Easter Festivities

My children were so excited this year about Easter. They had been learning all about why we celebrate Easter at church and in Family Home Evening, and of course they had been learning all about the Easter bunny and eggs through school and life. Emily was a bit skeptical of the Easter Bunny this year. She is still a total believer but seemed to think some aspects of the bunny were a bit peculiar (and if you really stop and think about it, the whole concept of the Easter Bunny is totally weird and freaky). She told me several times how weird it was that the Easter Bunny brought eggs (bunnies don't lay eggs after all).

The girls had fantastic memories of last Easter spent in Texas with their grandparents. They indulged in two egg hunts and spent the entire weekend running around with their cousins. The highlight, though, was the confetti eggs that were used for the neighborhood egg hunt. I had never heard of confetti eggs, but they are so popular in Texas (at least in Houston). They date back to an older Mexican tradition. The eggs are blown out, filled with confetti and after the children collect all the eggs they run about smashing them onto each other, onto their parents, onto just about anything they can find. My girls LOVED it. I have pictures of them gleefully smashing eggs on their ever patient Papa Bear, nailing Tyler when he least suspected it, and chasing one another with the colorful eggs. With such vivid (and FUN!) memories the request was put in early for confetti eggs this year. It is labor intensive, but so worth it. The girls loved it and I think we have a new family tradition!

We dyed eggs Saturday after the beach, then later that night I shredded paper and stuffed the eggs, covering the hole with a piece of tissue paper. The Easter Bunny hid the eggs and left them each a basket. The next morning they excitedly collected all their eggs and then quickly made confetti out of them. Confetti on me, on Maddie, on the cat even. 

Later in the day we had some friends over for a plastic/candy egg hunt and a traditional Easter dinner. The sugar high was impressive, and everyone had a great time. 

Dying eggs- you can see the holes for the confetti.

Such vibrant colors!

Bunnies I made for the girls.

The loot.

Confetti eggs post-stuffing. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product with the glued on tissue paper.

Quality control.

Poor Maddie was quite the sitting target.

So happy with her sucker!

Run cat. .  .  if you know what is good for you!

Confetti aftermath. 

Sorry for the blur. . . but look at her go!

The line up for the egg hunt.

Go CJ!

Not sure what she as grabbing. . . . not an egg!

Loving her eggs.

Hannah on the go.

Hannah's best buddy Jake.

Cute Macyn.

Note the toes. . . .  she wasn't sure what to make of the astroturf playground.

Sadly about as good as a group shot got!