Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Easter 2011

Well, I think I might have finally swept up the last of that pesky Easter basket grass yesterday so I guess it's time to share our Easter day here on the blog.

But we must start with some back story. My parents sold their house (yeah for them!) so we decided to have our Easter dinner here so they could keep on packing and not have to worry about the state of their house. It was a nice 'excuse' for me to really work on cleaning the house.

Then Max and Dave both started to sound and feel crummy. Max was up for awhile Friday night (which is NOT like Max at all) and Dave was coughing and miserable. Dave was a real trooper though and helped me finish up everything Saturday. Unfortunately, this eventually meant that Max and Dave missed Easter Sunday service. We were planning to go to church with my parents so Seth and Luke and I did that, but it really made me sad to go without Dave and Max (ridiculous because obviously that's not what Easter Sunday is about). Nevermind that it was Max's first Easter and he was missing church. I was a bit of a mess on the way to church (again ridiculous), but finally decided that Max was just saving a first for me for next year.

One of my favorite (non-religious) traditions is taking family photos while everyone is all dressed up. For the first time ever I bought shirts for the boys and a dress for me almost a month ahead of time. No last minute running around or any of my usual craziness. I was ready for these pictures! Yeah, that didn't really go so well either. Seth hates having his picture taken. Dave didn't go to church so he wasn't really dressed for the photo. Luke is crazy. And Max's eyes are all red and pitiful. We don't have time to discuss all the things about me that I wasn't thrilled with but I will tell you that it rained. My hair does not like rain.

So, here are a few pictures:








Here's the more important part of this post - I made the boys listen to this song all the way to church and home and now Seth calls it "the Easter song." It's fantastic. In fact, I probably should've just posted it and skipped all the nonsense about who missed church and how I let my selfishness ruin parts of the day and why the pictures are crummy. So, just take a listen to the song!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Edible Easter fun...

Now that we have the candy coating issue resolved, I have really been wanting to try my hand at cake pops. Here is the process...


First, you make a cake. Cake mixes are actually preferable for this project due to their crumble-ability. Yay me! And yes, I plan to continue to make up words for this post...Next, you let your baby destroy the entire Sunday paper, just to keep him entertained. It probably would've been more entertaining for him if he had two hands to use, rather than the one hand and the long sleeved t-shirt claw. [Side note/fun fact: I HATE the Sunday paper. It's just more clutter to mess up my already too cluttered house. We only get the paper two days a week. They keep calling and offering us great deals to get it more often. NO! It's just MORE paper. Ugh. Makes me crazy.]Then, after digging paper out of Max's mouth, and after the cake is completely cooled, you destroy the cake much the same way Max destroyed the paper. There is something obnoxiously therapeutic about baking a cake only to dismantle it. You rip it into shreds. Yeah, sure, the instructions say to cut into four equal pieces. But the next step is to rub the pieces together until it crumbles all up. Why do I need four equal pieces for this?



Then you add the icing to the crumbled cake. Sorry, no picture of this. Imagine a big glass bowl with crumbed up cake and some icing being glopped in (made that one up too) and then mixed around. Oh, and I made the icing - but that's because I'm a bit addicted to my cream cheese icing and I knew I could lick the beater when the boys weren't looking. Then you make balls out of the cake. My mini ice cream/cookie scooper is the perfect size. No pictures of this either, mostly because touching my camera at this point seemed a tiny bit scary. [Remember, it's cake and icing being rolled around in my hands - messy!]



Then I got out some Peeps too, just for fun.


Next I melted some white candy coating and some chocolate. Now, for whatever reason I thought this would be a fun project with the boys. I am not sure what made me think that a 5 year old and 3 year old would be able to sit and wait for excess chocolate to drip off the peeps on a stick. However, they were good at covering the chocolate with the sprinkles. So, I set out the sprinkles.Next I fed the boys marshmallows (or musha-mawows), to keep them entertained. I should probably work on the entertainment around here, huh?





And, voila - a mere 12 hours after starting the project, we had round cake pops, egg shaped cake pops, and chocolate covered Peeps. You know, after lunch, naps, a snack, dinner, a few loads of laundry, picking up some newspaper, and a few weather warning sirens later, chocolate covered goodness. Nothing about the process was particularly difficult - just time consuming. The cake has to cool completel; the balls have to be chilled; then the chocolate needs to set, etc.

A bit of packaging - little wrappers and ribbon to pretty it all up. We took some of the chicks and bunnies to Seth's teachers and some of the prettier balls to a friend for her birthday.


Some leftovers. Whatever shall we do with these? I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of plain Peeps, but the marshmallows and the crunchy sugar coated in chocolate is a bit addictive!




The egg shaped pops didn't work quite like I had hoped. Once the chocolate is set, you are supposed to paint them with corn syrup (stripes, dots, etc.) and then sprinkle sugar on them so they look like deocrated Easter eggs. Unfortunately, the decorations just oozed off. But, now that I know I can make the regular balls, I'm looking forward to doing so for Max's birthday party treats!


Cake pops from:http://www.bakerella.com/


Peeps from:http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/chocolate-covered-peep-bouquet-and-peep-smores/

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter, mostly in pictures

**Blogger and I are having a serious disagreement re: the formatting of this post. I give up. Sorry the captions are too close to the wrong pictures!
I said mostly in pictures. One of my favorite stories from Easter weekend though was the Good Friday service. The one I thought my little family of four had decided not to attend. So, I ran an errand, nearly a half hour away, and Dave called and said Seth was excited about going to church. Okey dokey. On my way home then! I got home in time to change and run out the door. No dinner, too much rushing, and way too tired. But as Seth, who never goes to "big church" sat on my lap I figured he was taking in the scenery or marveling at the size of the auditorium. Instead, he turned to me and said, "hey, that's what we've been talking about in MY class." Wow, kids really know how to bring on the guilt! I have struggled this season with how much he understands / is ready for and how much is appropriate at his age. It seems every time I think Dave or I are having a serious conversation with him about Jesus' death on the cross, he suddenly wants to talk about a trash truck or whether he can have a snack. So, I think Dave and I are both trying to talk as much as he'll listen. And with that said, back to the pictures...Eggs to be colored (and deviled - we only colored a dozen)
Egg dyeing tablets

Egg dye - mixed up and ready to go
Looking at his masterpiece
Who knew it could be so much work to color eggs?
The finished product
Eating a peep - this kid eats anything and he put the peep back in the box!
I think he just thought it was too early for the camera
Ready for some pictures at Grammy and Grampy's
Apparently picture taking is a lot of work (moreso for the adults with Luke because he really really gets grumpy after about two pictures!)
Cousins
Kissing cousins
My boys!

Lukey, Daddy and Beckley