LIFE IS PRETTY

The area where I grew up in England is well known for its flowers, and at Spring time the place is at its most beautiful. Daffodils appear in their varying shades of yellow, lining the streets and fields and gardens. The grassy parks becomes blanketed with purple and white as the crocuses come into bloom, and fallen pink blossoms lay along the curbs in beautiful soft, flowery drifts. The real beauty of it is that nobody has to do any work to make it happen, they just appear each year, in even greater abundance, pointing out that Spring has arrived, whether the sky is still grey or not. Here's the usual view:

I didn't really realize until this year just how much those flowers and new buds of colour made Easter feel like Easter. Just like frost and holly makes Christmas feel like Christmas. Vegas suffers from a distinct lack spring blooms (or foliage of any kind really) which, combined with a marked absence of spring lambs, meant that this year Easter sprung up on us without me even realizing it was that time already. 

We did manage to sneak in some Easter fun, even if it did take me until Good Friday to figure out that Easter was upon us. 

Usually baking with Charlotte begins as a good idea, but once the ingredients are out on the work-top it quickly spirals into a kitchen nightmare; on this occasion though, I think we got it right. On Good Friday we used some of the Mini Eggs we'd been sent (thank you Mum and Becky!) to make  Easter nests. I finally discovered baking with toddlers as it should be- fast and simple, with the option of licking the spoon minus the fear of food poisoning.

Charlotte was delighted with the enormous bowl of melted chocolate to stir/ eat. As far as she was concerned we didn't need to do anything more. In fact she was less than impressed when I dumped a bag of chow mein noodles over the chocolate, making it much harder for her to shovel it into her mouth. This is her unimpressed 'What have you done?!' look:

She was happy with the results though- they were tasty enough to put a smile on her face 

We decided to set up a little Egg hunt for Charlotte on Easter Sunday. We thought about putting the eggs out the night before, but since that would lead to a sleepless night of listening to our cat bat the eggs around we opted to do it bright and early in the morning. Only, Charlotte beat us out of bed. Plan B meant that I kept Charlotte locked in the room with me while Ryan ran around hiding eggs. Charlotte didn't quite understand what was going on; she only knew she wasn't being allowed free reign of the house and she was pretty furious about it, which she made very clear:

When Ryan finally opened the door she was so excited that she bolted straight down the landing, running right past her basket, and at least three eggs, laying in wait. Eventually we corralled her back to the basket and all grouchiness subsided when she discovered a lollipop or two. 

(Pronounced 'lolli-pop-it' in Charlotte speak) 

The Easter egg hunt was on, and so was her smiling face as she raced around the house in search of more sweets.

We watched some Bible Videos after church, and baked resurrection rolls after our Easter dinner. We talked about how Jesus wasn't in the tomb anymore, which lead to  Charlotte spending the next few days walking around looking for Him, and saying 'Where'd Jesus go?' Obviously we did a good job of making things crystal clear.

Charlotte enjoyed Easter so much that next year I don't think I'll need to wait for spring lambs or flowers as a reminder of the season. I'm pretty sure as soon as she notices the jelly beans and bunnies popping up on the supermarket shelves she'll be reminding me it's time for another egg hunt. Even so, I think a few daffodils here and there would make Easter all the sweeter.