Easter Egg Hunt in Rochester

We spent Easter afternoon in Rochester.  Dinner was at Aunt Cathy's and was a collaborate effort between everyone.  It worked out well because the side dishes were all cooked at Aunt Cathy's and the turkey was cooked over at Aunt Susi's - being next door to each other made it easy for a last minute transport!

Michael and Joe, being the official Big Kids at Easter, got the privilege of hiding eggs in the yard for the other kids.  When they were done, everyone got their shoes on and headed outside.

Leah, Amanda and Jason (with Joe in the background) waiting for the thumbs up to go out.

Joe, Nick and Amanda in the back, Leah, Cam and Jason in the front

Ready to go find eggs

Cam is ready too

And they're off!

Little guy, big tree

Leah found some!

Leah spots another one

Looking for eggs

Cameron finds one in the garden

Mike and Joe were nice and hid some easy ones for Leah

Each kid got six small candy-filled eggs and one big egg with money in it

Cameron counting how many eggs he has so far

Big brother helping out little sister

Cam got a clue to where his big egg was

Got it!

Assembling for a picture

Amanda, Jay, Nick, Leah and Cameron

Silly cousins!

Our two sweetie pies

They are just so darn cute!!!

Happy Easter!

Easter Morning

Easter morning the kids woke up at a reasonable hour and watched a few Easter shows in our room before demanding that it was time to go down and see what the Easter Bunny brought them.  I think we went downstairs around 8:30, which isn't too bad!

Here they come down the steps.  Don't mind Leah's mismatched pajamas, she had a middle of the night potty issue!

What does Cameron see?

This is what was at the bottom of the steps.  The note says "Find 10 eggs each."

Cameron reading the note to Leah

And they are off to find their eggs and baskets

Cameron looking around for more eggs.  The Easter Bunny was pretty tricky this year, not all of the eggs were just out in the open.

Leah finds a egg on the air hockey table

Comparing how many eggs they have found so far.

Cam spots something under the coffee table.  What could it be?

His Easter basket!

Cam wanted to find the rest of his eggs and help Leah find her basket, so he waited to look in his basket until Leah found hers too.  Off the went to do more searching.

Cam helping Leah get one that she can't quite reach - what a good brother!

Leah finds something...

It is her basket!  Yay for Leah!

Time for kiddos to check out their baskets.

So many good things inside!

Leah got a Tinkerbell ribbon dancing baton.  She didn't quite understand how to use it, so Daddy gave her a very nice demonstration.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Daddy the Ribbon Dancer!

Cameron has some pretty cool stuff too.

Little Mermaid DVD!

Cam was very excited to get this book, it was a Star Wars book!

We had a leisurely breakfast and spent the rest of the morning just hanging out and relaxing.  A bit before noon we left for Rochester, where we would be having Easter dinner.

Coloring Easter Eggs

The weekend before Easter we decided to color Easter eggs with the kids.  They were very excited about it!

Daddy showing Cameron the proper egg dipping technique to get a multi-colored egg.

Leah dipping her own egg

Checking to see if her egg was dark enough yet - she wanted it to be PURPLE

Cameron drawing some pictures on his egg before he colors it - I think he was either drawing the Death Star or a TIE fighter on it (he had just watched Star Wars the night before).

Very cool tri-color egg!

Leah dipping another egg.  She did a really good job of doing it all by herself and not making a mess.

Tim asked her to smile for a picture.  She didn't want to look at the camera.

Tim told her to open up her eyes wide and look at the camera - this was the result!

Then he clarified that she could just look at the camera and smile - a bit of a better picture.

More egg coloring.  And yes, she doesn't have a shirt on.  I told her to roll up her sleeves so she didn't stain her shirt, and she suggested just taking it off instead.  If it means no egg dye on her clothes, I'm fine with that!

Leah's turn to draw on her egg.  She was so careful to make sure she didn't crack the egg.

The eggs so far

Eggs in the drying rack and a few in the cups getting color

Smiley girl

Not quite a smile but he had fun too!

While the eggs dried, we took a break and made some pizzas

And got out the giant bag of Easter eggs for the kids to play with.  They were so excited to have so many eggs!  I remembered how much fun Paul, Matt and I had hiding the eggs for each other in the weeks leading up to Easter, so it was great to pass on the tradition to Cameron and Leah.  They played lots of hide-the-eggs over the new few weeks!

Cute bunnies

Silly bunnies!

The final result was some beautiful eggs!

The kids made some really cool ones - some with great colors, others with neat patterns and drawings on them.  They had a great time!

She is so darn cute!! :)

After Easter was over, we peeled all of the eggs and made some delicious egg salad.  Once we were done peeling the eggs, the compost bucket looked quite artistic!