Easter

We had a really sweet and fun day - our table set with brightly dyed eggs and purple tulips; Easter baskets full of chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and candy chocolates; two egg hunts, one indoors and one outside in the school's back garden; challah French toast and berries for breakfast; a Zoom call with the Raab family; a long walk in Forest Park with Jasper; a scavenger hunt created by Steve; and roasted leg of lamb, mashed potatoes, and carrots for dinner. There were some tough moments, of course - Steve has a sore throat and cold, Liesl had a meltdown during family baseball, Seb and I sparred about the family walk - but overall it was a perfect Easter together, with all our traditions. In these uncertain times, it felt good to be able to give the kids (and ourselves) the day we wanted and expected.

This year, for the first time, Seb and Liesl helped stuff the plastic Easter eggs on Saturday night. Jelly beans, Cadbury chocolates (my favorite), sour patch jellies, peanut M&Ms, popcorn, Chex, raisins, peanuts.

The table was really festive and bright in the morning sun.

This year's crop of painted/colored/dyed eggs. Steve made the particularly gorgeous ones.

Waiting for the first, indoor hunt to begin!

And then Sebastian decided he wanted to be the one hiding the eggs for our second, outdoor hunt. He went over to the garden first, and we followed 20 minutes later. It was fun to get to be the searcher!

And then there was lunch, and some reading time, and then we headed to Forest Park with Jasper to enjoy the sunshine and green forest. And to walk off some of the jelly beans and chocolate eggs we spent the morning consuming! We popped some dandelions, of course.

In the photo below, the kids are cheering for Jasper, who is emerging out of the fern, up a very steep hillside through brambles, carrying the football that we accidentally let roll into the muddy creek. Yay for being saved by your retriever!

Doing parkour moves -- running up the incline and then jumping/turning to land on the flat.

Forgot to take a photo before I started serving dinner. Oh well! It was delicious.
And last but not least, Steve's scavenger hunt -- a few of the clues stumped us, but we kept talking and working all through dinner and made it to the end!