Our Easter Lily

We had a wonderful Easter with our Easter Lily! Everything was just so nice...right down to the weather. I love it when it works like that!

Lily started out the morning by searching for her Easter basket. That took all of 2.2 seconds. Next year the Easter Bunny is going to have to be a little more creative with where she...I mean he...hides it!



After eating some chocolate we had a nice breakfast at home and then headed to church. We went to Easter services at the Deaf church.

Worship at this church tends to be a lot more visual and interactive than a traditional service. It turns out that this is not only an effective way to reach Deaf people, it's also a great way to reach children.

I just about fell over when Lily leaned over to me and said, "I think she just signed - The tomb is empty." Lily was right. I just didn't realize Lily's receptive skills were SO good. By the way, the service is voice interpreted for the signing impaired ;-) Lily had just picked up the meaning before the interpreter had a chance to voice it.

Oh, and another thing. Lily got such a kick out of the minister munching on Peeps during her sermon. The minister used the Peeps to help demonstrate that the reason we celebrate Easter has nothing to do with Peeps, M&M's, and jelly beans and everything to do with the fact that - The tomb is empty! Her sermon made quite an impact on Lily.



After church we came home and Nai Nai stopped by for a brief visit and to drop off some Easter goodies. After Nai Nai left we had a quick Easter egg hunt in the backyard and then headed up to Patti's to celebrate with the rest of the family.



Patti's house was full of family, friends, and yummy food. Every year Patti and Dave host a wonderful Easter gathering complete with an awesome Easter Egg hunt. Dave does such a good job hiding the eggs that even the "big girls" still participate.

The fact that the weather was truly picture perfect was just the icing on the cake of an absolutely beautiful day.



Speaking of cake...I made a carrot cake and a lemon meringue pie from scratch for dessert. Not much of an accomplishment for an almost 45 year old woman I'll admit...but for me...it's HUGE!

I should also mention I never would have been able to make my culinary "masterpieces" without the Internet. How on earth did people cook before the Internet??? Seriously?!?

When I was making the carrot cake I realized the baking powder had expired (a true sign of how often I bake). I didn't have time to go out and get more so I just looked up, "what to do if your baking powder is expired?". I quickly got a few tips for a "sizzle test" to see if the baking powder still had leavening power and voila I knew I was good to go.

And the lemon meringue pie...forget about it! I made a lemon meringue pie years ago and ended up with a dollop of meringue about the size of a quarter in the center of the pie. I'm still traumatized by that baking fiasco. Once again the Internet to the rescue. Did you know they have little video clips online about how to make a meringue pie??? They do! And, guess what? It worked!