Easter Hunt Rewind

As promised, here I am again with some new(ish) photos from Easter... Go me! They mostly feature the infamous egg-toy-candy-junk hunt since this was only the second time (the other was last year's Easter) that I've hosted a holiday at my house, and I spent most of the weekend in the kitchen prepping, cooking, and creating a meal for the fam rather than taking pics. Last year was smaller, too, so I was a little worried about my ability to pull this off at all... but thankfully, everything went well, everyone had fun (or else they're lying to me... hehe) and none of the food was undercooked, overcooked, or burnt! YAY! Also, nobody got sick. woot woot! I had this weird fear that people would get sick after, and if they did, they would be afraid to eat my food forevermore. lol. Here's what was on our delectable menu:

APPETIZERS

* Chips/ dip
* Crudite/ dip
* Deviled eggs (of course!)
* Bacon wrapped jalepeno poppers (soooo good! These were a hit with everyone, and the guys were pretty much fighting over them. I admit, we made them for dinner one night after this... tee hee)
* Veggie pizza deal-io... Not sure what it's called, but it's good! You roll out some crescent dough, bake it, spread with a mixture of cream cheese and dressing, and top with assorted veggies. Yum.

MEAL

* Ham with citrus honey glaze. Nom nom nom...
* Lasagna
* Rosemary buttered dinner rolls
* Green bean casserole
* Roasted cauliflower
* Loaded mashed potatoes (with bacon, chives, sour cream...)

DESSERT

--notation: this was the one area I was bummed about... I just never got around to making the other dessert I had planned, which would have involved fresh fruit deliciousness... But, alas, the main meal comes first I'm afraid! :) So instead I only made...

* These adorable easter chick and lamb cupcakes!!!! Found from Betty Crocker (please excuse the photo, it's a cell phone one and I didn't take it, but I wanted to keep it real and show the actual cupcakes we- my Mom and I- made, mistakes and all... not the purty presentation cupcake pictures from the recipes)

Aren't they cute?! And really, not all that hard, either. Although after hours of cooking and hiding and wrapping and visiting and fun, I wouldn't say they were thrilling to make. But they did add a touch of whimsy and fun to the meal... which is sort of what I was going for :)

Here's a recap of what else I captured from that morning. Which wasn't a whole lot. I didn't really get ANY photos of our lovely guests, aside from the one at the end with Illy and her cousin Alli... but what can I say, it was a busy day for me! Enjoy! :D

The beginning of the hunt! It starts at the top of our stairs and winds down into the living room...

Where lots of goodies left by that big ol' bunny are to be found. Here, Illy poses with a new My Little Pony. On the head. Yes, typical pose.

Owen looks less than fully awake and entirely THRILLED to be hunting, don't you think?

But it didn't take him long to locate his basket o' goodies and start digging through. Chips, candy, gifts, and THIS cool new tee shirt, perfect for the occasion:

You can't see it fully here, but it says "Hanging with my Peeps" and has a picture of that infamous easter marshmallow candy ;)

It wasn't long before the hunt moved outside... Being that is was a nice, warm morning, we really couldn't have expected that Bunny to keep all the eggs cooped in the house, could we?!

He hid them in all sorts of funny places... By the bushes in the mulch:


In the corners of the deck:

and ALL over the yard... Here's Illy running around to make sure she hasn't missed any!

We finished up the hunt with a nice little soak in the sun...

Side note- I love this picture of my brother, the lighting is great and he looks so OLD. When the heck did he get to be so grown up?!

And a quick count of candy-booty acquired.

Look at all those eggs! She's been sneaking candy ever since this very day... lol.

And then it was off to the kitchen for me for pretty much the rest of the day, although I did get a few nice breaks to chat with everyone and enjoy their company. It was really a great time, and as much work as it is, I'm looking forward to hosting again next year (hopefully!). We are truly blessed to have a wonderful, fun family that we love spending time with. And I won't get all sappy and say much more, other than, thank you all who came. It was a blast :)

And two more quick snapshots for the road!

Illy and Alli, hamming it up!


Candy overload?

Easter Fun!

We had a really fun Easter this year! It was Ilyana's first easter egg hunt, and she picked up on it pretty quickly :) It was also our first holiday we have had AT HOME- no traveling, YAY!- and the first BIG holiday meal I have done all on my own. We had my brother, his girlfriend, my two cousins and one of their girlfriends over, plus us, and Will's brother stopped by with his family for a while, too.

I was nervous at first that something HAD to go wrong- when you're trying to plan a meal for that many people, plus an egg hunt, things get a little crazy. To top that off, our babysitter is off this week, so RIGHT after our big meal and visiting, I was sending the girl back with my brother to stay with my Mom for the week... SOB!... So I had to pack for that, too. I was worried that at least one of my dishes wouldn't come out, or I would forget something for the Bend... Or.... Or...

Well, none of it happened! WOOT for me!

I made an 8-lb ham, cheesy mashed potatoes, corn, salad, deviled eggs, filled celery sticks, punch bowl cake and bread. Everyone was stuffed- there was more than enough food- and they claim to have had fun... Of course, I can't really vouch for that, because I was running around most of the day, but I believe them :) I didn't manage to get any pics when everyone was there, because I was busy, but here are some highlights from the hunt, and also a few pictures of my pretty girl all dressed up:

Starting the hunt! I think at first she thought she had to EAT all the jellybeans while hunting, not put them in the basket... But that didn't really work out.

She's getting pretty excited here, realizing that there is candy AND presents all over- just for her!

But here, Momma. I'm a nice girl, I'll share.

One for you, two for me...

Found a Polly Pocket!

I think here she was in the middle of screaming "CHOCOLATE!"

And here she is with her full stash of boot-AY! Including, but not limited to:

• ABC letter teaching book
• Two pretty dresses and one summerish outfit
• Polly Pocket
• Other random dollies
• Giant bubble wand & bubbles
  
• Oodles of candy
• Shovel...
  
• Etc...
  

And here are some photos I took of my girl all dressed up for the day in one of her pretty new dresses:

See that gorgeous flower bow in her hair? I won it from Kia over at Good Enough Mama for guessing the right goog search! I rock... Oh, right, she does too :) Thanks Kia! Ilyana loves it... It's the first clip she'll let me leave in her hair for more than two seconds without screaming and ripping it out! Yay for you for finding a Bendy Clip!

Now, you peeps should go visit her and say Hi. Or say something snide and sarcastic. Cuz that's how Kia rolls, and she'll like you more if you say something like that than something all ushy gushy and nice. :P

Yes, I realize this is blurry. But how could you resist that FACE?

Ilyana: EASTER IS FUNNN!

Come to think of it, most holidays that are associated with candy are pretty good. And even if for some reason the holiday ends up bad, at least you can drown yourself in chocolate eggs and eat good food till you barf. There's always that.