Easter Weekend

We have been blessed to have some beautiful weather lately, so the boys and I have been spending lots and lots of time outside. We've been throwing the frisbee for Maggie, blowing bubbles for Foudy, and going on lots of walks/bike rides with the dogs, too. Mike and Zach have gotten out to the driving range a few times, and of course, Mike's been on the golf course more times than I can count already. I've also been getting up early for runs again, which feels great. Here's Drew one day last week trying out his new Lightning McQueen helmet and Zach's old tricycle, which I hate because it is very hard to steer. Either way, we made it around the block and Drew loved it. If you look closely, you can just see the edges of his elbow pads, too. Gotta be safe!

Thursday it was very windy, but it was still over 80 degrees. Zach had his first soccer practice, and after dinner, we dyed Easter eggs. This was Drew's first time coloring eggs, and actually, it was the first time we'd ever done this in our house. The past few years Zach has just dyed eggs at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt's house. We didn't think to put down newspaper, so our table now has a few lovely dye stains on it. Oh well- they're fading, I think. The boys had a lot of fun dying eggs and even got to do it again the next day at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt's house.

On Saturday morning Mike and I got to go to an extended kickboxing class, and then we hit up the driving range before picking up the boys at Curt and Linda's. It was my first time on the range since last summer or even the summer before, and it wasn't as disastrous as I thought it would be. I'm considering taking some golf lessons so I can enjoy Mike's favorite sport more.

We decided to go to church on Saturday afternoon so that we could have Sunday free of formal obligations. We knew that the church would fill up early, so we got the boys down for early naps. I got Drew down first, and Mike was reading to Zach when I headed downstairs. Suddenly I realized it had been a really long time since I left Mike up in Zach's room. I snuck up there to find this adorable scene.

Both boys, dead asleep, snuggling each other. Thankfully the camera only woke up Mike, and Zach took a good nap and woke up in time for church. Zach, Mike, and Linda went to church early to save seats and so Zach could greet/usher with Grandma Linda. Drew, that stinker, never did seem to sleep during his nap. He pooped twice during his nap time, and otherwise just talked happily to himself. Any other Saturday and that would have been no big deal, but I was really hoping he'd be well-rested so he would be better behaved at church that afternoon. He actually did pretty well, thankfully.

Zach has really been wanting to wear a tie lately, so I got him a new tie for Easter, and I decided that Drew would wear an old one of Zach's that seemed to go nicely with the tie Zach was wearing. So was I surprised when I was getting Drew dressed and he threw an absolute fit about wearing a tie? No. This is Drew we're talking about. He and I had talked in the past week or so about him wearing a tie for Easter, and he said he wanted to, but when the time came, he was having none of it. I'm glad I didn't but a special tie for him to wear! I decided forcing the tie on him wasn't important to me, so instead I found an old sweater vest of Cam's (one that is actually a 12 month size, but must be made for a giant 1 year-old) and gave Drew the choice between the sweater vest and the tie. He chose the sweater vest, which was fine with me. I actually think it was pretty darn cute on him and even looked nice with Zach's tie!

We had a delicious dinner, played, and got the boys' Easter baskets set out that night before bed, and they went to sleep excited about the morning.

They woke up very excited, too. Actually, we had to wake Zach up because we didn't feel like we could stall Drew any longer. They loved checking out their Easter baskets and seeing what the Easter bunny left for them.

The egg hunt started and Zach was quite focused, but Drew was a little more distracted. He still had fun, though. Mostly Drew wanted to open his eggs and eat whatever was inside of each egg.

Later on Grandma Cynthia, Grandpa Kevin, and Aunt Katherine came over. They brought some Easter goodies (including some delicious but incredibly melted chocolate). Here's Drew enjoying a little chocolate bunny. It seemed like Drew was constantly saying, "Eat? Eat?" all day on Easter!

After a while we had the Zinn family brunch of souffle, caramel rolls, and grapefruit. I nearly botched it all, though. Well, all except the grapefruit. The souffle took way longer than usual, and I thought that although the caramel rolls tasted delicious, they seemed a little doughy on top (they're made in a bundt pan, so the tops of the finished rolls are on the bottom in the pan). After discussing the whole situation later with my mom, we determined that the problem was probably the fact that I had placed both the souffle pan and the bundt pan the rolls were in on top of cookie sheets to prevent the food from spilling over their respective pans onto each other and the bottom of the oven. My mom said that the cookie sheets probably absorbed much of the heat, thus increasing the baking time. The souffle recipe calls for an hour and a half at 300 degrees; I baked it for 65 minutes at 300 and then turned it up to 325 (the temp at which the rolls cook) for another 45 minutes or so. Then I turned the oven up to 350 and baked the souffle another 20 minutes or so. It turned out delicious, but I was frustrated by the timing of it all. Thankfully my mom, ever the knowledgeable cook, was able to solve the mystery for me! Thanks, Mom!

Kevin, Cynthia, and Katherine stuck around for a while, but had to leave to get Katherine and her boyfriend Sam back up to their college a few hours away. So I went for a run while the boys napped, and then the boys and dogs went to the park for a while. After dinner we headed out to Curt and Linda's house for some more egg hunting.

So far the boys are definitely enjoying all their Easter loot. Zach kept asking if he could have some of the M&Ms Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt got me, and so I tried to negotiate a trade- I'd give him some of my M&Ms for a packet of his PEZ that the Easter bunny left him. No deal! I wish that Easter bunny had left some PEZ for me. I wonder if Drew would notice if I made a trade with him...