Easter Weekend

Okay, finally back to share our Easter weekend. On Holy Saturday, we made the trek to the famous Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, about an hour north of Seattle. By the time Claire was six months old, she'd traveled to five states and two provinces. And to celebrate Maggie's half birthday? We finally ventured an hour away. 

 

The weather wasn't the best (cold, windy, rainy) and it was insanely crowded, which was especially weird given the miserable weather. But it was still a beautiful sight and we stopped for a giant ice cream cone at Snow Goose Produce and no little girls got car sick the entire drive! So, it was a successful day indeed.

 On Easter Sunday, we were on the ball enough to take pictures together before Mass and still get there half an hour early, amazingly enough.











Of course, getting to Mass thirty minutes early meant that the girls were done thirty minutes into Mass. Then Adam spent the rest of the service bouncing Maggie outside while I tried to keep Claire from wandering into the aisle and pulling her dress over her head. But at least when we managed to get a family picture afterwards!



We set up the Easter baskets and hid some eggs for Claire during nap time. I love naps. They give you another opportunity to create a magical surprise without eating a whole bunch of candy before church.





Claire and Maggie each got a book and a stuffed bunny that I hastily whipped up with some scrap fabric based on this pin. I am not expecting them to be loved forever (or next week) which is why I didn't even bother embroidering faces, but they were festive, and even better, free! Oh, and I also made that Easter table runner and napkins. I had a really hard time finding Easter fabric I loved (there were some great designs on Spoonflower, but for more than I wanted to spend) and finally went with these because tulips and cherry blossoms pretty much sum up spring in Seattle.

 

 

Claire was so into the egg hunt. We loved watching her excitement. I think one of my favorites about being a parent is getting to relive all of these special childhood moments.



Apparently a squirrel was also very into the egg hunt. We put those Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups inside and we didn't find very much foil left, so hopefully the little guy's okay.



 





While we were outside enjoying the beautiful weather, we decided to give Maggie her first taste of solid food. We went with avocado, the same thing we started Claire on. And she pretty much hates all vegetables besides carrots (and pickles, if pickles count) so we'll see if we have better success with Maggie. We were gifted a Baby Bullet with Claire and the motor has kind of died on that, so this time around I think we'll mainly use the immersion blender, but the storage containers and feeding guide included with the Bullet are super handy. We just follow the feeding guide, which gives you a list of foods to introduce each month. With Claire, we moved away from purees and onto regular food around nine months, which we'd love to do with Maggie as well. Although, of course it all depends on when her teeth come in. Here's a ridiculously long video of the big moment:



For dinner, we just had pork roast, green beans, and cheddar biscuits. I wanted to make something fancier, but we're trying to do this thing called "actually sticking to our grocery budget" and we already had a pork roast in the freezer. Besides, dessert is all we really care about, right? The Pioneer Woman's carrot cake was phenomenal.



I also made her hot cross buns for Good Friday (without the raisins, because why would you ruin a baked good with squishy raisins?) and they didn't disappoint. I got her latest cookbook for Christmas and I really like the whole concept. I think I'll just copy her meal plan for every holiday from now on.

It was a lovely, low-key Easter. Adam and I have been talking a lot about how we want our kids to grow up thinking Easter is just as (or ideally, more) exciting than Christmas. We'll get there. I think next year will be the first time Claire will really start to understand these holidays and we want to do our best to help her experience the beauty in them!