Easter Egg Artists

Last year I kept seeing these egg spinners advertised for decorating eggs. They looked so fun! But they were kinda pricy. So I watched the after-Easter sales and I found these Dino themed ones for a couple bucks apiece! 

No dye, no vinegar...it was genius. And luckily I have an extensive permanent marker collection from my Hy-Vee doodling days. 

Laney will alwasys find a way to make Ninja Turtles. 

Aren't they pretty?? I love the saturated ones. 

Megan went full art student on hers. Mini portraits!

Winnie was in hard-boile egg heaven. 

Mark had a meeting, but we saved him a few!

Easter Feast

All the Easter baskets in a row...sneakily placed in the night, even though I know for a fact that there were certain teens still awake in the house. I almost got busted when I stepped on a squeaky stair, but I expertly avoided detection. The mystery remains. 

Even Winnie got a little Easter surprise. She didn't love the massive chicken friend. Or the millet sprays. Or the carrot toys. 

She wanted the real goodies in the big baskets.

The girls weren't concerned...Winnie can't get to them from the floor. 

Or CAN SHE??

The classic party toys were a big hit!

AJ loved her "Anna Banana" toy 

And Everly loved her little blue monster so much, it brought her to tears. 

But my favorite was the part where Mark did most of the cooking. Smoked meats for Easter this year!

I contributed a gorgeous bowl of Snicker Apple Salad. 

We ate and played at the Flynns. 

Because that's what we do. 

Happy Easter!

Easter 2023

The Anderson Egg Hunt! Usually a little chilly but definitely fun to get together and talk with friends. 

 

Everly was the lone hunter this year. Hang on, Everly! We are counting on you to be a kid forever. At least until the grandbabies can take over. 

The Easter Bunny pretty much nailed it this year. A little something special in every child's basket, just so they know that they are loved. 

Anna got shading pencils...but really geeked out over the slime egg. I should have seen that one coming. 

Everly got beautiful scarves to use in fashion design with her dress form. 

Megan got some supplies for her college apartment. Not sure about the level of excitement there, but I suppose that will come when she needs a pizza cutter or ice cream scoop come September.  

Laney got the GOOD colored pencils. Those will be nubs before you know it. 

We can't forget the confetti eggs! It's a total mess and so fun. 

Easter porch photo! 

Easter dinner with some of our faves. 

I spy sweet potatoes in the window!

Being a teenager isn't the funnest when adults are visiting on a Sunday afternoon. Don't be too sad, Aidan, when I was your age I resorted to the lion puzzle in my grandmas linen closet to pass the time. You have a phone!!

Happy Easter!

Easter 2022 - College, compost, and the ACTs

Easter felt so far away....comfortably far. So far that I figured I better wait to start growing the grass for the baskets. We wouldn't want old nasty grass in our darling baskets, would we?

Exactly 10 days before Easter, I reminded myself to soak the wheat and get things going. But, sadly, it was also one of those days that I couldn't bear to do another darn thing without bursting in to tears. 

If I am being honest, I was mad at myself for the entire week afterward that I didn't get that blasted grass planted. That mean girl that lives in my head called me all sorts of names. She was *this close* to calling CPS on me when I finally had enough and told her to zip it. 

So then I figured I'd just buy the shreds of zig zaggy paper they sell...only the price of paper has gone hog wild the last few months and it would have cost me about 25 bucks to put paper shreds in the bottoms of the baskets...PAPER SHREDS!!!

I decided to get tissue paper instead, thinking I could smooth it out and repurpose it for the gift bags, ugh...I exhaust myself.....

Imagine my complete lack of surprise when I opened the Easter decoration tote only to discover that I had 4 bags of adorable krinkly colored shreds squirrelled away from years past. That's a very Maren thing to do. One does not toss out the Easter Shreds. 

But I digress.

I record these things for you guys (yes, you...Ethan, Mathew, Megan, Laney, Anna and Everly)....when you find yourself or your spouse in an emotional puddle over dropping the ball on some imaginary standard of holiday magic....just take a breath. It's okay. Your a great parent. The kids don't care about the Easter grass. 

It's about the chocolate. 

Saturday morning we woke up early early so we could drive Mathew to the airport. He was flying  back to school!! Yes, we are geniuses. Planes are amazing and it is cheaper to mail his stuff to him than the spend 4 days driving him across the country. 

We zipped back home to grab Fred's trailer and go back to the composting facility for a second load of beautiful black soil to fill up the 3 new beds Mark built for my birthday. He had to go to a band practice, so I unloaded the whole thing with just my trusty shovel and blue Aldi bucket!

I got it all out, filled up the beds and topped off all 9 of the others. It was my perfect Saturday morning project. Now the plants can go in just as soon as the sun decides to stick around for a few days in a row. 

Aaaand 3 short hours later, I was contemplating whether to take a shower or just dive right in to painting eggs. 

Eggs win!

Everly had her own ideas about methodology and set herself up with shaving cream and food dye. Big kids are the best!

I decided to focus all my energies on one single egg....kind of a Monet style ode to poppies. 

I like it. 

Anna was feeling a little ticked that she kept cracking her eggs when she tried to put them in the egg holder. She left the table in protest multiple times, but eventually returned and repurposed her finger hole into a pretty great dragon's eye!

Everly made these adorable bunnies! I especially love the expression on the one on the far right. Such artistic girls!

Megan was at work, so she came home and painted her few eggs with delicate little strawberries. 

After a quick shower, we went over to Arbor Landing Park for the"Annual" Anderson's Easter Egg Hunt...covid tried to kill it, but we prevail!

It was, shall we say....windy?

Hiding them is always a challenge in a place with mostly flat grass and a perimeter of very large trees and a reputation for tics. 

But we discovered that the tiny holes in the plastic eggs fit perfectly on the ends of skinny branches!

The rest were....

Mark Anderson giving the kids the rundown of the hunt rules which mainly consisted of 1. Don't be a jerk and 2. Go find lots of eggs

We stuck around and grilled burgers after the hunt and the wind really picked up. I ended up with my sweater, jacket, coat and my beanie on. Everly "doesn't feel the cold" and ran around in her short sleeves having a dinner made up of 6 kinds of chips.  I had several blankets in the van and distributed them to my freezing friends. 

Sunday was pretty relaxed...we noticed that the kids slept in later than usual...a trend that will most likely continue? I think yes.

We went overboard with the baskets again....they were bursting. And there is a ridiculous amount of surplus chocolate hidden somewhere in my closet that will probably see me through the next few months when I need a good cry and a handful of key lime m&ms.

Please take a little extra time to appreciate this photo....its a masterpiece! ↓↓

Easter dinner was as it ever has been...with the Flynns and Eberts and Petersons. Hosted at the newly refurbished Flynn home. They are so excited to be back in there on space and loving all the upgrades they got after the house fire. 9 months is a long time!

 

The house looks different, but some things never change: Maybe will always want butt scratches. Always.

Sara and Rob hashing out their political differences....yeah, probably not. 

And the perfect end to the perfect day...receiving a video story from Mathew telling us all about running into a cute girl at the airport while getting dressed for church. That boy.....

And just before the sweet release of sleep...we signed Megan up for an ACT prep course that will most assuredly threaten to ruin her summer relaxation plans. The price of success!

Happy Easter, my lovelies!