Mom Gets Her Own Easter Egg Hunt

While picking out which egg colors the kids wanted for their Easter egg hunt, they insisted that I too pick out my own color.  When I inquired, they informed me that they were going to fashion me my very own egg hunt.  So after work one day during the week before Easter, the kids hid eggs for me to search for.

In the end, I came away with 12 eggs.  When I opened them, I discovered that they were all filled with candy.  Some were seasonal from past holidays.  I was curious where the kids got the candy from.  It turns out that whenever candy is put out randomly or for holidays, the girls will take some to add to their hidden stock pile.  They used that stock pile to fill my eggs.  This explained why the candy disappears so quickly!

 

Easter Egg Hunt

With the kids spending Easter with their father this year, they were a bit worried that they wouldn't get to have an Easter egg hunt.  Reassurance was provided that we would have a family Easter egg hunt rather than one provided by the Easter bunny which doesn't seen to stop by when they are at their father's.  We elected to have this when the weather was gorgeous outside.  After school, the kids were informed to stay inside away from the windows to prevent any peaking.  When the time was right, outside we went.

On your mark, get set...

Each of them picked out which colored egg they wanted to ensure fairness when out hunting.  Micah - orange, Victoria - purple, and Izzy - mint green.

Despite not receiving any "large" Easter surprises, they were all satisfied with what they did acquired.

 

Easter Celebration

Most years we travel back to the farm to celebrate Easter with extended family.  That means we are often missing Good Friday services and so I've always wondered how many missing holes there are in my children's religious upbringing.  They've neve been a part of Advent or Lent as these typically fall on their father's parenting time.  With us not traveling this year, we were able to participate in most of the Holy week including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  

At church we were greeted by a prayer labyrinth which wrapped around the outside of the church.  According to pastor, complete strangers partook during the week.  The kids enjoyed adding their stone and trying to find the best balanced spot.  I found pleasure in seeing them actively learn from Holy week and better understand what Easter means and why we celebrate it the way we do.  They were most caught off guard with Good Friday as many wore black, we left in silence, and all were startled when the organ gave out the most awful discord.

Rather than cook a traditional meal, we voted to eat out and, with a unanimous vote from the munchkins, headed to the North End (aka Little Italy).  We ate at Riccardo's whose homemade marinara was heavenly.  Micah and I ordered the same things, lobster ravioli which did not disappoint.  Everything was given extra, real parmesan to top them off... delish! 

For dessert, we mossed over to Mike's Pastry for cannoli.  They have so many flavors it's hard to choose just one.

That evening Izzy wanted to get her bake on and create an Easter themed cake.  She was inspired when she found edible grass at Michael's when we went looking for items for her Egyptian project.  She made a vanilla and strawberry marble cake. 

Eventually two younger members of the family wanted to join in on the cake creating.

Our family themed Easter bunny cake!

 

Easter Egg Dying

Easter wouldn't be Easter without dying a few eggs.  Luckily all of us like hard boiled eggs so doing this tradition doesn't lead to waste.  The only challenge was finding dying kits as none of our local stores carried any.  I will blame this on the pandemic.  My back up plan was to use food coloring only to find out that the grocery store only carried gel food coloring.  The only food coloring I had was yellow and blue which I guess we could have made three different colors.  When digging in our Easter stash, Izzy found an unused packet of colored tablets saving the day!  I have no clue how old they were and was worried these might be a bit stale to work well.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out this was not the case.

In addition to the traditional dying, we love using the Egg Mazing to add a some pizazz with markers.  We've learned over the years that we can use the markers and then dye the eggs.  However you never want to do the reverse as all other eggs with have dye stripes from the wheels being contaminated.

Whala!  Our Easter masterpieces.

 

Bures Zoom Easter Celebration

In similar fashion to last year's pandemic Easter celebration, the Bures clan gathered for an Easter inspired Zoom game.  This year's game was themed off of Family Feud.  Family members were split up into two teams.

Team 1:  Team Llamas

Oma, Avery, Audrey, and Victoria

Team 2:  Team Terror-dactyls

Opa, Diane, Amelia, Izzy, Micah, and Aggie

Each team took alternating turns to answer an Easter themed question.  Correct answer's points were given to that team until three strikes occurred.  Questions included 1) Name a famous rabbit, 2) Name one of the most popular Jelly Bean flavor, and 3) Name an Easter animal.  There was definitely disagreement on some of the answers that were provided. 

In the end, the Terror-dactyls won.  Regardless of points, this was a fun way to celebrate across the miles.  The amount of Zoom game options has increased dramatically since the pandemic started and is something that can be used going forward, pandemic or not, to stay connected.

 

6th Grade Egyptian Project

The current period of time Izzy's 6th grade class is studying is ancient Egypt.  The students were given two choices for their social studies project for this section; recreate a Egyptian tomb or novel Egyptian god.  Izzy tried the create an Egyptian god but was quickly dismayed by the level of details she needed to write about.  Therefore she quickly turned her attention towards creating a tomb.  Victoria was game to allow Ken to be mummified but paced around while he was wrapped up like a nervous mother.

Izzy then spend her week painting, cutting, sculpting, and writing.  We stopped by Michael's and were tickled that there was one, and only one, tube of Egyptian trinkets which she readily used.  My job was to orchestrate a pyramid top without obscuring what was inside her tomb.  Lots of tape and spray paint later, Izzy had her Egyptian tomb done just in time for the project deadline.  She came home ecstatic as no one else created a pyramid and that she received many complements from teachers and classmates.  Now we simply wait to see how her project is graded.  She's hoping that she receives the maximum points (100) as her grade in social studies is not the strongest.  Her social studies class is reported to be the hardest class for the entire 6th grade.