.  Boo was still a little young to take part (in my opinion), but she also didn't seem terribly interested in it.  She played outside for awhile, then just kind of orbited the table as the bigger kids finished up the eggs.

Bug dyed ALL of his eggs green.  It's his favorite color.

Then it was time to hide the eggs!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that we hid eleven dozen eggs.  Yep...eleven dozen.  In my sister's backyard, which is about the size of a postage stamp.  (And we ended up leaving another 18 eggs in the fridge.  I can't even imagine where we'd have put them!)  Luckily, we were hiding eggs for little kids, so putting them in plain sight was totally acceptable.

 

I was particularly proud of this balancing act.

 

 

Eventually, we just took to tossing them onto the lawn...

 Being the youngest, Boo got first crack at the yard.  We gave her a head start of about 30 seconds or so, so she could figure out what was going on before the big kids plowed her down in their quest for eggs.  She picked up on it pretty quickly and did really well on her own, though she did have parental help in reaching some of the eggs she found but could get to on her own.

 

And the hunt is on!

Afterwards, the kids sat down and counted out their loot.  Mom gave them each a quarter for each real egg they found, and all of the plastic eggs had some change inside them.  Considering the number of eggs out there, they all banked even though most of the eggs only have a few cents inside them.

Not sure how I didn't get a picture of Bug with his eggs, too...

And then they attempted to eat ALL of the real eggs.  Before dinner.

We'll do something low key on Easter, but they really seemed to enjoy the big deal. ;)