Easter in the Hood

We spent the weekend in our neighborhood. Friday evening all the kids played in our front yard until the sun went down. Michael and I played pingpong and sipped wine with the garage door open and the kids picked flowers for potions and it was lovely.

Saturday Sam made early morning pancakes, we cleaned house and I did some cooking before we took the kids to tennis at 11AM. When we picked them up we drove up to the Pancake house for lunch out and then drove up to the Denver REI flagship store to pick up some hiking boots I had ordered and check it out. Davis did the rock wall and loved it and we scoped out some items for the big REI garage sale next weekend.

We got home around 3, just in time to host some neighbors and their children to dye Easter eggs on my back patio. I figured all the kids would be here when we dyed mine so why not ask everyone to do it all together. I boiled eggs and put down many cups full of dye. I put on music and supervised and Michael helped and it was actually really fun. Suzy came over with trays of shaving cream and food coloring and the kids tried dying their eggs that way too. Anna came over and the dogs came out and a party was made. The sun was shining and we all dyed and stuffed plastic eggs for some time.
That evening, Suzy and Jason came over and we played ping pong in the garage while the kids watched movies downstairs. We moved the ping pong table and it made for a much improved game. I'm getting better and while still being the worst of all the adults, I'm beating the children regularly. Suzy also got me to download bitmoji and now all I want to do is send people funny texts.

Michael flew out early, early Sunday morning for Ohio, while the kids and I still slept. Eventually the kids came down and checked out their Easter baskets before going back upstairs to play in their rooms. I served home made coconut cake and chocolate bunnies for breakfast and then we picked up Garrett and Leah for church. It was the flower communion and I enjoyed the service. After church they hosted an easter egg hunt and the kids enjoyed that too.

We came home and shared a rainbow pasta salad I had prepared for our Easter lunch and the kids went out to play while I set up a party. I had bought a piñata and cascarones and fifty plastic eggs and I stuffed eight more eggs with money. I put out the water dispenser and put on music.

At two six neighborhood families and one family from STEM came over and we had ourselves a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We sent the kids inside to watch Puss and Boots episodes and all the adults cruised our neighborhood block to hide a bazillion plastic eggs. The kids poured out of the house and did some hunting. They seemed to have a great time. Adults followed the kids and took pictures and then I came outside with prosecco and filled up some cups and passed them around. As the egg hunt wound down, I handed out cascarones and taught these Colorado natives about eggs filled with confetti. It was fun. Then we all made our way down to the basketball hoop at the culdesac where Jason had hung the piñata for me. The kids lined up and I blindfolded them and then they whacked that piñata as hard as they could. Every kid got a swing except for two (Garrett and Davis) before Sam cracked it open. The kids swarmed over the detritus and picked out every last piece of cheap candy and then ran off to play and we picked up the pieces and made our way back to my yard.
I cleaned up for a while and then rested for twenty minutes before loading up the car with the kids and heading out to the Varsity Inn for greasy pizza and hamburgers and 80's style video games. We met the Danielson's there and we stared bleary eyed at each other while our kids stuffed their faces and played some more. We were exhausted, but we agreed we had created a pretty great day for the kiddos.
I missed my family so much on Easter. I saw pictures of their beautiful laughing faces at the beach and I wondered why the hell I had removed myself so far away from them. I missed my husband on the holiday and he missed us right back. Holidays are hard right now and I'm not going to lie. But I made the very most of what I had and I am grateful for those moments. Spring in Colorado is beautiful and I have good friends here. For that I am grateful.