Easter Weekend

We tried to keep Easter weekend somewhat simple this year, since I’m pretty much ready to have a baby any time now. But we still wanted to make sure we had a fun weekend. We decided to try going to the city’s Easter egg hunt this year. We tried to go a couple of years ago but we got there just a few minutes late and the whole thing was already over. So this year, I put down on the calendar that it started at 10 even though it started at 10:30 that way we would for sure be there early. 😉

There were tons of eggs all over the ground, and there weren’t many ‘hiding places’ but the trick was getting some eggs before all the other kids got in front of you and got them first. Once the firemen sounded the horn on their truck the kids were off. Ethan collected 17 eggs, Tyra got 10, Jeremy got a whopping 23, Dinah got 6 and Kyle picked up an open one that all the other kids passed to give to Chloe. Of course we made the older kids share with the little ones so they all ended up with a fair amount of eggs and treats. And I’m happy to report that she didn’t even lose Dinah! I was really worried about that, since parents and strollers weren’t allowed in the egg hunt area and our kids just disappeared into the mass of kids there. But as soon as it looked like they were done Kyle went into the mob and found her. The boys came back on their own and I had to go hunting for Tyra (she has been running away and not coming back lately).

After that hunt we stopped off at a couple of stores for a few last minute things and then we headed home to finish preparing our Easter dinner that we were hosting. The cousins and Granny came over for dinner and the Easter festivities. I made the desserts ahead of time, but I pretty much let Kyle take care of making the meat and the potatoes, and Karen and Laurel brought the side dishes. So while Kyle was working on the potatoes I supervised the kids coloring eggs.

Alex sat down next to Chloe so she disappeared under the table and ended up not coloring eggs:

Dinner was yummy. We had a pot roast and a leg of lamb, roast potatoes, and Karen brought a fruit salad and some rolls, and Laurel brought wheat pilaf and some yummy sweet creamy carrots. After dinner but before whipping out the dessert we had an egg hunt in the front yard for the kids. Laurel had brought some filled plastic eggs, and I had filled some and Laurel and Roine and I went out to hide them.

I let Chloe out first since she was the youngest, then I let out Dinah. Then I let Jeremy and Daniel go out together, then Tyra, but I think I should have waited a few more seconds before letting Ethan, and Lars out because they just went CRAZY. And of course the bigger kids got to go out after they did.

After the egg hunt we brought the kids back inside and they got to eat their spoils, and while they were distracted with that I got out the REAL dessert for the big people. 😉 I made banana cake balls and mini cheesecakes, and then this jello cheesecake creation (saw the recipe on a store brand box of gelatin and then Kyle and I elaborated on it to come up with this….)

It turned out REALLY cool. 🙂 I used vanilla wafers to make a crust (with some butter and sugar of course) and then did four layers of the jello cheesecake. The bottom is berry blue, then wild strawberry, then peach and I topped it off with raspberry. Now if you’re wanting cheesecake I wouldn’t recommend this recipe, but if you’re looking for a really cool jello dessert it’s awesome!