Happy Easter !

My tulips and I wish you all a wonderful Easter!!

Who You Starin' At?!?!?

Another Easter candy story. My favorite candy at Easter is hollow chocolate bunnies. That first bite of the ear is just heaven. When I was a kid, I always asked for one, but always managed to get jelly beans and whatever else was on sale at the time.

One year when I was in my early 20's, we were at my Mom's house and just finishing dinner. The kids were all playing with their baskets and eating their candy. Suddenly, my mom jumped up from the table and said, "Oh, dammit!" Then she ran outside. We had no clue what was going on, but a couple of minutes whe came back in the house with a pink and yellow box and a frustrated grin on her face. Apparently she had decided to buy me the much-wanted hollow chocolate bunny. And she bought the biggest one she could find - about a foot tall.

Mind you, we lived in Tucson which gets pretty danged hot by Easter. And she had bought the bunny a couple of days before, but forgot it in the trunk of her car. There in that festive little box, was a huge solid puddle of chocolate with these two soulful eyes looking up at me. Hollow no more. Little bunny looked so sad. We took him out of the box, gently pried the eyes off so we couldn't see his gloom, and proceeded to get an ice pick to break the "bunny" into pieces.

No hollow ears to bit off that year, but a whole lot of laughter and a pretty cool memory.

SANPs (Senior Adults No Peeps)

As with most families we have our Easter traditions. Sure, there's a ham on the table. And Portuguese beans - from my husband's side. The kids hunt for eggs in the front yard, there are Easter decorations a-plenty around the house. And we all eat too much (that's pretty much a given for every holiday!).

But Ed's primary tradition, the one that makes his little eyes light up, is getting his annual stash of Peeps. Those disgustingly sweet little baby chicken-looking things that comes in all colors and have beady eyes. Fleur de Lisa mentioned them in her blog today. She's not a fan, either.



Ed, however, loves them. His mom would always bring over a couple of boxes. His kids would bring some. I would buy some. He'd put the boxes in the freezer and pop one or two in his mouth periodically. A couple of years ago I made the HUGE mistake of telling him about the Peeps website and the "dueling-peeps" video. He, of course, had to try it. So he put two yellow peeps on a paper plate (needless to say the paper plate was my idea) and stuck toothpicks into their bodies. Turned on the microwave and watched them puff up and start magically waving their toothpicks swords. Small problem - he hadn't placed them properly on the paper plate so they weren't facing each other. Instead they were courageously fighting the sides of the microwave! Brave little marshmallow soldiers that they were. Then they puffed up a bit too much and collapsed on themselves. A puddle of colored marshmallow with two little toothpicks sticking out. Ed had to try again. They had to battle each other!!

Round two - this time with a purple and a pink Peep. This time they were placed properly. This time the toothpicks actually did duel! For about 2 seconds. Then the meltdown occurred. Ed thought it was totally cool. I gave him a patronizing grin and left the room. He gleefully cleaned up the melted marshmallow splatters from the bottom and sides of the microwave. Experiment successful.

Another fun thing is to freeze them and drop them on something hard watching them shatter like a crystal vase. Oh, yes, we tried that, too. Outside. Such fun. Ed and the ants had a great time.

After Ed's angioplasty and stenting last year, he's been much more conscious of his health. Now he's trying to lose wait and change his diet to control his blood sugar. That means no more Peeps. Now, when I look in the freezer, I don't see boxes of bright colors and little pleading eyes. No more fun experiements. No more "just one before bed". No more marshmallow messes. Ed's feeling a little melancholy about the whole thing. Maybe I'll buy him the Peeps Magic Light-Up Chick as a lasting memento.

A Hunting We Will Go

Yesterday we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. Our family has grown so much that we now have it divided into two groups! The first one is for the four grandkids who are 5 and under. We hide many of their eggs in plain sight, and then we give constant clues to the kids - their attention span isn't terribly sustainable!! But they did find the two bright eggs that were placed smack in the middle of the grass! That's something - I think last year they all missed those for the first several minutes.

The second hunt is for the older kids - this year we had three boys ages 8-12. Those eggs go up higher and wind up in more precarious places. But, as far as we could tell, all eggs were found and are now safe!

When I was a kid in Tucson, my grandparents had a house with a cool front porch. We had a few Easter Egg Hunts in that front yard - but back then they used real eggs. Hard cooked and dyed, to be sure. But real eggs - none of those wimpy plastic things for us!! The idea is nice, but there are pitfalls. Such as the time my 4-year old sister got really excited when she spotted an egg, ran to get it, slipped, fell, and smashed the whole thing against the concrete, her hand, and her dress. Not pretty. Of course, she cried so that made it even more entertaining for me!! And, for some reason, the more we laughed (and, we definitely did laugh!!!), the more she cried. Go figure!!

The eggs usually didn't get eaten after being on the ground and in the trees. So it was a bit wasteful.

The other down side of using real eggs is the one egg that stays well hidden - and no one finds it. At least not at Easter. Usuallly a few months later when either your nose, or a trail of bugs, leads you to the hiding place. Oh, yes, that happened the same year as the afore-mentioned egg smash. I think that was the last year we had a hunt........

Hippity, Hoppity

Easter is the time for Peeps, Tulips, egg hunts, and having my whole family over for dinner. Our brood has grown a lot over the last few years and Sunday our house will be filled with 22 people! The fun part is that we have four kids under the age of 5, and 4 under the age of 12 - so we have two Easter Egg Hunts.

My great-grandmother used to bake this special Italian twisted bread for Easter. It was a little sweet and really good - except she would put eggs in it. Whole eggs. Still in the shell. Wrapped up in the twists. A little difficult to eat!

Here's a picture of my kids when they were about 5 with Mr. Easter Bunny. Not sure what one asks for when one sits on the Easter Bunny's lap - but I'm sure they figured it out.

But Jenni wasn't so fond of pseudo-bunnies - like the lady dressed in white with fake ears. My mom was trying to put on a brave face, but we were all a little freaked out!



Here's to a great Easter with lots of hollow chocolate bunnies and no scary ladies with fake ears!