Easter!

Benjamin was thrilled with his first Easter Egg Hunt.

However, he was often distracted by the treats inside and took a break to eat the contents before going on to the next egg.

We were shocked to discover that he was not a bit freaked out by the youth wearing an Easter Bunny costume. Benjamin is usually very wary of such things but he ran over to him and jumped in his lap. Maybe I was surprised because I think life-size bunnies are creepy. I guess I never got over Donnie Darko.

Afterward we went to the park and took some pictures.

We gave Benjamin a little Easter basket filled with dyed eggs and a couple gifties from Ten Thousand Villages: a wooden cross for his room and some musical shakers made from gourds that look like owls.

Benjamin and I dyed the eggs with natural dye from beets, red cabbage, and turmeric, all of which we had on hand or in the garden. Look at the magenta color the beets make when simmering!

The red cabbage created a blue tinted dye that turned pale purple and didn’t do much at all to the eggs, but the turmeric left a wonderful yellow tint.

Here’s the finished eggs from the turmeric and the beets:

Easter evening we had my parents, Daniel’s parents, my brother, and our friend Sarah over for dinner.

Nasturium Salad!

This is the delicious and beautiful Colombo Paschal (Italian Easter Bread) that Daniel made. Yum.

So glad that Eastertide is here!