Easter Sunday

OK, so I'm a little late on this, but I'm going to go ahead and post it now.  Better late than never, right?

Our family begins their Easter celebration the night before, with egg dyeing.  We let all of the kids participate, which makes it extra fun.  Extra messy, too, and they usually have colored fingers for church the next day, but that's all part of the fun.  This was the first year that Maddie participated:

We colored a total of 48 eggs, I think, which gave each of the 6 kids 8 eggs.



Abby & Katie



Brittany, Emma, and Maddie



Emma, Maddie, and Don

I didn't dye eggs this year, for perhaps the first time ever.  I got a much easier job:  assembling breakfast casseroles for the next morning.  Have you ever made an overnight casserole?  We have a couple that we really like.  One is bread, ham, and cheese, layered, and then a beaten egg mixture poured on top.  The other is a french toast casserole, which is a sweetened milk/egg mixture poured on top of cubed bread.  Both are put in the refrigerator overnight, then put in the oven the next morning.  They are great for large brunch get togethers!  Here is the recipe for my favorite French Toast casserole.  The only things I change are that I cut the bread into 1" cubes, and I sometimes use maple flavored french toast bread.

I also got together all the ingredients to make Resurrection Cookies with the girls.  They are basically meringe cookies, but each ingredient and step is tied to the Easter story.  For instance, these called for pecans, which you place in a resealable bag.  The kids beat them with a wooden spoon, which represents the harsh treatment Jesus faced.  The kids taste each ingredient along the way, and you explain the correlation, along with reading Bible verses.  The vinegar represents the vinegar Jesus was given on the cross, the eggs represent new life, the salt represents the salty tears of Jesus' disciples, the sugar is the sweet promise that was fulfilled, the white color represents purity in God's eyes of those clensed of their sin.  You put the cookies in a preheated oven, turn the oven off, and seal it with scotch tape, to represent the sealed tomb.  When the kids get up in the morning, you "unseal" the oven, and give each child a cookie, telling them to break it open.  It is hollow inside, which represents the empty tomb.  Here is the site where I got the recipe.  I really liked them, and think we will make that part of our tradition.  The kids didn't like them so much, but I think that was because there were nuts in them!

We all went to church in the morning, and were met at home by Mom, Dick, Becky, and a couple of Brittany's friends.  While Brittany, Becky and I worked on breakfast, the kids had their egg hunt.  I missed most of it, as I was in the kitchen, but Don took some pictures.

Emma and Abby

Katie

Maddie and Katie



Emma and Katie.  See that blur?  That's how a lot of our pictures came out that day.  The kids move faster than the camera!

Yes, our egg hunt was in the house.  It was raining, or threatening to rain, all day.  We've not had an egg hunt outside since we moved to this house, 4 years ago!  But the kids had fun, and it did limit the spots for hiding eggs, which is both good and bad.

Here are the girls in their Easter dresses, before the hunt started.  This was one of the few times they sat still all day!

After brunch, we all just hung out and played games.  Mom, Dick, and Becky stayed, and it was a very relaxing day.  We also did the full Easter dinner:  ham, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, broccoli salad (Mom's special recipe, and a family favorite!), asparagus, applesauce, and rolls.  I found a recipe for Blender Hollandaise sauce, that was so quick, easy and GOOD that I'll never used the packaged stuff again.  As a matter of fact, I've made it twice since Easter!  Dessert was a carrot cake roll with cream cheese frosting, which can be found here.  This cake is much easier than it looks, and completely worth the effort.  Best carrot cake I've ever had, I think!

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this belated look at our holiday.  I'll be back tomorrow, with a look at Brianna's birthday party.  See you then!