unconventional easter...

with the packing, moving, painting & the HUGE order i had to prepare this weekend, (30 cookies, 50 cupcake buttons, 25 wish tags, 2 felt birds and a couple of custom signs), there has been little time to just breathe.

therefore...

easter sunday proved to be quite "unconventional" this year.

easter dinner?

this year there was no "easter feast" with extended family.

only a simple picnic dinner with ham sandwiches...

and just the 5 of us.

wrapping the sandwiches made them feel a little more special..,*wink*

easter eggs?

only one dozen this year -

actually....only 11 because one cracked during the boiling process. *oops*

9 eggs for ella to hunt.

1 $5 golden egg & 1 $2 silver egg for clara & ema to find.

and it doesn't matter that the decorating took place sunday afternoon....

just before the actual egg hunt...

right?

my 11 year old ema did the photo shoot for these finely decorated eggs...awesome job!

(pssst....j even decorated one...) *wink*

the golden egg was decorated by 13 year old clara...it's the yellow one with ric rac & ribbon added to it.

the silver egg was created by ema...it resembled a turtle and it's the striped one in the middle.

& as fate (& a little help from j) would have it, they each found each other's eggs...*wink*

new easter dresses?

nope.

except for the one ella got in her easter basket...

a last minute decision sunday morning when i ran up to Wal-Mart (shhhh) to get supplies i ran out of for that HUGE order i mentioned...

it was her FIRST real easter, hunting for eggs...

otherwise she probably wouldn't have gotten a dress either - lucky girl.

lush fields of green grass for egg hunting?

not here...

just a bunch of weeds for ella to dodge.

she sure looks cute in her $5 dress surrounded by the dead grass & weeds though? *wink*

family pictures?

that would be a "no".

unless you count the photo shoot ema did for the easter eggs?

LOTS of pictures of the easter eggs...

i'm talkin' at least 50 pictures of the eggs...*wink*

once again...

it was ella pie who was lucky enough to have pictures taken.

it WAS her first egg hunt you know!?

i mean c'mon...

that's a REALLY big deal...

she's just spotted her first egg in this picture...

bending...reaching...

SCORE!!! ella's first official easter egg...

"kerplop!" first egg in the basket...

and this was j's favorite of the day...

so...

although i spent a few moments beating myself up for feeling like i'd failed.

i reminded myself of the chaos we have going on.

and then i patted myself on the back...

after all...

despite the chaos...

i was able to:

- put together last minute easter baskets (even though i almost skipped it altogether)

- make a picnic dinner as special as i could (sandwiches, pickles, & hard boiled eggs!)

- make sure ella didn't miss her first opportunity for an egg hunt (that would've been bad)

- take SOME pictures (even if they were only of eggs & ella)

- have the girls decorate 11 eggs (even though i almost opted to skip it & just do plastic)

as unconventional as this year's easter turned out to be...

i'm sure it's one we won't forget.

i hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend...

we've got another week of packing preparations.

the official "move" is this saturday.

so...

back to regularly scheduled programming...*wink*

Keeping It Real...

okay...so the sandwich wraps were a little self-indulgent...

you know i've been wanting to try them out anyway.

i just used easter as the excuse to push myself to do it!

i suggest wrapping wax paper around the sandwich FIRST...

to avoid your decorative paper from becoming soiled.

(i made sure to note the dimensions and hope to post a template for you...soon)!