Magnolia Manor: In Celebration of Our Risen Lord

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter celebration. On Saturday, we attended a huge annual Easter bash hosted by our good friends. I deliberately left my camera at home thinking it might get in the way and be too much to keep up with. That was an unfortunate mistake. The party was a blast....hundreds of candy eggs, pie eating contests, pinatas, live music, a water balloon toss which left my friend Erin a tad soggy, a raw egg toss ("Salmonella Saturday"), and the big hit every year.....confetti eggs by the dozens!! Next year the camera goes.

We came home and crashed on the sofa with the D's to watch War Horse. I cried. And hid in the kitchen for the majority of the movie to cut out a quilt. It was a little much for me....I have a hard time with animal suffering. :-( But Spielberg did a great job on the film and the scenery was beautiful.

Easter morning we went to early service. It was fresh, relevant, vibrant, EXCITING! The pastor preached on the resurrection as an art form. He portrayed Jesus as a painter, a poet, a dramatist, a CREATOR. The message spoke volumes into my heart and soul as a person who loves creativity!

After service we went to Nana and Papa's farm for an Easter feast. We had driving rain, so Emma's cousin hid eggs inside for her to find.

When we got home I collapsed on the couch to read the new cookbook that the Mother Easter Bunny left in my basket. I have an entire notecard filled with notes about new recipes to try. I love that!

I just this week set out our Easter decorations. We've had such a busy schedule lately that I hadn't taken the time to do it. I was going to skip it altogether this year, but then a notice came home from preschool that they were having an egg hunt, so as long as I needed to dig around in the attic for a dinosaur Easter basket, I figured I should go ahead and bring the boxes down. After all, if I'm not motivated to decorate when my youngest is four and completely appreciates it and get excited about it, then I shouldn't be hoarding three totes of Easter figures in my attic. Right??

So, I got on the move and shoved the St. Patrick's trinkets aside to make room for an army of rabbits to march across my mantle. I felt satisfied that she could continue on in her childhood content in the fact that her mother was nothing if not seasonally appropriate in her tablescapes.

If I could have trained those rabbits to help with laundry, I would have left them there until Halloween.

Turns out, one week of Easter decorations is just about right for a four year old. Seven days worth of plastic eggs rolling around and extracting plastic Easter grass from every possible crevice is the limit. And now I know that about myself.