Excusing the fact that I had stayed up until 1:30 in the morning finishing off Easter baskets (one of the basket liners was still a few flowers and leaves short of being finished in the embroidery) adding finishing touches with ribbons and candies, I did manage to wake up Easter morning at 6:30 to work on our Easter brunch. Jude's birthday was the day before, and there were still birthday decorations everywhere. I kept my focus on it being his day pretty much until close to bedtime and fitting in egg decorating right before bed time. We migrated the 70ish balloons upstairs to the boys' room and I worked on switching into Easter mode. I will admit right now, I was super duper tired. I don't like cleaning kitchens at night, even though my husband was working with me.  We did watch some South Park while working on baskets and hiding eggs though (since the boys were in bed and all).  I even managed a decently long nap after everything was over. Yep, still tired.

I had wished I read over the hot cross buns recipe days ago, I would've made them in advance because I wasn't thinking about how they needed to rise...twice. I did pull it off though somehow; I put them in the oven at the lowest heat setting to lessen the rising time. I could only find a star tip for the frosting, but meh, not worried, they'll look fine lol. They were good, so I'm making them next year for sure.

Jude and Jacob become pretty anxious with me after I told them they couldn't hunt for their baskets until Yukino got here. Their eyes looking everywhere in the room spotting eggs I knew they wished to pick up; and when she finally got here, we gave them their clues and away they went. From my clue I knew my basket was hidden in a closet where you put clothes away. I checked again and again, then finally realized it was in the linen closet.  :P Jacob was all over the hard boiled eggs, and was trying to crack them open to eat as soon as he could! My mom sent us a care package earlier in the week with extra candies, Jude's birthday present, Peter Rabbit jelly beans (which I thought were adorable!), and 1 egg with everyone's names on them. Since Jonathan and I weren't going to be hunting of course, we decided to hide each other's 1 egg and left the main hunting to the kiddies including Yukino whom had never seen a real Easter egg before! Mine ending up in the :strawberry: strawberry plant.

After working on brunch, which turned into lunch, together we finally sat down to eat. I will tell you this, I had been waiting since last year just so I could finally use my bunny plates. I'm serious. I saw them in the store at Williams Sonoma, it was instant obsession. I usually shop the clearance and wait for the better deals, like the cake stands and rabbits in the pictures. Those plates though, I admit, I paid full price. I had gone back, and decided I didn't want to live without them. The yellow bands, the colored vintage illustrations...far too pretty to not be in my life. I came home with the receipt clutched in my hand still thinking about how much I had just spent per plate, wondering if I should return them. ^_^; They were all sold when I went back a short time later. Skipping to this year, they seem so popular that they're selling them again for this year, which is awesome. I'm hoping to get the matching platter now that Easter is over. I really think they adding such a bright tone at the table. *update* I got the platter! Plus the matching table cloth and matching tea towels... They had discounted them yet again..I need some other reasons to use these plates now besides Easter.

The Easter Egg tree. Ah, Jonathan doesn't like me to even mention the branches. They've got a wee little bit of history you see. I bought this big box of decorative branches at a yard sale for however much 6 years ago in Colorado, intending to put them in a tall vase for a corner of a room. They came with us on the move to Las Vegas, and I was worried about them breaking (which they inevitably did) and they've been in storage pretty much most of this time getting shuffled around, breaking even more. During this last move I gathered what had survived determined to finally use the dumb pretty things. Jonathan asked if I wanted a pail before he tossed it the other month, in which I said I'd use it. So I filled it up with rocks from our lovely dirt backyard and arranged some branches in it. Then I used some brown grocery bags to fill in the extra spots and help keep them in their place. It looked pretty cool until I topped it with the moss, then it became like 20% cooler. I know it only has 6 eggs. I thought blowing eggs would be fun for the boys while we watched Petter Rabbit  on TV. They ended up sitting at the couch watching it while I made all the eggs. Pssffttttttt! They helped when it came to eating the eggs after I cooked them though.

Looking forward to Easter next year. I already looked it up and Jude's birthday isn't right next to Easter next year, so it should be less hectic! It was still fun this year nonetheless.

HappyEaster!