A Happy Easter

Except for the fact that we were missing a few family members, especially Mike and Amanda, we had a very happy Easter.

 We did all the traditional things...colored eggs with Charlotte's help.

 Baked dutch oven bread for the basket blessing.

Used some vintage linens and filled the basket with traditional Easter food, Polish sausage, horseradish, salt, bread, eggs and candy for the kids.

Accompanied by my dearest, who by the way makes me laugh so hard in church, we followed our family tradition, thereby keeping us in good stead with the ancestors.

 In a amazing turn of events, I was actually caught up with the tasks at hand so that we had some time on the "Saturday before Easter" to take a walk on the beach.  Historic!

This was the first time in many years that we did not have house guests for the holiday.  The time to clear our heads was amazing. Walking the beach was just the thing I needed after several weeks of busy.  We laughed, patting ourselves on the back for having our casseroles tucked safely in the refrigerator, while everyone else seemed to be busy with preparations... since we had the beach to ourselves.

 In just a few short weeks this amazing tree will be fresh and green.

At home the table was set simply with a thrifted tablecloth and bunny.  The pansies came from a amazing garden center I will tell you about in another post.

I used year old seeds to plant my wheat grass after soaking them in water to see if they would sprout.  This little tradition is one of my favorites.  Bringing spring right to the table.

 I also displayed some faux greenery in this crate my future daughter in law scored at the thrift. That's what you get when you leave things behind Charlotte!

My dear and faithful friend Mary brought me our cute lamb cake.  She has been making them for me for many years now.  The most kind and thoughtful thing.  Mary was son Mike's gym teacher in grade school. Mary's kindness to him and to me is legendary in our family.  God bless this wonderful teacher, every child should have a caring person like this to look up to. Our friendship has been such a gift to me, I am blessed.

I hung a string of lights on the mantle knowing that our little one would notice.  Notice she did and especially liked the pink egg.  I will not show you our princess in her dress, but she was radiant as Princess Elsa!  She told her Aunt how Grandma couldn't find the dress, but then Grandpa did!  A true story as we had to go to two stores to find a Elsa dress, and Grandpa did find it!  She was so sweet and grateful for everything she received. The kids all had a great time, including a egg hunt.  Grandpa played the Easter bunny as the girls were distracted and tossed the eggs around the yard.  It was great having the windows and door to the yard open, hearing all the fun outside.  The nicest weather we've had on Easter in years.

If you think two kinds of bread was too much, then you don't know my family.  The dutch oven bread was a big hit, and Mom's braided bread popularity, makes me keep it under wraps till serving for fear none will be left when brunch is served.  Again, no photos of brunch.  All of the casseroles turned out great, the pea salad was a hit, Mindy's deviled eggs devoured, Elizabeth's fruit and cheese tray a masterpiece.

We had an adventure on Friday that I will write about soon, finding a incredible venue for Jon and Charlotte's wedding and discovering what might me my new favorite garden center.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind comments.  Enjoy this beautiful day.