Happy Easter on the 30th day of being quarantined

We spent this weekend with simple plans:

Evan was going to grill as much as possible (aka: as long as the rain held off and he had enough charcoal).

Play outside.

Get ready for Easter Sunday.

Well, Evan grilled hamburgers on Saturday (which is usually a must for the first grilled meal of the season because Julia always insists on hamburgers; they are her absolute favorite). I had bought stuff to make s'mores on Easter, but since it looked like it was going to rain when we were planning on grilling Sunday, we decided to have s'mores Saturday.

David had forgotten what s'mores were, but he quickly remembered and loved them. 

He did insist on washing his hands after every one he ate, though, which...yeah.

The hail storm from a few days ago really only damaged a few of my daffodils, so I cut them and brought them inside.

Per tradition, we dyed Easter eggs the night before Easter. This year, we dyed fewer than usual but that might have been a good call anyway because Thomas was a loose cannon about the whole thing. First, he walked in a declared, "Oh, good! Hot cocoa time!" Ew, no. Then he kept just dropping his eggs into the cups, spilling every thing every where.

 I had ordered food coloring on line a couple of weeks ago, but they were the natural ones, which I love for baking, but I usually buy the unnaturally colored dyes for Easter eggs. They turned out very pale pastels, but they were fine.

I didn't capture any pictures of the kids this morning because I was basically a walking zombie from lack of sleep the last couple of nights. However, after a wonderfully needed Easter nap, I remembered to take photos. We dressed up for our Easter feast, which meant the boys were in button up shirts and let me tell you, Thomas is going to struuuuuugggle when it is time to wear real clothes in public again. He was pulling on the shirt like it was a straight jacket!

Evan had this great idea of our driving to our friends' houses and vice versa to take family Easter pictures. It was so nice to see everyone from over six feet away! And in their Sunday best!

Vivian rollerskating in her Easter dress was my favorite.

For our late Easter lunch we had grilled turkey breasts, cranberry sauce, corn on the cob (which Thomas has been crying to eat for days and days), roasted brussel sprouts, and mashed potatoes. Since the dining room has become the lego room during quarantine, we laid out the tablecloth and china at the kitchen table. First year that everyone has had china plates and not substitute plates due to being prone to throwing dishes!

Julia captured this lovely picture. Ha!

We watched Easter Mass after lunch was done. I have been really struggling with not getting to spend Holy Week physically in our Parish. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. We watched the Mass and were watching the priests' procession when Vivian noticed they were all stopping and I look over and they had grabbed these signs they'd had hidden in the pews.

 I burst into tears (much to my children's dismay). It was a really sweet moment and it meant a lot to see that today.

I have been really feeling the loss of community lately, not just with our parish, but our co-op, seeing our friends during the week, letting the kids play with the neighbors. We usually invite my in-laws up for Easter and we couldn't this year. My grandma and sister share a birthday this month and we always make a trip down one of the weekends surrounding it to see them. It's later this month, but I know that day will be hard knowing I can't see my grandma. We spent 6.5 years living away from family while Evan was active duty, so celebrating holidays with just us isn't new or necessarily hard, but it's knowing we couldn't be with others if we wanted to that made it feel like a big sacrifice today.

The kids had fun. They liked their Easter baskets and found all the eggs hidden around the house. David declared it the best Easter ever (because he is a real life Buddy the Elf). The rain never showed up, so they got to play outside and Evan was able to grill Easter lunch.

I made an apple cake for our Sunday Dinner Party.

And, of course, we watched another episode of Lego Masters.

Tomorrow we are going to make an Easter treat that my mom used to make for us when I was little and read more Easter books. I'm sure they will finish off the last of their Easter egg candy. Then we'll plan another week of being home, which, quite honestly, is still my favorite place to be.