When Easter Is So Fun You Could Just Puke!

Easter. We have been lacking in Easter tradition since we moved to Cincy, as we have celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus in different ways every year. The first year it snowed ON EASTER DAY! The weather started out somewhat dreary, so we had our Easter Egg hunt inside our North Bend Road rental house. Afterward, we bundled up and went to a Reds game. And it snowed. But we had great seats because we were the only people crazy enough to sit in the snow and watch. There was the year we went to Red River Gorge to camp. I think it rained, or was very cold or hailed. Or all three. You know...Dutton camping. We have returned to Alabama at Easter because I love, love Mobile at Azalea time. There is nothing more beautiful.

This year however, we decided to stay home and celebrate. It was in the middle of a three-week solid rain-fest so outdoor camping was probably not going to work well for us.  Lydia really enjoyed her first 'real' event coloring Easter eggs, since she was in the sling or sleeping last year.  She was quite a hoot because she'd stick her egg in the dye, then pick it up and lick it.

My mad picture taking skillz washed out the colour of Archie's egg, but here he is showing it off!

Lydia is getting ready for the lick.

Lawrence is showing me his green hands. They matched his shirt! Notice how many colours he has in front of him! He was doing THAT many eggs at a time. Archie complained more than once that Lawrence was hogging all the good colours!

We must've made her angry because Miss Lydia is hulking out--turning green!  All the water in the bath tub when I got the little ones in there turned green too!

On Easter Day, we actually attended our church in Cincinnati for the first time. This was a first because we are usually somewhere else for Easter. The flower arrangement was particularly beautiful. I really enjoyed the sermon on Resurrection Living. I suppose ministers really try to step it up a notch to get all the Easter visiting folks' attention who don't attend regularly. Not that I think everyone must attend church for spiritual growth...Camping trips, communing with nature and being together as a family can be very spiritually uplifting.

After church, I cooked our meal. Pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, baked beanies and a fresh fruit salad. How's that for non-traditional? After I finished cooking, I actually got a little time to myself for reading a book! The boys opened the camper between rainstorms. We've had the camping bug, but it's rained for going on three weeks straight. Biblical proportions type of rain. I'm considering an ark just in case. Also, Archie has had baseball games scheduled. Then canceled due to rain. *sigh*

So we sat out in the driveway and pretended to camp for a couple of hours, then rolled everything back up to prepare for the next rainstorm.

Morgan came to visit and have dinner, and we had the Easter egg hunt. We could only hide eggs right next to the house or on the concrete because everything else was soaked. Our back yard had a little lake going on, so we couldn't hide down there, which was a little disappointing.

Archie, Lawrence and Lydia hunted eggs. Lawrence had to open every single one to see what was inside as he found them.

He must've been pleased with what he found!

Miss Lydia kept shaking her eggs. I don't think she cared much about what was inside; she just enjoyed that it made noise when she shook it!

Here is Archie hunting eggs. I had to fuss at him a little bit, because I 'hid' some eggs in really obvious places for Lawrence and Lydia to find, but Archie kept getting those! Lots of enthusiasm for finding eggs, this boy has! To his credit, he put a few back so they could be found by the little ones!

Phillip and I went outside to take down the camper. When we came in, Lawrence was laying on Morgan's shoulder, glazed-eyed, and eyes rolling back in his head. We just plumb exhausted him!

What an angel, right??? An angel with crazy hair!

Sometime later in the evening, as we were beginning to try to get things wound down, Lawrence wanted a last piece of candy. Phillip gave it to him. All of a sudden, there was chocolate yuck running down his front. We ran him upstairs, stripped him down, and he puked again. Apparently that last piece of candy was just one too many. We got him in the tub, cleaned him up and got him out again, he said he was feeling 'much better'!

I suppose I need to be extra careful on the two days a year that I let the kids have unlimited candy--Halloween and Easter. My second son doesn't know when he's had enough! Needless to say, the following few days were very candy-restricted days.  

I think this qualifies as a successful Easter! It's so fun that you could just puke!

Here is a video of our Easter Egg colouring. I was hoping to get two videos on there (to keep the grandparents and Dr. Joe happy) but was having some trouble. Hopefully here goes one of them, anyway!