Easter was lovely at our house.
It was a perfect Easter!
The weather was clear, the spring colors fully out, the grandkids well and every aspect of the Eastertide was delightful.
My Bunny Salad was a blast from the past:
A recipe I used to make from my Betty Crocker Boy and Girl cookbook, published in the early 1960s.
This year I folded napkins into bunny ears and used the china that had belonged to my paternal grandmother,
Easter Tide Spring decorating began on Palm Sunday and included flowering garden plants tucked into white pots, then cuffed with Spanish moss and charmed with chicks and ceramic eggs.
(Bunnies figured into a lot of this Easter for some reason...)
But before I go on with Easter Day...
Let me back up a bit in the Easter Week:
Let me back up a bit in the Easter Week:
A trip to Red Butte in the warm Easter week weather gave Luke a chance to explore the thousands of daffodils in bloom.
He was shirtless because he peeled off his shirt because it was so warm!
Calvin was strolled through the garden.
And he was plopped into every daffodil riot I could find!
(Hmmm...I wonder how many pictures of me she will take? I'm kinda done with it myself.)
It is a beautiful garden isn't it?
So all that warm spring weather you can guess what happened next, right?
A few days later it snowed!
Then...
The Saturday morning before Easter, April 4th, I got up early, at 5:55 am, while it was dark, to photograph the lunar eclipse.
It is the third lunar eclipse of a seriesof eclipses that are being called the four blood moons.
These photos were taken one block down the street heading west from my house.
I was in my bathrobe and slippers, my camera slung around my neck, walking alone in the near freezing dark to get my photo.
It was worth it.
Hauntingly beautiful.
I was not using a tripod.
At one point I left the shutter open and then moved the camera before the shutter closed.
Kind of an interesting photo was made from that bit of impatience.
It wasn't possible to get a good shot of the moon in full eclipse without a tripod to steady for an long exposure.
Still lovely seeing the orange sliver of the moon as it came out of eclipse.
Back to Easter Sunday.
In the morning we attended church.
It was Calvin's first Easter and he was adorable in a chick and bunny top and pants with bunny toes.
His little bottom had a soft bunny tail too.
We loved that we got to hold him during the worship time.
Cal explored Papa's face with his tiny hands.
You really can't ever trust a baby with exploring fingers on your face.
Sometimes love hurts!
Bunny toes!
And our pastor brought his family bunny to the pulpit...for sermon illustration purposes.
Pastor Troy loves his little bunny (which cracks us up when he says it...how many men would confess to owning such a pet?)
Troy cares for "Blueberry the Bunny" tenderly, even giving it medicine by mouth for a month once to save its life.
The bunny often struggles and runs away when Troy is doing what is needed to keep the bunny safe and healthy.
If only the bunny would know that Troy always has love and the rabbit's best interest in all that he does for the rabbit.
Troy told us that a struggling bunny can actually kick so hard with its hind legs that it can break its own back.
One needs to know exactly how to hold a bunny so it won't hurt itself with its own kicks.
Hmm...
There was much more to the sermon.
Like how the disciples (and we modern disciples too) sometimes struggle against God as He cares for us. It was a very scholarly examination of the post Resurrection; Troy is very academic yet fully capable of using even a rabbit on Easter to illustrate truth.
As always, I wore a hat to church.
The hat body is a vintage synthetic straw from the 1940-50s.
I trimmed the hat years ago with white goose feathers that I curled and a white silk flower.
I hadn't worn it in Utah before.
It was time to enjoy wearing it once again.
Luke wore a hat too...but not to church.
Easter Egg hunting happened right after church.
He learned the ru
les: You gotta have on bunny ears while you go out to hunt for Easter eggs.
I was able to buy hand sized plastic eggs with stuffed chicks and bunnies inside for Luke to find for his little brother.
Luke was so sweet about giving those bigger eggs to his 9 month old brother.
Luke got to hunt small hen sized eggs for himself.
Scroll through to join in the egg hunt!
Our egg hiding Easter Bunny Himself.
Baby Bunny!
Nice to get a good picture of my son Jeff too!
I showed Luke my blooming Bleeding Hearts.
He thought they were pretty.
Not sure he got the "hearts and bleeding" part.
Flowering cherry tree was a birthday gift to me last April.
It is still young but blooming nicely.
Calvin was not feeling too good.
A slight cold, a slight afternoon fever.
Holding on to Mommy was where he wanted to be.
His mommy wouldn't have it any other way.
After the hunt, we had a celebratory post hunt libation:
Pink sparkling wine and paska, which goes together perfectly.
Luke had sparkling grape juice which he found he didn't care for.
(My mom made the Easter duck couple years ago,)
After the hunt and the bubbly the grandchildren were toted back home for naps.
I got busy cooking.
Late in the afternoon the family re-gathered around the table for Easter dinner.
(The menu, by popular demand, was our traditional St. Patrick's day corned beef. colcannon and soda bread, since this year the feast had to be skipped.
 |
| Bunny Salad to make the Irish meal Easter-ish. |
Calvin's first Easter and his first Corned Beef and Soda Bread.
He liked it!
After dinner it was sit around the living room and let the little ones play.
Calvin sat on the floor and played with the toys the Easter Bunny hid for him in the big eggs.
How ever did the Bunny know a Teething Rubber Duck would be perfect?
(Fun fact: I was buying cat food at PetSm+rt and all the Easter dog toys were on blow out cheap sale.
How long those soft plush toys with rubber squeeky things inside would last with a dog I have no idea.
They seem more perfect for a baby to me.
(And really, does a dog really understand Easter anyway?
Calvin got to play with the basket Rachel's grandfather, his great grandfather, made.
(Wish we had taken a picture of the boys in it when they were new born.)
As the day drew to a close Bernie helped load Luke into his car seat for the ride home.
Luke looked at Bernie and softly told him that Papa was his very best friend.
It was a lump in the throat/tear in the eye moment for Bernie.
I hope as Luke grows up he will always know that his Papa treasures both his love and his friendship.
Good times are surely ahead for them both.
Blessing are ahead for all of us I think, who know and love our Risen Lord.
