Here Comes Peter Cottontail!

Dying eggs with Aunt Joan

Armed with a whole repertoire of songs, somehow Devi occasionally gets stuck on a personal favorite. We were relieved when she recently took a shine to Here Comes Peter Cottontail, because this new tune finally retired Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which she has been hooked on since long before the Christmas holiday! Now, nearly a month past Easter, we would gladly welcome any other holiday composition. Know of any Memorial Day songs?

Our family is full of some pretty fierce competitors, and the annual Easter egg dying event is not to be left out. In years past, my dad was the judge as we would send photos of our eggs to him in Arizona and describe the dying processes we used on each one. Always impartial, he found merit with each of our egg creations, siting the similarities of constellations and other natural formations in our multicolored masterpieces. Although Devi is not quite ready for some of the experimental dying processes we have tried, she still found her own creative rhythm. Her technique was speed. We couldn't get the eggs in and out of the dye baths fast enough for her! With Aunt Joan coaching at her side, we managed to cajole Devi into letting a few eggs sit long enough to get past a pastel shade and didn't crack a one...much!

First Easter Egg Hunt!

Devi and mom with her loot!

Living in a small town has some perks, one of which is our annual Easter Egg Hunt. This was Devi's first hunting experience, but she was very aware of the goal - put eggs in basket - not knowing what was contained in the colorful plastic containers. Try as I might to keep the "candy" part a secret, she figured us out and was delighted to try her first Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

After church, we found the Easter Bunny had made a stop to Oma's house.
Devi is wearing a dress that was hand made and purchased in India the day after we were united.
She is also recently become the master of the cheesy grin...hope this passes soon!

During our church service the next day, the children were invited up to the pulpit for story time. With plastic eggs as props, the story teller first showed a "full" egg explaining about how the tomb was closed with Jesus inside. Later in the story, she showed two empty egg halves and explained how Jesus left the tomb and had risen. Devi was very attentive, but remembering her discovery at the egg hunt from the day before, was eyeing those full eggs. Naturally, at the end of story time, the children were released to join their parents and were each given a full egg to take back to their seats. Devi took her place beside me and with breakneck speed, managed to crack that egg into my skirt and whip up the 4 or 5 malted ball eggs and stuff every last one of them into her mouth before I could wrestle that slippery egg out of her hot little mits. That was the most candy that child has ever eaten in one sitting and boy what a transformation. With sugar almost immediately racing through her blood stream, she was gone - poke a fork in her, she was done. Sitting still one more second would have been a unbelievable phenomenon. She promptly went to the nursery :)!

Oma prepared out Easter Sunday meal, that was scrumptious as always. We manage to gorge ourselves on Easter Bread that she makes annually; a recipe handed down from her German mother. It is a good thing we only are allowed to enjoy it once a year because it is dense with butter and served warm is like heaven! The Easter Bunny's helper always manages to send a whole loaf home with us, which becomes our steady diet until it is gone!

Daddy and Devi playing "hop hop" Easter bunny.