Monday, April 9, 2012

Easter Baskets

The Easter bunny found us again this year.

Josh's basket included:
Camo pants
Gun sight for his shot gun
Red Vines
Peeps
A solid chocolate bunny
Oreo Cookies
$30 in iTunes cards

Savannah's basket included:
Five new books (ok, 3, the other two are on back order)
Pringles
Cadburry Egg Candy
Gushers
Skittles
$30 Amazon cards (to use for my new Kindle Fire)

I took this picture of Gaby this weekend. I'm not sure which post to put it in, so I think I'll add it here. She has been in heat all week. She was rollig on the floor being "sexy". I looked at her a few minutes later and she had fallen asleep mid roll. What a silly cat.

Easter Brunch

A few weeks ago, Jessica and I talked about Easter traditions, and well, the lack of them. So we decided we needed to start one of our own. It was decided that a nice Easter brunch would be perfect. That way, we could leave the afternoon open if we wanted to spend it with our extended families.

Jessica offered to host it at her house. After we had started planning this, things came up in my family and I decided I wanted to have them all up to my house for dinner. But I still wanted to make sure we could do brunch with Andrew & Jessica. Josh just wanted to make sure he got hot crossed bun and deviled eggs. I don't like either, so I never make them. But since we wouldn't be at his mom's for dinner, I agreed to make them. I decided to do the eggs for my family dinner and the hot crossed buns for the brunch. Jessica took care of everything else for breakfast by making a baked bacon & swiss omelet, home made granola, a fruit tray and raspberry butter.

 I made the hot crossed buns the day before so I wouldn't have to get up early in the morning to make them. I started to read the RECIPE and it called for 12 eggs! So then I read more and figured out it made 6 dozen rolls, way more then I needed for 4 people. So I cut the recipe in half and still ended up with a ton of rolls. We ate about a dozen and then I sent the rest with Josh to work today.

Josh kept helping himself to the buns before we could sit down to eat. Which really was only like 5 minutes. Just long enough for Jessica and I to get a few pictures.


We had a blast and hope to be able to do this every year.

Easter with Josh's family

Saturday morning we stayed busy cleaning house and baking a few things for Sunday dinner. Then that afternoon, we headed to Josh's parents. Dallon & Natalie were able to come out. Then Jeff & Diana came with their five kids so they could play with Melanie's boys.

When Josh and I got there, the fun had already begun. The cousins were rolling eggs down the hill. If the egg didn't crack, they would take it back up and roll it again. They had great fun.





Lewis came over to check out a few of the eggs. I can't believe how big he is.


Tyler loved being with his uncle Josh.


Saying hello to the horses. Life has stayed busy, but we hope to ride them next weekend.

Tyler doesn't know what boredom is. If there is nothing to do, there is always dirt to play in.

After rolling the eggs down the hill, Barb took all the kids for a walk so Jeff & Diana could hide plastic eggs. When the kids got back, we took them in the house to get their baskets. Then the youngest ones were given a 60 second head start before the older kids could join them in the hunt. There was kids running everywhere! I tried to take pictures, but some were blurry. Then in the rest, it was hard to get a good shot because they were bending to get another egg and then off again.


I have loved watching Jeff & Diana kids grow. When I married into the family, they only had Kyle; now they have five. Kyle is too "old" to do such a child like thing. But he is just the right age to help his little brother. It reminded me that one of my all time favorite Easter's was the year I got to help my youngest brother during the city Easter egg hunt.


We kept laughing at Tyler's run. His pants were a little to big, so when he ran, he would have to reach back and hold them up.








A few times, Preston thought all the eggs were found. So he would sit down and starting eating his candy.

One time some one hollered that there was still eggs and to check a certain part of the yard. Preston was off...without his basket. So we yelled at him to get it.

After all the eggs were found, we tried lining the kids up on the porch for a picture. That can be a hard task with so much candy at hand.

The only way to get Tyler's attention was to tell him to look at the big truck. After the picture was taken, he asked where the truck was and we told him it must have driven away.

Grandma Vonne made an Easter Bunny cake.

This year, I thought it would be fun to get the nephews something. I was only going to get them a few shirts, but then I got caught up in the excitement (the retail kind that the stores crank out), so I decided to get each boy a basket and fill it with a few things. I didn't want all the cousins to be jealous, so we waited until we could catch Preston & Tyler alone for a minute and gave them their baskets. While grandpa was finding Tyler, Josh and Preston talked about going fishing this summer. Josh whispered in his ear to ask me when they would go, but Preston was too shy to ask.


What aunt gets an entire basket for their nephews for Easter? This aunt, cause she loves to spoil them. Their baskets included: 3 shirts, bubble bath, bubbles, a juice, a small ball, eggs filled with candy and a silver egg with a $2 bill. Then they were supposed to get a box of otter pops to share, but I left those at home.  

Preston's basket

Tyler's basket.
Most times, I just pick clothes on my own. But this time, Josh happened to look up and see me looking at the shirt that said "Grandpa's handy helper." He told me I HAD to get that shirt. So I added it to the online shopping cart and then asked why. A few weeks ago, grandpa was fixing the tractor and Tyler was helping him. Grandpa had handed Tyler a bolt to hold. When he turned around, Tyler stuck the bolt into a gap on the tractor. Last Josh had heard, they couldn't get it back out. After that, I agreed. Tyler HAD to have that shirt.

Of course the baskets were a hit. Each boy immediately opened each egg to find what was inside. Then they went right to work tasting everything.

Then the cousins joined us and Josh blew bubbles for the younger ones.




We always have so much fun when we all get together.