This year, there was no Easter Hat parade with all the school children singing: “Here Comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail…” www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G6F0pyaT7c Both kids are in primary now and considered too mature for such childish things.
Yum! All that yummy Easter chocolate!
To add salt to the wound, crime to end all crimes, the kids shot the Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy with one very effective bullet not so long ago. For years I’ve been telling them they had to “believe to receive” but seemingly weren’t listening. They weren’t happy when I didn’t leave any Easter eggs out.However, they hadn’t left any baskets out either.
A very Happy Chappy!
Somehow, I don’t think eating a Lindt carrot quite qualifies for the Paleo Diet!!
Further breaking with tradition, we’re on holidays and so we didn’t make it to Church and even though we did try to find a service, we still missed out.
It’s also hard to think about the symbolism rebirth of the resurrection which is more in tune with a Northern Spring than Autumn in Australia where the leaves are changing colour and starting to die as we head towards Winter.
In other words, our Easter was all topsy turvey and upside down. No regrets because we had a fabulous day. It just wasn’t how we usually spend Easter.
Yet, as John Lennon said:
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.
However, while the kids were too grown up to believe in the Easter Bunny anymore, they were still keen for an Easter Egg Hunt and we invited the kids from next door over to join in the fun. We had a second hunt today and the rain hit just as the search began. Oh yes! Our scruffy Lady puppy dog snatched one of the eggs and tried making a speedy getaway as Geoff chased the dogs out of the hunting grounds. We don’t feed our dogs chocolate but we’ve only had Lady for about 6 months and she knows all about chocolate. She loves it and appears at the light whenever chocolate appears much to her disappointment. Chocolate, especially dark chocolate can kill dogs.
“Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day. I have a wonderful feeling, Everything’s going my way”-“Oklahoma” Frank Sinatra: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNm76stOJis
We were also thrilled that after two days of solid rain and predictions of more to come, that the clouds lifted and we woke up to bright, glorious sunshine and we were out the door to make the most of what had been “the view”. The dogs were particularly thrilled and as soon as the gate was open they sped down to the beach. However, it was high tide meaning they couldn’t get very far on foot and so we bungled them into the kayak with me and they certainly got more than they bargained. Bilbo’s lucky his claws didn’t get stuck in the plastic. He was very uncomfortable and not the courageous adventurer at all!! You’ll read more about that as the A-K Blogging Challenge continues under K: Kayaking with Dogs.
Kayaking with two dogs onboard certainly is an acquired skill, especially with Bilbo who hates getting his paws wet and prefers terra firma.
My parents came round for an Easter meal. While setting the table, I discovered the glass table top reflected the clouds and immediately grabbed the camera:
Sunsetting over Pittwater with the cloudy sky reflected on the dining table.
Despite wanting to keep this post simple, I couldn’t resist looking up Easter traditions around the world:
Sydney, Australia: The Royal Easter Show: http://www.eastershow.com.au/
France: If you fancy some spring cleaning, head to Alsace in France: http://www.frenchmoments.eu/easter-in-alsace/
Italy: we have Pan di Ramarino: http://sociopalate.com/2015/04/02/golossary-pan-di-ramarino/ and Agnello Pasquale, A marzipan lamb, is a typical Sicilian Easter dessert.http://sociopalate.com/2015/03/30/golossary-agnello-pasquale/
Germany: A beautiful German Easter tradition is the Osterstrauch. This is a branch or small tree decorated with hollowed-out eggs: http://www.quick-german-recipes.com/easter-in-germany.html
Argentina: the world’s biggest hand-made chocolate Easter Egg:http://globalnews.ca/news/1922341/giant-easter-egg-cracked-open-in-argentina/
Latvia:When I was in infant’s school one of the Mums who came from Latvia taught us how to make coloured eggs boiling up brown onion skins to make the dye. As young child, I was amazed! Check this out: http://www.latvianstuff.com/Lieldienas.html
The Phillipines: https://mangosalute.com/magazine/what-do-filipinos-do-during-easter
Weird Easter Traditions Around the World: http://www.mirror.co.uk/usvsth3m/flying-bell-weird-easter-traditions-5451736
Preparations for the Easter Hunt.
How did you spend your Easter? I hope you had a wonderful day!
Anyway, we would like to wish you all a Happy & Blessed Easter reflecting on Christ’s resurrection while also enjoying all the fun stuff as well…Easter eggs, Easter Egg hunts and making all sorts of Easter arts and crafts.
Love and Easter Blessings,
Rowena
PS Here are some interesting Easter curiosities from around the world:
Beyond the Flow 
It sounds like you had a lovely Easter! This was the first year my great niece and nephews weren’t interested in hiding the Afikomen (a piece of matzah during the Seder). It used to be a big deal, and they got a prize for finding it. We don’t celebrate Easter, although we used to do some stuff when our kids were little. My husband and I went into Philadelphia and saw a strange Japanese movie. Then we had Passover leftovers–including chocolate. My younger daughter though was going to do an Easter egg hunt with her fiance’s family. 🙂
It is spring here, although our daffodils are just finally beginning to come up. We’re finally going to have a warm sunny day today, too!
Enjoy the rest of your holiday!
Enjoy the Spring!!! I know it’s been a long time coming and those daffodils must be a treat! My husband grew up in Scottsdale in Tasmania on a 10 acre farm. His Mum’s daffodils seemingly took flight spreading from around the fence line right through the lawn. These daffodils became a protected species, especially when it came to Geoff mowing the lawn. He still curses them saying “that if it’s in the lawn, in gets mowed”.
Your Passover leftovers sound great. I bought a strawberry mouse cake from a local French Patisserie. They had pressed strawberry slices around the edge, which looked absolutely stunning. I must try that myself sometime although when I try too hard, there’s usually disaster!
The strawberry mousse cake sounds great. I think when you make though, you might have to add some chocolate drizzles. 😉
Sounds like you had a fun and fulfilling Easter. I spent mine with my parents, watching movies on the Family Channel and binge eating chocolate. There was also a roast turkey involved because nobody in my family likes the traditional ham roast.
@Get Lost in Lit
I was thinking about putting the strawberry slices on the side of a chocolate cake!!
Excellent post. It got me to thinking about Easters when I was a child, egg hunts and egg dyeing. We used real hard-boiled eggs back then, none of this plastic egg stuff oh no, and always got the egg dye on our hands so Mom wrung her hands trying to get ours clean!
What fun and what a beautiful spot for Easter! My kids are all grown up but still wanted Easter baskets when they should have outgrown them. My daughter called me from LA yesterday and asked, “Where’s my basket?” I told her when she moves back, I’ll have one for her. My son doesn’t eat sweets now – he’s pretty fixed in that since he had bad acne as a teenager. But oh, those solid chocolate Easter bunnies. My Mom loved them.
Easter in the garden here getting ready for three days of real effort to sort out our pond disaster of last year
I like your thinking! 🙂
It looks to have been a lovely day enjoyed by the whole family! Max notes that you had “Malt” Easter candies which he thinks are the best kind. We don’t have a significant change of seasons so Spring is more a concept that a change of weather pattern but Easter still feels like a turning point in the year.
Yes, they were good. Tell Max I wouild put some in the mail but I’m a bit of a puritan. No chocolate for dogs. That said, I used to feed my dog the odd Easter egg as a kid without any trouble and the way Lady reacts to chocolate, I know it hasn’t killed her but my husband is very strict. No chocolate whatsoever and with the kids, it’s better to be careful with what they feed the dogs.
Sounds like hard work. Our kids have joined forces with the kids next door and have been digging canals through the mud and gravel on the mudflats at low tide. Two kids were digging with big brother next door appointing himself “Project Manager” and sittin gon the brick wall calling out instructions, while his little brother protested and said those without spades should use their hands. Miss was strutting round in princess mode yesterday but was digging with the boys the day before and has since drawn up plans for today’s construction effort. They spent ages trying to dig out a huge rock and eventually got it out…eureka!
There’s a French chocolatier near my parents place which was synonymous with Easter growing up. Every year, we would go into the shop to see the Easter egg displays and I dreamed of when I grew up and I could buy every egg in the shop and didn’t have to put up with my mum saying “no”!!! The shop was owned by a French family and over the years, the lady aged and shrank but never lost her love of chocolate and was just as much a part of the shop as the magical chocolate bunnies and ducks. She allowed me to photograph my kids in the shop awhile back and she has since passed away. Being on holidays, I don’t have access to the photos at the moment but I’ll have to do a belated post when I get home.
By the way, I love your daughter’s request for the Easter basket. In some ways, we never grow up and why should we, especially when it comes to good chocolate?!!
We use chocolate eggs for our Easter hunts in Australia but a friend of mine who jhad lived in America for 20 years, introduced us to the plastic eggs filled with treats. This is much more organised than our haphazard hunts where you’d often find a lost egg half eaten by bugs hiding beside the path. With her hunts, everyone had a colour and there was a set number of eggs and the hunt continued until all were found.
Did you check out the link to the dyed eggs they make in Latvia? I’ve made those a few times and should do it with the kids. That was great fun.
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That’s great. And perfect people watching too
Defintely, the kids have provided some great inspiration over the years…even when their behavior is rather trying and verging on a riot.
Parenting is first and foremost an exercise in crowd control. That and refuelling.
Sounds like you had a great Easter. I’m very keen on chocolate myself xx Rowena