Easter Hangover

I can honestly say that it is not an alcohol-related hangover that we are suffering from.  Rather, it is a lack of sleep - sugar filled children hangover that we are suffering from.  In fact, even Taylor seems to have the problem as she was not feeling well last night nor this morning.  


Easter was wonderful!  The children had a blast, and every piece of candy was consumed in the one day.  I am happy to report that we, the parents, did not overindulge the children and most of their Easter surprises were toys, but it was still a lot of candy for one 13 hour period.  Again, Taylor paid the price with her over-indulgence with an upset stomach that has lasted through Monday morning.  She remarked that she is glad to have soccer practice today so that she can try to "work through everything."


All of the children were awake by 6 am.  Cyn and Josh were sleeping in the living room, so they told the kids to go back to the room which only lasted for another 30 minutes.  By that point, I could hear them, and all 4 adults dragged themselves awake.  The kids were DYING to dig in to their Easter Baskets and then they were peeking through the blinds to scope out the eggs.

We let Daniel go first to find his eggs, and the girls were losing their minds while waiting. Finally, it was their turn to go, and they listened a little while I ran down the zone areas for them so each would only get their 12 eggs.  Jordan and Leena still overlapped and took from one another, but it worked out in the end.  Mandy, however, found all of her eggs in less than 5 minutes which did not give me time to take pictures of her, so I made her put two back so I could get a picture of her finding her eggs.  

Mandy came up to me to show her lot - she was already done!!  Apparently, the Easter Bunny did not hide the eggs well enough for her.

Here's Mandy putting back a couple eggs so I could get pictures of her "finding" her eggs.  Ha!

Taylor could not find her last Easter egg, but Daniel was able to find it for her!  He had no problem helping out his woman!

Leena and Jordan had to discover their number of eggs and trade to be sure it was 12 for both.

Jordan was excited that this year, she found the most money!  She spent a lot of time trying to count her cash, and then had to start over as she went through eggs and found MORE money!  Josh was a saint and helped her out.

I had had every intention of making scones for breakfast, but the time to spend with my friends was too important to me.  Luckily, we had pancake mix, and even more lucky was that Josh didn't mind making them so Cyn and I could chat.  So, while Josh cooked up the pancakes, the kids went through their stash to see everything they got!

Taylor and Daniel were Josh's big helpers in making and serving the pancakes.  

The kids took to watching movies since Leena wasn't feeling well. It seemed that she was getting a sinus infection, but we wanted to be sure that it wasn't something too severe especially since she had a fever.  While they watched movies, we got the hor d'evores ready for everyone.  Ken and Taylor shelled the eggs, and then Cyn worked her magic with them!

As we were getting ready to set out the food, Daniel kept bugging Josh for a drink, so Josh handed Daniel his beer.  Josh and Cyn had Daniel pretend to take a drink, but the picture was priceless!!!  (We did get him a glass of water rather than letting him have the beer.)

I worked on frosting the cake while we waited for Josh to return from the store with the mayo that I forgot to have on hand for the deviled eggs.  He also got some extra yummies to add to the eggs like relish and jalapenos.  Ken ate way too many of the Jalapeno eggs as usual, but they were very delish!  Cyn gave me a side-note for the cake for next time - cut the layers and just use what you need so it is flat and not so tall.  Made total sense when she said it, but I just hadn't gotten that far. I was totally excited that the meringue turned out OK that I was over-joyed with myself and too happy to care about the rest.

We munched until we were totally full, and then Cyn started the ham.  She had used a recipe so the rub was hers as was the glaze.  I was totally going to make the green beans like everyone usually likes, but I got totally wrapped up in talking and forgot.  Luckily, the beans we had came in a steam bad and were easy to make, and there were baked beans left over from the previous night, so I didn't have to worry about rice.  Whew!

Supper was wonderful, and the friends who are like family made it even better!  Cyn made a comment that totally flattered me during supper that she loved that after 23+ years, she was finally able to take a lesson from me and learn to have a stress-free holiday! I always adore her productions - everything is perfect from the cleaning to the decorations to the meal, but it's just never my style to stress that much over having friends over.  It's about the time spent with them - the stories, the memories, and the fun.  I am glad that we were able to host them and have a great time, and I'm sure we'll have a blast when it's time to spend the most perfect holiday/celebration with them at their place.


The cake turned out to be a total mess to serve, but it tasted wonderful and light!

And then, everyone realized that it was time for them to leave.  The girls dragged out saying goodbye as long as they could, but eventually, they took off.  


I worked on getting the girls cleaned up and ready for bed, and then I worked on cleaning up the house.  After the festivities, it was a mess, but it actually did not take long to clean.  


Once the girls were in a coma (which really did not take that long - Jordan and Mandy were asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillow and Taylor was fine after some Pepto-Bismal), so Ken and I went out back and had a drink and a cigar together.  Despite the wonderfully warm Spring weather we had over the weekend, it was turning cold again.  


All in all, it was a great Holiday. We are blessed with our family and our friends!