Easter! Eggs! Excellent.

If you ask Elise what Easter's all about, she'll drag you over to our much acclaimed tray of plastic eggs, point emphatically and tell you, "Eesh! Eesh!" Then she'll point outside, stabbing at the air to represent a variety of different hiding places, and finally she'll point to her feet to indicate her need for shoes in order to be prepared to go find these treasures. If you allow this act to continue, you'll soon find yourself outside with an enthusiastic toddler and a tray full of plastic eggs, trekking all over the yard. This, apparently, is Easter.

If you ask Kalina, she'll probably explain how one kitten is helping another put on an Easter dress, while a third is sitting quietly in church and a fourth is dying Easter eggs for a fifth to play with. Or something. But she does know the rest of the story. Breaking it to her was hard, and she almost cried when she learned that Jesus died, and didn't quite see how being raised back to life solved the world's problems, but she'll process it over time in her own way. In fact, her gray stuffed kitten died recently, but I'm happy to report it came back to life shortly thereafter.

But no matter which girl you ask, you'll be assured that Easter was wonderful--whether in Elise's wide-eyed, emphatic enthusiasm that needs no words to communicate its depth, or in Kalina's stream of play-by-play detailing how her animals celebrated the season.

The three techniques in action.

Chocolate bunnies aside, the holiday was made much more exciting by the arrival of Grandpa, Uncle Tom and Angela, whose birthday we also celebrated (not to mention the fact that Grandpa closed on a house here this week--celebrations all around!).

On Saturday morning, we dyed Easter eggs. Elise, Kalina and Uncle Tom were the eager workers, and each had their own particular style.

Elise, who had never seen such a thing but thought it sounded just great. She eagerly adopted the idea, grabbed one egg after the other, dropping and cracking them on the table (accidentally) before placing them into a cup of dye. She worked quickly and intently, and probably would've kept going all morning if only we'd had enough eggs. But none of this without eating one first. The final product wasn't nearly as interesting to Elise as the process, although I have a feeling that will change in future dying episodes.

Kalina, an old pro at this, dyed many beautiful eggs, and cracked hardly any at all, before deciding to create some "fancy" eggs like Uncle Tom. These special eggs of Kalina's are carefully dyed and redyed, from only the most select colors, until they each become their own special shade of brownish-something. Brownish-green, brownish-purple, brownish-orange, you name it. Other fancy eggs would get a scribble from a wax crayon before the dying treatment. The most elaborate/garish were her favorite, and she enjoyed letting her inner artist shine as she confidently decorated each egg to the utmost of its potential.

It's just not as fun if you can't
eat the eggs.

Uncle Tom patiently and artistically dyed three lovely fancy eggs, and cringed visibly every time another of Kalina's beautiful creations was plopped into the mud-green dye cup that used to be sunshine yellow. He later admitted, though, that her techniques had produced some unusually striking eggs. Some of which weren't, actually, as brownish as you'd think, considering they'd made the circuit from teal to orange to purple to pink to red to mud-green and back again. Mommy thought they were quite beautiful, in fact.

The next morning was Easter! Kalina made sure to greet everyone in the house, which was a lot of people, with a delighted, "Happy Easter!" We had not, however, talked much about the Easter Bunny and Easter baskets, so all she knew was that she'd get to wear her special Easter dress to church, and that there would be treats sometime during the day.

In fact, treats started early: Grandpa had a special present for each girl. For Elise, it was a bunny not unlike those in the children's museum that she loves to carry around. It's been tucked under Elise's arm pretty much ever since. For Kalina, it was her own copy of an Easter library book that she'd loved and I accidentally returned too soon. Oops!

We'd chosen the early service (9:00) so that we could get back in time for Easter baskets and dinner before Uncle Tom and Angela had to take off. I forgot: to put the ham in the oven, to change Elise's diaper, and to put the girls in their cute Easter hats (which Elise still likes to wear as often as possible). Two of those were easily remedied by turning the car around in the plenty of time I'd allowed before church, but the hats remained forgotten. Oh well.

Pleased with her conquest:
a peepy chick Elise has
been coveting for months.

Both kids behaved wonderfully at church, thanks to snacks and probably being a bit tired from all the activity. A few family photos later, and we were ready to go in and see if the Easter bunny had, indeed, visited.

Yup! Elise found her basket all too quickly in the shopping cart, and was soon hugging the peepy chick in it. Kalina found hers with a little help (and lots of practice from Hide the Thimble with Grandpa), and dug out a stuffed rabbit ("Can the Easter bunny sew, Mommy?" Um....).

Kalina most likely expected to keep the Easter bunny in a cage, and feed it carrots, and all that (she asked if it was still in our house), but couldn't be disappointed for long after uncovering her basket.

Always focused on animals, of which there were several in the basket, and never having been exposed to much candy, it took a while (and some prodding) for Kalina to discover that the plastic eggs that shake contained candy. She carefully sampled one jelly bean, or chocolate egg, or whatnot, from each one before asking me nicely if she could have another. I let her, of course. You would've, too.

Elise immediately caught on to the fact that the shaky eggs held treats. Distracting her tender eyes from the view of Kalina's delicacies, we helped her open up animal crackers, dried cranberries, and the like, which she devoured without thinking of asking permission. I let her. It was only later that she discovered Kalina's stash, and fortunately the bigger girl wasn't around to see me sneak Elise a tiny robin's egg.

Then, the girls played with their bunnies and a few other treasures, but mostly with the fake grass from their baskets.

Easter dinner! Ham, veggie sides, rolls, a special lemon jello salad! And the girls ate: rolls. But at least they enjoyed them.

Kalina passed this by the first
time around. A chocolate
rabbit!

After naptime/downtime, which lasted a blessedly long time, we welcomed some friends for a big Easter egg hunt in our yard. "Eesh, Eesh!" Elise exclaimed, and then dashed off to get her shoes. Kalina, still suffering the effects of having only eaten a roll for lunch, but refusing any food but candy (which wasn't an option at this point) dragged behind. She perked up, nonetheless, as she expertly dashed around the yard, schooling the two one-year-olds and one two-year-old at finding hidden eggs.

Notice the bunny ears: plastic
bunny loves to ride in the
Easter basket.

Kind-hearted soul that Kalina is, though, she was readily convinced to slow down and help the other girls find eggs. She turned her attention to pointing Elise and Lucy (age 2) within one inch of several hidden eggs, before abandoning the hunt altogether and dashing off toward her coveted swingset swing, to the frustrated dismay of Elise who is always, always the last one to get there and therefore never the first to swing.

Elise and Lucy stuck it out a bit longer, however (the other 1-year-old was still too little), and then we took a few impromptu pictures of the girls. Lucy was the first to figure out that the shaky eggs contained candy, and Elise eventually caught on. Then Kalina did, but by then most of the jelly beans had disappeared. Each girl methodically shook the rest of the eggs, just in case, and we headed inside to play when no more treats were to be found.

Sometimes I feel like a
charging station.

And then once our guests left, the girls fixed themselves dinner, tidied up the family room and headed off to bed with a cheerful wave in our direction. Not really, but somehow we weary adults made it through until we could consider Easter celebrated and traditions passed down for one more year.

Here's hoping every Easter finds us this blessed, by good company and good fun in addition to the good news of Jesus, our living hope.