Cohesive Pieces: Easter Weekend 2012

So often Easter, rather than January first, seems like the logical beginning of the year.

The kids off to find some eggs at Mom & Dad's house Sunday afternoon.

The sun comes out and we are reminded how exciting it is to search for treasures, to share all the wonderful things you find with friends.

Lex and his buddy Gunner checking out some of their treasure at the Thursday afternoon Headstart Easter dinner.

Headstart egg hunters

You take a few hours to sit around a table with your siblings and test your creativity. How many different ways can you decorate a white egg?

How brightly can you dye your skin?

I tried to hand him a paper towel and he pulled away, "No! I don't want the orange to wipe away!" Orange is still his favorite color, and how cool to have skin your favorite color. He also asked me if he could put the little tablets in the bathtub and dye his whole body. Full of such good ideas this boy.

Or, how many punches does it take to smash an egg?

Because Lex loves smashing everything. Apparently it only takes him one to smash it, but if you hit it ten or twelve more times you can turn it into a pile of shells and yolk.

And then, of course, there's the family bonding.

Israel demonstrating a "better" way to smash the eggs. Lex wasn't a fan of the method.

I think Lex still had the egg dying experience in mind when we were getting ready to go to the Easter egg hunt the next day.

He preferred to use the bucket as a helmet.

I love little occasions where the whole town (or at least a few hundred of us) all show up in one place, even if it's just a few hours or so.

Azia & Jenna

Kids dragging their parents off to their various age-groups.

Zoran searching for prizes in his eggs.

Easter morning:

speedy Zoran

The house wrapped in yarn webs:

This is Israel's grainy iPhone picture of his Easter bunny Easter-eve work. Many years ago (for a handful of years in a row) the kids had to follow a their color of yarn all around the house (and sometimes out and around the house) till the got to the end of it and found their basket. They've been telling me they wished the Easter bunny would do it again. Unfortunately the Easter bunny seems to have gotten lazy. Luckily, this year, the Easter bunny had the energy of a 14-year-old boy. ;) I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of the handiwork in the morning before all the little kids unwound everything. It was very thorough. There was even yarn wound all the way around my bed and back into my bathroom.

reeses pieces carrots. . . we finally found a vegetable Zoran will eat

I think Israel was taking over the bigger metal bucket so he could ft in more Easter candy.

After the morning at home we went to a gathering with a bunch of other friends and their families. This is one of Zoran's friend's grandparents and I think if he didn't have such awesome grandparents of his own, he'd adopt Canyon's. Last week they took the two boys to the movie after school. A few days later he went over for dinner and a game of football in the yard. I love that my kids don't just have great friends but they have great friends with great extended families who are also part of my kids' lives. Lex was excited at the Headstart dinner when he saw a couple of his friends' grandmas come in.

I was at work the day after Easter and a student was complaining about hating Easter: commercialization, waste of time and resources, stupid to celebrate bunnies, blah, blah, blah, just a lot of expense for one day. . .

The other students, who had enjoyed Easter, let him know they really didn't agree with him. Someone else told him all holidays were like that if that's all he was paying attention to.

Dev and Lex

And its true, we live in a commercialized society, there is a commercial component to everything. If you want it.

You really don't have to want it.

Canyon and Zoran on the run.

There are a lot of better options.

I am trying to engage less with people like this student, but I did finally just mention that for some people it isn't about plastic eggs and candy. There are big ideas like sacrifice and renewal and atonement, things that are really a lot more important than the cute baskets, plastic grass, and bunnies he was so opposed to.

Jason giving the kids the directions for the egg hunt at Monty and Leta's.

And, of course, for some people there are no big ideas, just an excuse for a nice meal or relaxing picnic, or a quiet afternoon with people you care about. Even that seems quite a lot better than not having a nice afternoon.