Easter Magic

Even though the temperature still felt like early February, Sunday was a good day. It felt like Easter, and despite the cold, I know that spring will soon be springing: the lilacs are showing signs of budding, the sun has at last been shining, and we even finally took the Christmas bulbs off of the wreath which has been languishing on the floor of the back porch since the end of January!

I am ready to get outside, get the kids outside, put on my flip flops, and stick my hands in the dirt.

The morning started around 7:30 with an extremely abbreviated Sunday family snuggle in bed and then we were off to confirm that the Easter bunny had visited in the night. We'd left a carrot on the kitchen table which Harrison verified had been knawed down to a small stump, and then he struck out to find the baskets.

Griffin's was more or less in plain sight on one of the dining room chairs. He scored a couple of jelly beans, a new book, and a little white chocolate "rubber" duckie.

Harrison had some trouble finding his own basket. He searched high and low in our room, the kitchen, living room, Griffin's room, the dining room. Finally the basket was found in the bathtub (silly wabbit!). The haul: a new birdfeeder and birdseed, several garden seed packets, watercolors and brushes, jelly beans, malted eggs, and three molded chocolates (dinosaur, rabbit, and train).

For dinner, I set a pretty spring table with linens, flowers, Gram's china and glass pitcher with the painted bluebirds, and the Easter eggs which we colored on Saturday. Even though, with my parents, we were only six, I also put out some placecards which I had stamped with our respective initials the afternoon before. We always made placecards for holiday dinners at Gram's, so I'm starting this tradition for Harrison and Griffin. [I'll definitely be getting washable-ink stamp pads so that Harrison can better manage this task next time! Harrison was quite baffled by my use of initials, rather than full names, to signify place settings---"but these are not the letters in my name!!!"]

All in all, it was a lovely day! It's been a rough couple of weeks, but there's much comfort in tradition. I am so appreciative of my Gram's desire to make magic for us, so I hope we were successful in making this weekend a little bit magical for Harrison as well.