Happy Easter

Looking through their eggs
The kids looking so cute in their Easter clothes!
Whip Cream fight
I surrendered - Kaleb would have covered my whole face.
Sharing Easter love and their eggs.
The Golden Ticket!
Sophia and Kaleb working together?




The Traditional Van Niel Brunch
My favorite pink tulips from the Platas Family
My sweet boys!
Kaleb takes a picture of me and the little ones

We celebrated Easter this year a little bit differently than most - without our usual family. JJ was away in Dallas for a volleyball tournament, Nana was up in Northern California, and Abuelita wanted to go to her church play. So, this year we invited our good friends, Enrique, Paloma and Sophia for church service, brunch and easter egg hunt.

We woke up early and put on our Easter Best. Don't the kids look darling. They even humored me and sat in front of the house, one of my favorite spots for pictures and posed for a few shots. Of course this doesn't mean they actually looked at the camera or sat still. Then we set off to church for a wonderful service and message from Pastor Bob.

After the 9am service we came home and the kids played while I cooked some of our traditional Easter brunch favorites, bacon and cheese frittata, hash browns, strawberry chocolate chip muffins, fruit salad and of course strawberries with cream. While the food was in the oven, Enrique went outside to our greenbelt and helped the Easter bunny hide the eggs.

Once everything was ready the kids set out on the hunt for the first ever, and most coveted prize the "Golden Ticket" as well as the traditional goodies. We divided the space one side for the older kids - Kaleb and Sophia and the other side for Paloma, Olivia and Nathaniel. Then the hunt began. The kids ran around looking for as many eggs as possible. Meanwhile Nathaniel was content with the one egg that he found. He opened it and found "tandy" and chewed right through the wrapper until the sweet delicious chocolate spread over his lips and mouth. Once the hunt was over the kids sat together and looked over their eggs looking for The Golden Ticket. Kaleb was the lucky one this time and was so excited because he got the most eggs and won the coveted prize. What a blast!

We then sat down for brunch and shared great conversation of why we celebrate Easter and also everyone got to share what Easter Means to them. Once it was getting to serious we broke out the seriousness and Kaleb and I got into a whip cream war. Everyone ended up with whip cream on their noses and a huge smile on their faces. What a way to remember Easter!

Enrique and I worked through the clean up while the kids played a little longer. Once our guest left, the kids and I went upstairs and watched Robots and relaxed for a little bit. The evening ended with kite flying out on the greenbelt with Sam, Jason, Shelby and Jaden and then we came inside for a traditional ham dinner. What a great Easter.