Egg Hunt Day!

We enjoyed one of our favorite events this morning: the neighborhood Easter egg hunt! Katie remembers this well from last year, and everytime this year that we have passed the park where it is held, she has thought about meeting the Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny there last year.

I cannot emphasize enough how much Katie adores the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny is more significant to her than Santa Claus, by several orders of magnitude. We spent much of our time this morning enjoying the two bunnies, watching them, hugging them, kissing them. At one point she offered to be their child because they don't have any, she said. (She thought twice about it when I asked, "Will you still be my child, though?) In fact, after our egg hunt, we were happily sampling chocolate treats on a bench several yards away, when Daddy spied Mr. and Mrs. Bunny in the distance and said, "The Easter Bunnies are here!" Katie dropped her chocolate (she LOVES chocolate) and took off in a dash without any care in the world about where Bill and I might be (and this is my sweet girl who sometimes grows very concerned if I go around the corner in our house to the laundry room away from her). We kept up right behind her, of course, but we could see how special the Easter Bunny is to her.



Katie is ready with her Easter basket...

Playing on a bouncy jump

Waving bye bye to the Easter bunnies...

A big hug for the Easter Bunny....

She is so delighted to see them that she has her hands clasped tightly in excitement.

Daddy and Katie after the egg hunt...

Collecting eggs for her basket...

Katie is very much our daughter. Her strategy for the egg hunt would have been ours, completely. She started off in a clump of children, hovering around the first eggs they all encountered. Then she considered her position, looked at me, and pointed to a patch of eggs far away from where anyone else was looking. She didn't want to scramble around in a crowd and thought it made the most sense to have a smaller area to herself where no one else was than to try to dominate the big patch where EVERYONE was. On the video we have, you can hear Bill chuckling, and we both discuss how we both would have done the same thing: removed ourselves from the bustle and found a solution that would involve being on our own and taking a path no one else was taking---to great reward. We felt Katie played it smart, and she was able to collect a TON of eggs this way. We love that she took the time, even in the excitement, to look around her and to develop a rational strategy, that she didn't just get sucked into the crowd or stay where everyone was without thinking about it. She made us proud.

After the egg hunt, we came home and played outside for awhile and then started preparations for our Saturday Dinner with my parents. We used to have these dinners weekly but it has been more infrequent since we moved because we see my parents all the time. I would love to revive the tradition, however.

Katie helped me make a bolognese ragu for a new lasagne recipe, as well as a bechamel sauce. She was patient as I diced the mirepoix components fine, and I got to teach her some new terms. Katie helped to stir a little, and we did some other things together while the bolognese sauce reduced (in several stages) to a ragu all afternoon. Katie loved the finished entree, another new item to add to her ever-growing list. We also made a lemon vinaigrette for some romaine and arugula leaves, buttered some French bread, and then worked on dessert: a strawberry chocolate meringue torte. I love meringues and forget how easy they are to make. They always help to make a dessert a little lighter, and we loved the strawberries today...

We set the formal table, and Katie (and Bill actually---who helped to interpret a diagram) helped me to fold the napkins into bunnies.

A long time ago, when I was in college and then right after, as I dreamed of a family, I made a binder full of recipes and ideas from various magazines and newspapers and so on that I one day wanted to try with, and for, my future family. The binder has so many different ideas in there, from a mosaic table (which my mom and I both did), to making pom pom animals, to a recipe for sticky buns, to outfits and clothes I liked at the time, to decorating ideas, and on and on. I go for long periods during which I kind of forget about my binder, and then I will rediscover it and feel inspired. It is surreal to have a husband and children now and to think about making the binder and wanting them all so much...and now they are here. Anyway, both the new lasagne recipe and the instructions for folding bunny napkins were part of my binder, and now I have done them! It is weird, a little, to think about being in my early twenties when I clipped those items out and pasted them in there... and to know that the happiness I hoped for is now coming true and that I get to live out the dreams I had when I thought about being a wife and mommy.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend!