Cookies, Eggs, Candy, Ham...

Sunday was just as hectic, although I did find a total of 45 minutes to sit down.  As soon as I woke up, I started in the kitchen.  I wanted to make decorated cookies from scratch, but the dough is supposed to be refrigerated for at least two hours before using.  So the first thing I did was get that going and get the rolls out to start rising.  Then I baked an apple crisp for that afternoon.  After that was done, Aiden and I used Easter cookie cutters to cut out the dough.  I learned it is very important to follow the recommended 1/8" thickness.  Any thicker than that and the cookie looses it's precut shape.  We had an incident and had to throw away half of them.  Thankfully they were the blob ones.

By the time Aiden went down for his nap, the cookies were cool enough to decorate.  I did all but a few of them, which I left for Aiden to decorate after he woke up.  I got the ham in by 12:30 and worked on tidying up the house a bit and getting table settings out.  Travis spent the morning doing the yard and running to the convenience store.  I think Ariel and Robert showed up around 2:30 and they brought appetizers.  Soon after they arrived, our friend Mike got to our house.  We snacked for a bit and I got the casseroles in the oven.

After Aiden woke, he decorated those cookies and then went outside to play with a Crayola Color Explosion kit Ariel and Robert brought for him. 

When I was done in the kitchen, I came out with the kit for dying eggs.

The guys enjoyed some whiskey.  My dad got Travis on this kick when he was here last month.  Thanks DAD for that expensive venture.

Right before dinner at 5 another friend showed up.  As we were sitting down for the meal, I was worried there wouldn't be enough food.  I feel like there are usually way more platters set out.  I think I made just the right amount though.  There were leftovers, but not so much that I will be throwing anything out at the end of the week.  There was a lot of ham leftover, but I made my dad's ham and bean soup out of that last night.

After dinner we ate a few of the Easter cookies (which I didn't get a picture of), then went back out to the patio for Aiden's Easter egg hunt.  He was so cute.  Every time he saw a new egg he would gasp and say, "Another one!"  Every time.  He even found another one Monday night when I was out watering the plants.



Spiderman eggs, courtesy of Gpa



After the egg hunt, we sat for a bit while Aiden went through his goodies.  Then Travis brought out the Spiderman pinata that Ariel and Robert got him for Christmas this past year.  Aiden has had a good time beating the crap out of that thing over the months, but I was ready for it to go.  It's bigger than Aiden, which means it was a little daunting standing in our living room all this time. 



That pinata was so hardcore that it took 15 good hits from Travis to break open a hole.  We were hoping Aiden would hit the rest out, but the second a toy hit the ground he was focused only on collecting the goodies.  He now has two Easter baskets full of candy and toys.  There is no way he will ever be able to eat all that before it goes bad.  I guess I better help him out with that dilemma.

Aiden spent a good portion of the day high on candy.  Even though we withheld candy after the egg hunt, he still had trouble falling asleep.  Not a surprise since he has trouble on a normal day.  After the sun went down and Aiden was in bed, we enjoyed the apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.  At this point, I had to call the quits on the patio because the mosquitoes were out full blast.  It was just as well because I had a kitchen to clean and was ready to pass out by that point.  Overall, I think it was a good day.  But next year I need to split up the fun over two days!!