Scenes from the weekend

Easter weekend is a long one {yay!} and that means this is going to be a long post... with lots of photos! Ready for it?

 Dying eggs

 Being careful to leave them in a good long while to really soak up the colour

 Result!

 Tulips in the front garden

 Walking at the lake

Blue sky + blue water = happy me

 We brought a picnic. I love a picnic, don't you?

Trekking through the woods

 Kelly, my beloved friend and old neighbour, was in town! Hurrah!

 Lots of laughs

I wish she'd never moved away. We have so much fun 

 Easter Eve at our house... look at my paint-chip Easter egg garland! I am ridiculously proud of how well it turned out

The Easter bunny came in the wee hours

And we got up a few hours later

 He hid eggs all over the garden, even on top of the ladder!

 We filled our baskets

More than once... 

Skyping with Nanny, Sawyer rocks the handlebar moustache

 At Auntie Pat's with all the cousins for more Easter fun

 Easter baskets were hidden all over the house. Dylan heads upstairs to find his in the bathtub!

The bunny hid eggs in the backyard at Auntie Pat's too

 Dylan was pulling his load around in a wagon!

"Mum, I am so 'cited about Easter! I just love it."

It was a fabulous weekend. We had lots of sunshine and warm weather. Went for green tea lemonade, got takeout curry, ate hot cross buns for breakfast. Spent time with family. Rode bikes and took long walks and had dinner with some dear old friends. Played at the park and played ball in the front yard. Slept in. Worked in the garden, planted new flowers, and cut some to bring inside and pretty up the table. Watched the brand new Doctor Who Easter special, and was properly creeped out by the aliens {but loved it nonetheless!} Decorated for Easter, coloured eggs, had a hard time falling asleep, knowing that the bunny was coming. Revelled in the fun of many, many egg hunts. Rosy cheeks and smiling faces.

I love a holiday weekend. The joy of traditions and celebrating with the ones you love. Couldn't ask for more than that really...

Hope your weekend was just as nice. Do tell!

xo

Flowers for your Good Friday {and the winner of my giveaway!}

via flickr

Hooray! It's the long weekend at last {this from the girl who's been off for two weeks, and only went back to work for a day and a half this week...}! Time for some Easter fun! Have you got any big plans? Over the next four days we'll be dying Easter eggs, visiting with old friends, hanging up our fancy-pants {but super easy} homemade Easter garland, going for walks in the sunshine, stopping to smell the flowers and eating way too many mini-eggs, of course! Especially looking forward to Sunday, in which we will find ourselves all dressed up in a crowd of cousins, for the annual family Easter egg hunt. Stay tuned for a billion photos come Monday...

Hmmm? What's that? Enough about Easter? You're wondering about the giveaway? Why yes, I have picked a winner! First though, I just have to tell you how much fun it was to read all your lovely comments {and then to write all your names on little pieces of paper and draw one out of an Easter basket!} You guys are awesome, and I wish I could send a little something to each and every one of you to say thanks. But that might get a bit pricey in the postage department. So, please will you accept these festive flowers instead? And then won't you join me in congratulating the fabulous Kayla from Exquisite Banana on her victory? That's right! She's the winner of my blog birthday giveway! Yay!

Congratulations, Kayla! Send me an email with your mailing address at erinbyrne{at}yahoo{dot}com and I'll get your parcel of goodies into the mail early next week. Maybe I'll even throw in a few Easter treats... You like chocolate, right?

Happy Friday, friends! Have a wonderful long weekend.

E xo

Our Easter in photos

It's been a busy couple of days.

We dyed eggs.
Orange
and yellow and pink.

Dylan read us an Easter story last night at bedtime.

The Easter bunny came early in the morning and filled our baskets...

to the brim! (do you love the basket labels Dylan made?)

The boys were sleepy but full of excitement first thing this morning.

Sawyer loved this bunny scarecrow!

We went outside (when the wind died down) and had an Easter egg hunt.

So many eggs for two little boys!

Just look at our baskets, filled up again!

The eggs the bunny left were full of chocolates and jelly beans and bunny-shaped jubies. Yum!

After the boys napped (and I went for a much-needed run!) we were off to my aunt's house for more Easter fun. Check out the amazing Eastery cupcakes! (my favourites are the hollowed-out ones with the icing on the inside... just like my grandma used to make...)

After another big egg hunt and a delicious lunch, all the kids were sent out to the porch to eat their cupcakes.

Bet Jasper (the dog) had fun cleaning up their crumbs!

Now it's 6:45 on Easter night, and almost time to get these boys into bed. Thank goodness, because I'm exhausted!

Hope everyone had a happy Easter. Did you eat as much chocolate as we did?!

Getting ready for Easter

Yesterday, we were busy preparing for the big day- doing crafts, painting eggs, decorating our "Easter tree" (remember the Valentine tree? well, take away the hearts, add some eggs, and voila!), mixing up chocolatey birds' nests, and leaving out a healthy snack for the bunny before bedtime. The thrill of anticipation was great, and it took both boys a while to settle down to sleep. I imagine their dreams were full of bunnies and chocolate eggs and baskets brimming full of fun!

Easter morning

We woke up this morning full of excitement... Had the Easter bunny been? And if so, what had he left for us? We made our way downstairs and discovered that he had indeed been to visit, and had left all sorts of goodies. Here are the boys with their Easter baskets, indulging in a pre-breakfast appetizer of chocolate eggs!

Egg hunt in the garden

Our second exciting activity of the day was a trip outside into the garden to see what the Easter bunny had left for us. It had rained all night long, so our search was a soggy one, but loads of fun nonetheless... See for yourself!