Flexible Easter this year.

I have a confession to make:

While I love my grandson, I harbor a secret desire to have a granddaughter to dress in a frilly girlie-girl Easter dress.  I can picture a little girl in a sweet bonnet, with tiny white gloves, white paten leather shoes and a smocked spring colored dress swirling about her tiny form.

When I knew it was going to be a boy joining the family, I realized that girlie image would have to be put on hold.
BUT...when I spied this baby boy perfectly smocked for Easter outfit, I was thrilled.

I bought it months and months ago.
When I showed it to Bernie he announced that no grandson of his would be wearing frilly outfits.
Humph.
I tucked the outfit away awaiting my chance to put Luke in it at Easter Time.

This weekend I switched out winter accents for spring.

Brought out the ceramic Easter eggs that my mom and I made together years ago.
Spring garden flower plant were put into white pots and they marched along the mantle with tiny yellow chicks tucked in to peek out from the flowers, the same as the one in with the eggs.

This year I had also planned to make the Mennonite paska as I have the past few years.
A week ago I was paging through a Southern cook book and came across a recipe for Huguenot Torte.
"Ah HA!"  I thought to myself.
My daughter-in-law's mother is a descendant of the famous American Huguenot Agee family.
Which mean grandson Luke is also descendent from Huguenots, those brave French Antibaptists who fled to the New World of South Carolina and the Charleston area back in the late 1600s.
How perfect it would be to celebrate Luke's first Easter with a recipe that his religious forefathers enjoyed?
 

I whipped up a batch for Easter dessert.
How smug I felt!
A traditional dessert for our Easter dinner.
It wasn't until after it was out of the oven that I decided to research the history of the dish.
Ahem.
Turns out the recipe was from the Ozarks, and it was known as Ozark Pudding until a South Carolina woman sampled it during her travels.
She took the recipe back and began to prepare it and serve it at the Charleston restaurant where she was a cook.
In the 1950s.
Or maybe the 1960s.
The name of the restaurant?
The Huguenot Tavern.
Oh brother.
I asked Rachel if her family had ever eaten Huguenot Torte.
Nope.
Never heard of it.
Another blooper reel moment for me.

Easter dinner got complicated.
Luke's other grandparents were in town, and were to leave early Easter morning to drive back to California.
They would all attend at Saturday night Easter service.
We decided to let them enjoy their own family time; Bernie and I would go to church Easter morning (and yes, I did wear a BIG pale green Easter hat with soft pink roses...)
Easter dinner was as yet unplanned as of Easter morning.
In the end we all decided Indian food sounded great and the five of us went out for Indian food for
Easter Sunday dinner.
Luke (like the rest of us) likes Indian food just fine.

Backing up a bit....
Spring has sprung with gorgeous bulbs in bloom, and the weather had warmed up nicely for Easter weekend.
So it was planned that we all would go to Red Butte Garden on Friday afternoon.
But...
It turned out that the garden closed at 5 and Jeff wouldn't be able to join us until 4:40.
So...
We rescheduled that idea until Saturday afternoon.

Oh yeah!
Baby photos in the daffodils.
Now I had pictured them taken with Luke in the little Easter suit.
The plaid shirt...well, really, that is much more LUKE than the other choice.

Luke: You weren't seriously thinking about putting me in that frilly outfit were you?

He merrily enjoyed pulling a few daffodils apart, typical boy style.

Now I had brought the bunny ears AND the outfit along  just in case I could sneak him into them.
He didn't cotton much to the ears either.
They lasted maybe five seconds on his head.

We strolled on over to the Children's Garden area where the lizard sculptures are.
At not quite one year of age...you can pretty much tell him anything.

Lizard...Easter Bunny.
What's the diff?

Except Lizard eggs and Easter Eggs would probably look a bit different.
He doesn't know that though.

Next Luke got to play in a dirt pit.
He was "all boy" happy.

I was "All Girl" happy with this shot of his hand with a butterfly.

His big blue eyes still rock my world.

His other grandfather caged him up. 

In summer, the cage becomes a vine covered house.

A garden is always a lovely place for a family Easter photo.
This was taken about three hours before they left for Easter services.
Our church can be pretty casual...this may or may not be their Easter outfits!

It was so nice and warm, and sunny enough that hats were pulled out and put on everyone.

Babies look so darn cute in little gob hats.

Luke currently loves rocks.

All that is needed to keep him happy is a rock!
Let's call this one an Easter Egg Rock.

I am not sure if he really believed us.

He sure did like it when his daddy found ANOTHER rock for him.

"See?  I got a ROCK!"

He had a chance to ride on a moose, with rock in hand.

About half way through the garden visit I was left with all the boys of the family.
Luke, his Daddy, and his two granddads.

That was when the fun really started.
Bernie had a rock.
He hid it, pretending it was in his mouth.
Then he pretended to throw up the rock into his hand.
That was when Luke started really laughing.
Boys.
Dirt.
Rocks.
Fake Barf.
No frills.
Ever!

(We will get to watch Luke over a weekend in May.  I *might* try to get him into the outfit then. We will see!)