Easter joys

Thought I'd share some pictures from our Easter related activities. We had a wonderful first Easter together. It's like having a new child and keeping track of all the "firsts" for the baby. We always make note of our "first" moments we share as husband and wife. It's difficult to believe the sixth month mark is already approaching. You'd think we'd be out of the "lovebirds" stage, or nearly at least. I think we'll feel like newlyweds still for a very long time.

One thing we'll soon have the opportunity to do together is both sing in the choir. Choir practice is being moved to Wednesday night, at least for a trial run to see if that day works better for people, so Matt will be able to come along with me to practice now. That makes me very happy! I love singing with him, even though we'll be singing along with many other great people.

We should have taken our "Easter" picture before church. Our choir sang our Easter medley during the morning service, and I was sweating like a gorilla at the zoo from it. We sang four beautiful songs from the "Rose of Calvary" cantata. Nevertheless, here's us after church:



Have any of you parents ever had a child who complained about eating vegetables, and well, basically anything that's good for you? That's Matt. He's my child that I have to feed and plead with to try things. I've learned that I will always lose on getting him to try stuff.

Anyway, here's our Easter lunch. When mom asked what all I made, and I told her what, she asked, "why so many things?" Simple answer. Matt. He won't eat many things - mac and cheese is his staple food. Is he still nine years old? Ah, what can you do?

Here's the break down:

Me: Ham, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn, deviled eggs (gotta have those for Easter!), green beans and sweet potatoes. (Matt hates these last three, of course, but I hadn't had sweet potatoes in ages so I was determined to have them.)

Matt: Ham, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and cranberry sauce (which I don't like).

Besides the ham, potatoes, and cheesy macs, everything else we ate was different. Fortunately, all of this was very easy to make and didn't take much time. I don't know what I'm going to do with him though!



And on to egg coloring. I don't think I've dyed eggs in a few years, and Matt said the last time he died eggs was 1987 (insane!). He read the directions wrong at first and said not to add water. I was wondering how the egg was going to soak in three tablespoons of vinegar. So, we got that straightened out. (How many college degree holders does it take to figure out how to dye eggs correctly?)




I wanted them BRIGHT! So we waited ...



And waited ...



Time to check them.



I was happy to see some UT orange blazing through. I miss seeing orange every where. These people here just like UNC and Duke.



And our completed eggs! Obviously egg coloring is for kids because we young adults didn't manage to do it right. Not sure what's up with all the white lines and splotches on them.

Oh yeah, I also learned an important lesson with our egg coloring experience. Don't buy the $1 Paas box. At LEAST splurge for the whopping $1.88 box. Ours didn't include any stickers or a wax crayon to write with. Anyone know if you can use regular crayons? We didn't have any of those either, though.

Three eggs broke when we boiled them. Any egg boiling pros know how to prevent that from happening?

Maybe next year we'll improve our egg coloring skills. Next year I'm buying a more expensive Paas box!



Since Matt and his co-workers (except the big wigs, of course) had to slave away at work on Easter, I decided it would be nice to send some Easter cupcakes and cookies. We made the cookies a couple of days beforehand since they take time. The recipe is one my mother has used from many years that she borrowed from a good family friend. They are known to us as "Kelli's Cookies." We always make Kelli's Cookies at Christmas time, so I thought it would be fun to try them out now and use icing dyed something other than red and green!

Matt was a pro at putting the icing on!




Blue is my favorite color, so it was fun doing a pastel blue. I had never attempted these cookies on my own before. My mom was always the one to roll out the mound of dough. It was much harder to do than I thought. It didn't seem to be the perfect consistency like when mom makes it. It really made me miss her! And I *almost* missed us shooing away my brother and dad when they would swoop in like hawks over mom and me and steal one (or five) immediately after we add the icing. Almost. They didn't look as pretty as mom's, but I did one up her on one thing ...

No burnt ones! It wasn't for nothing that mom got the shirt for her birthday that said, "Dinner is ready when the smoke alarm goes off!"

Done!



Some of my favorites. Matt got creative with a few.



A great first Easter, indeed!