We survived Easter!

It was a little touch and go on Saturday night; Hayley was exhausted so she fell asleep within 20 minutes, which is practically unheard of around here lately. As an aside, the funniest thing she said that night was in regards to getting ready for bed. She usually sleeps in just her underwear but then she decided to put on a nightgown and told me, “I don’t want the Easter bunny to see me naked!”

First we set up a place setting for the Easter Bunny/Peeping Tom by putting out a handful of baby carrots and a cup of water. Then the kids went to bed and I hid the loot around the living room and boiled some eggs to prepare a surprise breakfast for them in the morning. Breanna woke up once and then later I was going to bed since it was about 12:15. Unfortunately, in her excitement to get to bed, Hayley forgot to pee and so she woke up right then and was way too antsy to go back to sleep. She ended up staying awake until almost 3:30 am! Yeesh.

When it was time to get up (at least they both slept until 8:30), I wondered if Breanna would understand what to do and wouldn’t you know, she was the first one to find an egg. She didn’t really get the concept of looking for chocolate, but I had also hidden a dozen brightly colored plastic eggs (the kind you apparently fill with candy except I don’t because how much freakin’ candy do two kids need?) and she was all over finding those and dramatically throwing them into her basket. Or across the room.

Once they had both found everything – and Hayley did a great job of letting Breanna find things too even if she saw them first – Hayley had a couple of pieces of chocolate and then ate one of the bunny boiled eggs. She was amused that the food coloring had gone through the shell and turned the actual egg pink too.

I passed on the pink eggs, and had a hot cross bun instead. Every year for as long as I can remember, my grandmother used to buy hot cross buns and I would have one for breakfast on Easter morning. On Saturday night I suddenly realized this would be the first time I wouldn’t have any and because I’m a big sap I was very disappointed. I found out George’s mom had some and so when he went out that evening for a few hours, he picked one up for me, so I was able to have it for breakfast just like every year at my grandmother’s. That was nice. Seriously, food is very tied into memories for me.

We relaxed for a few hours until it was time to go to George’s parents’ house for Easter dinner. We listened to music and watched the girls dance, got even more chocolate, and had a huge meal of ham, turkey, vegetables, rice, and stuffing. And pumpkin pie. I was so full I thought I was going to need someone to rent a crane to lift me up the stairs. (Never mind that while watching Pulp Fiction later that evening, George and I split another big piece of pie. Oink oink.)

It was a great holiday. Hayley was really worn out by all the excitement and the late nights she’d had lately, so she was a little unable to hold it together by the end, and was incredibly disappointed (read – really pissed off at Mom and Dad Who Clearly Suck). However, once we got her home, in her pajamas, and gave her a light snack, she was better. She still didn’t go to sleep until about 10 but at least she was in bed. Breanna didn’t really know what to make of the day, but she knew it was fun so she laughed and jumped around a lot and best of all, she’s young enough that she doesn’t know she should be outraged that George and I plan to eat 99.9% of her chocolate and candy. Also, she’s currently in one of her non-eating phases so she wasn’t too impressed with sitting down to supper, but we just juggled her around from one person to another so it all worked out in the end.

You can see the entire Easter photo set over on Flickr; I hope you had a great holiday as well, and if you don’t celebrate, I hope your weekend rocked.

(The Easter Bunny, er, George, got me something too, one of my favorites:

Yummy!)