Easter weekend

Well, better late than never!

We had a great Easter weekend - spread out the festivities, which was nice for a change. We had McKnight family dinner on Friday night and Ellen was gifted lots of toys and BUBBLES! She is a fiend for bubbles, though generally she "assidently" spills them all on the ground. We were in dire need of some reserves. She got a cool bubble wand that makes big bubbles, as evidenced below. Fun for the whole family!


We had an Easter Egg hunt at our house on Sunday morning at o'dark thirty. I only have pictures of the back of Ellen's head because she was moving too fast! Again, the Easter Bunny went overboard and there was plenty of candy, small gifts, book and a balance bike! More evidence of the bike to come ... will take some (a lot) of practice. She kept saying, "Gracious! The Easter Bunny was TOO nice to me!" Also, I didn't notice till' mid-morning that she didn't ask to eat any of her loot?!? She opened it all and put it in her basket. I told her she could have some and she almost fell out of her chair. I felt simultaneously proud / concerned about my candy dictatorship around here. Also, she was totally not sure about peanut M&Ms (the only kind the Easter Bunny could find the day before).

We had a delicious Easter dinner with the Lund / Graham families and another easter egg hunt - this time with money! and Tootsie Rolls! Again, fast moving children does not equal great pictures.

This was the best attempt at a nice Easter picture and, alas, no family portrait this year. Tough to do when Aunt Betsy isn't there! Just look at the one up in the corner from, oh, two years ago. Eeps.

Sidebar: I made some pretty tasty asparagus, if I do say so myself, for our family dinner. In case you are interested:

- I had 6 pounds of medium asparagus from our local grocery store. I think the too thin / too fat variety cook less reliably.
- Trimmed, dried well, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Lay in single layer on big sheet pan.
- Set broiler to "high" and move your top oven rack to the top position. When the oven is nice and hot, put your asparagus in and leave for 4 minutes, maybe shaking the pan once or twice.
- They should be perfectly cooked, or may need a bit more time if your pan is crowded. You can even turn off the oven and move them to a lower rack and just let them sit in the oven until your meal is ready - they should be fine.
- Optional, but tasty: I tossed some panko bread crumbs, shredded parmesan cheese and lemon zest (1-2 lemons) in a bowl and then added to the top of the asparagus in the last 1-2 minutes of cooking. Yummers.
- And, worth pointing out, I love asparagus, but try to mostly eat them in the spring when they are in season. Seasonal vegetables, no matter what you to do them, will always taste better!