Happy Easter!

I would say that this post is late, but it's not! It's still Easter! And it will be the Easter season for 50 days! From icatholic.org:

"The 50 days of Easter are a "space" filled with the presence of the risen Christ, who shows himself over and over to us, his Church, as he manifested himself to the apostles. It is important for us to see the Easter event not only as something that happened long ago but also as an ongoing reality that is very present NOW in our own lives as Christians. Just as it was with the apostles, everywhere we turn, there is his Spirit outpoured, shaping the new creation. We know from the Scriptures that his disciples did not always recognize him. The challenge for us is to recognize the Spirit in our daily lives.

Ascension is not a departure, but rather a promise that the Lord will return. He goes to prepare a place for us. It is therefore a feast of great joy and an integral part of the Easter event."

So - Alleluia - Happy Easter! Here are some of our celebrations!

It was so special to be included in a Seder Dinner with close friends. The food was INCREDIBLE and it was a neat way to start Holy Week. Unfortunately, many of my Holy Week ideas did not come to fruition due to my poor planning and tiredness....but we did manage to go to the service on Good Friday and do a few other things.

Easter morning we dyed our Easter Eggs. The boys had a blast.

Sebastian had fun dipping the eggs in multiple colors, which led to some interesting creations.

Then we made some Resurrection Rolls for breakfast. I found this idea on one of my favorite blogs, Catholicicing. Using a marshmallow to represent Jesus, we dipped it in butter to represent the oils they put on Jesus after he died.

Then we rolled it in cinnamon to represent the spices that were rubbed on His body.

Finally we wrapped the marshmallow in the bread to represent the cloths they used before they put Jesus in the tomb.

Our oven became the tomb....

And when we took them out of the oven...

The marshmallow had melted away. Jesus had risen! Very cool way to share the story of the Resurrection with the kids, although Sebastian was still a bit perplexed about Jesus being a marshmallow. Ahhhh....what can you do! =)

Yummy treat on Easter morning.

And here they are admiring the finished Easter eggs they dyed.

Now - Easter baskets! Matteo was excited to see what was in his.

Sebastian couldn't wait to open each egg to see what treats were inside.

Sebastian is not a candy lover. Matteo on the other hand will scarf it down. So we carefully picked things they both liked: mini marshmallows and gummies. We also added a few M&Ms to Matteo's since he loves them so much.

Matteo discovers an egg full of M&Ms.

Little hands...

When he realized the next egg might have MORE M&Ms in it!

We finally gave him a little bowl to put the treats on because he was trying to eat everything in the eggs as fast as he could open them.

Sebastian couldn't help himself I guess....boys!

Hey!

And then the basket from Nana and Papa had a WHOLE BAG of gummies in it! Look at that face as he grabs a HANDFUL!

So....we have this bunny outfit. And it's just too tortuously funny to not put our children in it. Yes, they will hate us in 10 years for it, but for the moment, it's worth every laugh. And they love it too. Matteo threw a huge fit when we made him take it off!!!

VIDEO - Matteo the Easter Bunny
(If the video does not appear, click here to watch.)

The happy bunny!

Since Matteo loved it so much, Sebastian insisted on wanting to wear it too....but it did not fit him AT ALL. He was very upset about it and insisted that he needed a costume for Easter too. So Mami had to start thinking about what I could easily pull together and we decided he could be a flower for Easter. He was thrilled.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of him with his flower hat on, but here they are after the Easter show with costumes their costumes. Matteo the bunny and Sebastian the flower. He loved wearing the pillowcase "stem" the best.

Since I am 38 weeks, I really couldn't travel anywhere for Easter. So we told our family, we'd love to see them if they wanted to come but were unable to really host anything. So our family got together, planned and brought all the food, set everything up, served, cleaned up the kitchen and our floors and left us with tons of leftovers. WOW! How wonderful is that! I have to admit, I love hosting our family events, but for once it was really nice to have everything taken care of! What a treat!

Angelica and Tyler had fun hiding eggs for the kids to do an egg hunt on the porch.

Our family at church on Easter Sunday. Happy Easter!