Easter Sunday ~ April 4, 2010

Easter was a busy day for the Browne-Mainprize family. Stefanie, Danny, Ethan, and Emily came to our house for food, fun, and well, more fun! We began the festivities with a scavenger hunt. Colorful plastic eggs were hidden all over the yard and house and were filled with rhyming clues. At first when I told Ethan what he was going to be doing, he responding by breaking into tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that he couldn't read. Well, trying not to giggle, I explained to him that if he gave the clue to his mom, she would read it for him. Each clue led them to the next egg and clue until they reached the final prize! Ethan actually did a good job of interpreting the clues when they were read to him.

Another clue by the chicken coop. Emily loved collecting the plastic eggs.
Emily getting into the fun and pointing to the next clue (or so she thought)

After about 12 clues, the final egg led him to his Cabbage Patch Kid and Emily's.

Emily is finally the girlie-girl of the family. I wasn't one, Stefanie wasn't one, Caitlin isn't one, so it was about time! She loves her babies, and she immediately gave "Rebekah Marie" lots of love and attention.

After the scavenger hunt, we had our lunch/dinner and then proceeded on to the next set of activities. The Browne family has a tradition of making these "basket" Easter cookies. Unfortunately, we didn't realize until it was too late that we didn't have any food coloring, so we improvised by just using the white buttercream frosting, and adding cocoa powder to half of it. So, Ethan, Stefanie, and Papa worked on cookies while Danny, Emily, and myself looked on.

Stefanie showing Ethan how the eggs appear in the basket

Emily enjoyed her cookie while watching

Dave enjoying a cookieOnce finished with the cookies, we moved on to the Easter Egg hunt out in our backyard. Emily was thrilled to pick up eggs and throw them in her basket. She did great. She especially loved the jelly beans inside (anyone say "sugar overload"?)

Checking out all the loot.

Once the hunt was over, we headed inside for the next activity ~ dyeing eggs.

They ended up quite pretty, but I didn't get any pictures...oh well.

When the festivities were over, it was time to head home. Emily made sure that both of the new babies didn't get left behind.

Now, which ones are the Cabbage Patch Kids? I'd say they were all dolls!

We are so blessed to have Danny, Stef, and the kids nearby so we can enjoy the holidays together. We had a really fun time. I'm sure we all were on a sugar high.

Our Easter was lovely, and we hope yours was as well!