Felice Pascua! Happy Easter!

Growing up, Easter was never a religious holiday in our house, at least in my eyes - I'm sure in part this was because we were raised mostly Jewish (I say mostly because my dad's family is Lutheran and we would also do things with his family) and so Easter wasn't "our" holiday but at the same time my parents would still take part in the fun aspects of non Jewish holidays.  It was a time to decorate eggs which were then hidden by the Easter Bunny around the house while my brother and I slept and we would awaken to baskets filled with chocolate, candy and usually a stuffed animal.  However, in Spain, Easter is taken much more seriously and while there are definitely treats for the kids and I can see an influence from other countries with colored eggs becoming more popular, it's still considered to be a serious and religious day. 

Well, in our house it will still be low key and fun and I don't even think the boys know that this is a religious holiday to begin with (perhaps at some point we should think of mentioning that).  On Saturday, we spent a little time with our US purchased easter egg painting kit coloring our eggs.  It was a little bit anti climatic as the kids finished coloring them in about 5 minutes (it took longer to boil them!) as it was just a simple kit to color the eggs and then add stickers.  No cool texture stuff, no wax crayons, nothing exciting.  But they were happy and it's nice to see them taking in the simple pleasures without any frills. 

Egg cartons make great headphones

They also make a good hat for Jake

Preparing the egg holders

Getting the cups ready for the dye

If it's something messy, I'm in!

Watching how his brother does it...

Focused

He went to bed with this sticker still on his head...

Trying to pin him down to put stickers on him as well...didn't work so well but it was worth the laugh

On Saturday night I spent some time putting together both of their baskets, which are actually sand pails that I bought when we moved here and realized that a basket was hard to come by. The kids don't seem to care and so now they are officially Easter pails :).

I bought 2 dozen eggs....this is what made it to the table...

The Easter Bunny has been here!

Aidan has been talking about Easter constantly lately.  I give credit for this to the movie, Hop, one of his periodic favorites, especially this time of year.  He's incredibly into the Easter Bunny this year and rather fascinated by how he, like Santa, is able to deliver all those baskets all over the world in just one night.  He's so excited as a matter of fact that my initial plan had been only some candy and no gift - these kids have so many toys already.  But the look on his face when he was talking about how the Easter Bunny will bring him a toy just melted my heart.  So at the very last minute on Saturday I was out at El Corte Ingles, the only thing open on this long holiday weekend, in search of a little something for him to open on Sunday morning (and of course something for Liam too).

I should also note that Aidan's latest theory which I happen to like.  He said that the Easter Bunny takes the eggs that we color and replaces them with the plastic ones that are filled with candy.  I like his thinking and we made sure to dispose of the real eggs and to take a bite of the cookie that Aidan left out for said bunny :)

What I didn't expect was that Aidan's excitement rivaled that of Christmas... he was up at 3:30AM wanting to know if the Easter Bunny had arrived.  Yes, 3:30AM.  I don't think he's gotten up at 3:30 for Santa in the past - apparently candy trumps toys.  And he was up again at 6:30.  I sent him back to bed each time much to his chagrin.  So when he was finally allowed up at 8:30 it was a bit anticlimatic - he inspected his basket, went over to the TV and turned on Alvin and the Chipmunks, Chipwrecked (I do not recommend by the way...crappy movie) for the 6th time in 24 hours.  Ahhh kids...

Ohhhhh, I found an egg!

Total bedhead... looks at his basket and walks to the tv

There's candy in here!!!

Alvin and the Chipmunks...AGAIN

Hunting for eggs

Aidan said the egg hunt was too easy (we kept it to one room for Liam) so apparently next year we need to up the ante

There's an egg in my shoe!!

Pokemon!!!

CARS 2!!

The kids and I met up with some new friends around lunchtime for a great adult/kid playdate by the beach. It was a gorgeous day and we ate lunch right along the beach with the kids playing in the sand next to us. And nothing beats and ice cream sundae and crepes after lunch. We ended up going to our friends' house after ice cream for an extended playdate - so what we thought would be a fun afternoon ended up being a fun 9 hours! What a great time and it was nice to spend some time with new people that we click with - we're all looking forward to the next time!

Aidan and Liam with their friends from school

Today, Monday, is a holiday still in Barcelona and since I took the kids for 9 hours yesterday, Josh is now in charge today so I can get some work done and perhaps have a little quiet chill time for myself as well.  Too bad nothing is open, it would be a great shopping day!!  The kids are off tomorrow as well (professional day) which makes their April vacation a 1 1/2 week deal - I'll be ready for them to go back to school on Wednesday and get some routine back in our lives but regardless, it's been a great vacation with them.

Besos,
Julie