Easter at Home

So, we scrapped our plans to head to Raleigh and decided to stay home and enjoy Easter here in Takoma Park. Our main reason for the shift in plans was because everyone, Patrick especially, has been sick. Still. Again. However you look at it, we needed some rest.

This morning, Elena and I woke up early and headed down to the kitchen and playroom, where the Easter Bunny had so nicely left eggs for the girls to find. The Easter Bunny was especially nice this year to keep the eggs inside since it was in the 20s outside. Brrr. Well, Elena found about 5 eggs and began spilling jelly beans all over the place before I finally decided to rouse the other 2 out of bed for coffee and egg hunting. Here's a little pic of Mia searching for her eggs. Elena wasn't exactly allowed to participate since the eggs were filled with candy. She didn't seem to mind too much, however, because her basket contained a few eggs with Cheerios and graham cracker pieces.


Easter Dinner was sortof a hack. I did have a ham, albeit tiny, as a just-in-case-we-are-still-sick backup plan, and thank goodness I had it. I also decided to make scalloped potatoes, something Patrick had mentioned he had as a kid for Easter. Let me tell you a story before I go into this. Last Thanksgiving, my sister Amanda sent out some really yummy sounding recipes for the main feast for each of us to consider making. Well, I declined her fabulous sounding sweet potato dish because it entailed slicing and arranging sweet potatoes for a layered casserole of sorts, and I thought it would be difficult to make such a time and labor-intensive dish while having two little ones underfoot. So, WHAT WAS I THINKING when I decided to make scalloped potatoes?!? Yes, it is a time and labor-intensive dish! Same as the sweet potato thing. Anyway, Patrick and I enjoyed them. But, they overflowed the casserole dish and the sauce burned in the oven the last half hour of cooking so we had to air out the house every few minutes by opening the door and letting the smoke out and the freezing cold in. AND, they took twice as long as the recipe indicated to make. It tasted good, but I think next time I'll buy the Betty Crocker kind or make mashed.

Anyway, enough about potatoes. Here's a few cute shots of the girls - we didn't get a nice shot of everyone in their Easter dresses. But that's fine, because you couldn't really see them under their winter coats anyway. :) We'll take some next Sunday and pretend it's Easter again.





Happy Easter Everyone - take a moment to remember why we are celebrating and get yourselves saved before it's too late. You never know when you will be called home...