Part two will come when I load up the real camera…
Easter snuck up on me this year.  The only plausible excuse I can think if is that it just fell too early in the month. 
I was seriously caught off guard. 
Marie wanted to make breakfast for us, so we made one of the recipes from her Princess CookBook

We hunted for some meager Easter baskets. 
(Videos on separate post.)
 
Stewart had to be at church for choir at 8AM so our morning was a lot different than usual…
I’ll get some of the later-in-the-day photos posted, um, later in the day?

Although I spent more time texting Tara than actually watching the television, it was a great game of football.

The food was quite entertaining.  As we don’t watch any commercials, there wasn’t that element of must-see-TV.

Near the end, when it got all crazy, I actually did some shouting and climbed to the back of my seat.

Tabitha said, “Look, Mom’s a kid again.”
 

The kids were disappointed with the outcome and doggedly climbed the stairs.  I offered them a Deep Thought I first had as a young person:  “I used to get sad when my team didn’t win a game, or a celebrity didn’t win an award, but then I thought of something.  I would ask myself ‘Is my life was any different because of the outcome.’  Pause.  ‘Nope!’  And I went on with my life.”

I’m so compassionate, aren’t I?

We had a double feature, and a LOT of food.
We cast our spread in the basement around 6PM and endeavored to watch Alice in Wonderland.  I lost interest very early and texted my friend most of that time.  Hanny, however, told me as I tucked her in bed around 8PM that she loooooved Alice’s flowers and wanted to dance like them.  Ahhh – to be almost-5 again. 

 
 
Then at 8PM the older crew watch 102 Dalmatians.  Which we enjoyed very much.

Kids started waking around 7 A.M. and some dressed… some did not.  We took a few pictures and waiting for Nan, Nene, Ba and Poppy to arrive.


 
 
 
As if there were not already enough presents… Grandparents are known for bringing a “few” of their own…

 
Katriel couldn’t figure out why we were just eating…
 
 
But then we showed her what we DO with those colorful packages and everything changed.  She was into it after that.  😉

My funny boys…
Yes – that small Elsa-wrapped gift was his, while Stewart opened that enormous one.
 
Marie got her own bow.
 
We paused for a feast. 
 
Katriel got a new toy animal? doll? animal-doll?
Katriel got a new pillowcase.
Katriel took good care of her new baby.
 
New Jersey and cap for Stewart.
 
And let’s just say there is a lot more princess stuff in our house as of this day…
 
Katriel was so enamored with her new clothes that she sought to put them on immediately.
She did this with each gift of clothing.
 
We have a Barney Fife fan in our midst.
 
 
 
Marie is so tall that she can no longer wear dress-up gear meant for kids.  We had to locate women’s-sized options for her.  The good news is they are much better made!
 
A recording device for the boys for their movie productions.
 
Every dad needs Cookie Monster jammies – right?
 
 
My treats — eight new candles to cheer me through the winter. 

It was a fun, fun day.  LOTS of rest and an easy dinner of steak and pasta Alfredo.  We watched two new movies in the evening.  One before the littlest two went to bed and one after.
The oldest 6 of us give 12 enthusiastic thumbs up to the 1996 movie, “101 Dalmatians” with Jeff Daniels and Glenn Close.  It was just hysterical!