Happy Easter!!!!

After a dizzying few hours of watching the kids blood sugar go up, then crash, go up, then crash- we all settled down and got ready for my family's Easter celebration.  Every year, my parents host my Dad's family for a fantastic Easter meal, an egg-ceptional special Easter egg hunt, and an overall wonderful day.

As a child, my Grandma used to host this holiday at her house in Seattle.  I have so many wonderfully colorful memories of wearing an Easter dress and bonnet, looking for foil wrapped mini chocolate eggs, running around with Jill in her backyard trying not to get too dirty, drinking Cragmont pop, and enjoying the heck out of the delicious meal that she would make.  I am so glad that I can remember way back then.  I truly feel blessed for the loving, family driven, and hilarious times we used to have at my Grandma's house.  

Today, the whole family (minus Gina) gathered at my parent's house to celebrate Easter!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  My Mom spent the last two days prepping food and decorating the house and her work was definitely noticed! 

My cousin Rachel brought a few friends from college and they were really wonderfully kind to play with my kids so I could have a break for a few minutes.  A basketball game broke out in the backyard and lasted close to an hour!  It was awesome to watch Michael and Claire battle out there with Rachel and her friends.  I kept watching Claire running, cutting, and jumping in her heeled dress shoes and was sure she was going to hurt herself, but she was fine!  Michael hustled his little tush off and after he was done, was so red!  It was definitely time for some rehydration!

We had an early dinner which consisted of my Mom's fabulous manacotti, honey baked ham, Easter pizza, Aunt Mary's famous fruit salad, and a yummy green salad.  It was so amazing- I can't even begin to explain.  My Mom made her own recipe for the manacotti and she did such an amazing job.  My favorite was her appetizer of roasted garlic with cambazola cheese on rosemary crackers.  Oh . . . my . . . goodness.

After we ate, my Uncle Bob started hiding the Easter eggs out in the yard.  He and my Aunt Mary sponsor the egg hunt.  They fill up the eggs with yummy candy and also a mixture of coins and dollars.  I think there were about 130 eggs this year.  The eggs are hidden in my parent's front and back yard.  There is a lot of foliage and tons of great spots to hide the eggs so this is both fun and challenging for the kids.

Emily got to go first since she is the youngest.  One minute later, Kyle and Matthew were released.  Michael and Claire were so anxious as they thought the little kids would grab all the eggs.  Not so!  Michael and Claire were soon unleashed into the hunt and did so with a burst of competitiveness.  Man, those two.  They checked on each other the whole time to see who had more eggs!  My cousins and Laura also joined the hunt and a good time was being had by all! 

Once all the obvious eggs were taken, the hunt took a more strategic turn.  It is more about scanning an area slowly as not to pass an egg up!  After tallying the final egg count- it was deemed that there are about eight eggs still in the yard.  It is hilarious because throughout the year- we find the eggs with the candy/money in them.  The Easter egg hunt is kind of a gift that keeps on giving!   All of my kids walked away from the hunt with about $8 in change and a bag full of candy.  A big THANK YOU to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary for lovingly planning this hunt!

I had a wonderful day with my family.  What a special group of people.  I am reminded every time I see them how incredibly blessed I am to have them in my life.  By the end of the day, we all just sat around telling hilarious stories.  At one point, my Aunt Michele was literally crying from laughing so hard.  I have never seen her laugh like that.  It was awesome!

Much love to all of you that are in our lives.  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter surrounded by those that love you.  Happy Easter!

Easter Morning 2012

"How will the Easter Bunny know we aren't at our house?"  "Did you tell him that we were going to be at Nonna's house?"  Obviously, my kids are excited for Easter.  So excited, in fact, that they were seriously stressing about whether the Easter Bunny would know where to bring their baskets!

Luckily, I have a direct connection to the famous bunny.  He knew just where we were and didn't disappoint the kids as they stumbled up my Mom's stairs this morning, still in their morning fog.  The older three were the first up the stairs and knew immediately which basket was theirs.  Emily was about a minute behind and wasn't in any mood to be photographed.  In her defense- I do take a lot of pictures.

The Easter Bunny brought each of my kids a new DVD, some candy, gum, and a few special treasures.  Emily got a new Dora movie, Matthew got Treasure Buddies (think Indiana Jones but spoken and acted completely by dogs), Claire got Despicable Me, and Michael got H.O.P. 

In a matter of minutes, the kids had attained their sugar high, crashed from low blood sugar, and were desperately trying to cram chocolate and jelly beans in their mouths simultaneously to get on that sugar high once more.  This pretty much happened all day. 

We had a great morning.  We had gone to Easter Vigil the night before so we had all morning to relax and help my Mom set up the house for the Sacco Family Easter celebration.  On a side note . . . Claire wrote the sweetest letter to the Easter Bunny thanking him for his thoughtfulness.

On the other hand, the Easter Bunny wrote my sister Natalie an entirely different kind of note and put it in her basket.  I hope you get as big a kick out of it as we did.  Happy Easter everyone!

The Art of Eating Sunflower Seeds By: Emily

Mom said to put one sunflower seed in my mouth.
I chose to put about ten in my mouth.

Mom told me to crack the seed and spit out the shell.
I told her that it was faster to just chew all ten seeds at once.
Shell and all.

I swear, I am not gagging here.  I didn't put so many
seeds in my mouth, try and spit them out, and then gag. 
I didn't gag!

Huh.  The gag reflex has passed.  I wonder if Mom saw that? 
Oh well.  I think I will just put ten seeds in my mouth again. 
Chew, gag, recover, repeat.

See, Mom!  I told you I didn't need your help!

My Cousin Courtland

On my Mom's side of the family, I am one of eleven grandchildren.  There is quite the age gap between all of us!  I am guessing it is somewhere between twenty years between the oldest and the youngest cousin.  Courtland is the baby of the group.  He is Monica and Sim's son and according to all of us, is still a baby.  Funny how when you stand next to your sixteen year old cousin, who is now taller than you and has a license- you start to realize that he really isn't a baby anymore! 

We were thrilled to find out that Court had a baseball game this morning!  We all were excited, but Michael was absolutely begging us to go.  As in, Take me to the game, or I will never talk to you again.  We loaded up and headed up to Lake Washington High School (my alma mater).  The weather was beautiful.  Perfect baseball weather!

Michael is in the middle of his own baseball season so he was totally into the game.  Of course, he was enamored with Courtland.  Michael has always thought Court was awesome and this cool older brother feeling has only intensified.  He watched Court intensely as he got up to bat and hit a single right up the middle.  Michael was so proud of him!

After the game, Michael went with Sim back to their house to hang out for the day.  By the time we went that night to have a delicious dinner with Monica, Court and Sim- Michael had just about had the best day of his life.  You could tell that hanging out with Court and three of his friends, wandering through the yards of the next door neighbors on the lake, and getting to ride with the boys to frozen yogurt made Michael feel super cool. 

When we arrived, Sim was having Michael be the Grill Master.  I've never thought to let Michael grill but he loved every minute of it and truly felt worthy and useful.  Mental note: must give Michael more responsibility.  He can do anything he puts his mind to! 

While we noshed on dinner, the kids spent time exploring the dock, smelling all of Monica's fresh lavender, playing hoops, going back to Monica's lollipop drawer, and relaxed lakeside as we all put our feet up and enjoyed the breathtaking view of Mount Rainier. 

Courtland, thank you for including Michael in all of your activities today.  You have no idea the positive impact you had on him.  Monica and Sim, thank you for watching after Michael and making us feel so loved and welcome in your home.  The food was divine and the company even better.

Color Me Easter!

Decorating Easter eggs is always a highlight of the kids Easter break.  I have to admit- as a mother, it isn't my favorite activity.  Something about staining dye, fragile eggs, and busy little fingers makes my head spin.  I always do it outside on newspaper to minimize the damage! 

I was so happy to be able to do it at my Mom's house this year.  And to my surprise, the kids did great!  No spills, no problems!  Yet another sign that life is getting a bit easier for us!

The girls were very into the whole process.  Matthew, Michael, and Kyle dyed about three eggs and were out the door to find rolie polies! 

We tried a new technique I found on Pinterest where you take a round cotton pad, drip colors onto it using an ink dropper or spoon, and then lay them on the egg and wait a few minutes.  The eggs turned out awesome!  It made them look tie dyed!  We will definitely do this again next year!  We also tried some glittery marbled eggs which the kids TOTALLY loved making.  My Mom had purchased a kit to make them and they turned out so pretty!

The eggs turned out great!  We only lost three eggs which Emily promptly peeled and ate.  That's my girl!  The question now is will they last until Easter? 

Cart Breaker

After feeding the ducks, we went to Safeway to do some grocery shopping for that evening's dinner.  My Mom was pushing the cart through the aisles when Emily asked her to stop.  As soon as my Mom stopped, Emily made herself comfortable right in the bottom basket.  She literally stayed there the whole shopping trip.  Only Emily.  She loves to push the limits of normal.  But she makes it work.  When you look that cute doing crazy things, sometimes no one really notices!

Kirkland Beachfront

Spring break has started!  Last night, we flew up to Kirkland for a week of fun!  The kids were a bit groggy this morning and to be honest, so was the weather.  The forecast actually looks amazing for the rest of the week but today was pretty gray.  In order to perk up a bit and get out of the house, we went down to the marina to have some lunch and feed the ducks!

The kids absolutely love coming here.  I know I have done several posts with pictures of them feeding the ducks, running around on the beach, almost falling into the water- but I can resist doing another.  The pictures are just too beautiful. 

I did tell the kids to brush their teeth, do their hair, and get dressed this morning.  Obviously, Michael did not get the hair memo and I now have documentation of him tuning me out!  I still think he looks adorable!  And I would be lying if I didn't admit that Claire's bow hadn't been in her hair for 24 hours.  It's just how we roll, sometimes!

My Mom had made huge bags of popcorn which we took down to feed the ducks.  The ducks seem to love it and the population of our little friends seems to grow each time we return.  Maybe there is something in the popcorn!  I'd also like to state on the record that Emily just might have eaten more popcorn than she gave to the ducks!

We had gone to Subway and gotten sandwiches which were quickly inhaled by my little guys.  Soon, the popcorn was gone and their fingers were a little numb so we decided to head back to the house and say goodbye to the duckies.  I know the next time we are here, the kids will demand to return to this little beach and I will be more than happy to load them up and come back.